By james art 
Marion Bauman, Jr., is a grandfather, a poet and a prisoner of death.
South Carolina prison officials plan to execute Bauman through a deadly injection on Friday to kill 21-year-old Kanda Martin on February 16, 2001. While Bauman admits he was dealing with Martin, he says he did not kill her and that prosecutors condemned the wrong person.
“I’m sorry for Candy and her family, but I didn’t,” Bauman writes recently in a statement published online. “Her family has suffered a loss that cannot be canceled. They have gone through trials and appeals, but have never heard the truth from me. I know that this will not bring them satisfaction, but this is my truth.
“I just don’t want to be executed or closed for life for a crime I have not committed,” the 44-year-old writes.
Having used an intervention by Republican governor Henry McMaster or the US Supreme Court, Bauman will become the first prisoner performed in the United States in 2025. The other four prisoners are scheduled for execution by February 13.
As Bauman expires time before Friday’s execution, USA Today turns back to the crime, what brought Bowman along a path that ended on Death Row and what his lawyers argued to try to stop him.
What was Marion Bauman condemned for?
The jurors condemned Bauman for the murder of 21-year-old Kanda Martin, a young mother, whom Bauman described as a longtime friend, sometimes a sexual partner and a client. Prosecutors claim that Martin owes Bowman’s money for cocaine cocaine and quotes several witnesses who said he heard him swear to kill the young woman.
On February 17, 2001, police found Martin’s body. She was shot once in the chest and once in the head on a dark rural road. Her killer put her body in the trunk of her car and lit the car on fire, the court records show.
On the day he was killed, Bauman – who was 20 years old – said he was selling drugs from Martin several times throughout the day, but later she “buys on credit”. He said the two had sex and that he then saw her drive in his car with his cousin, also a dealer.
This cousin witnessed the star in the Bauman murder process as part of a legal basis agreement with prosecutors on reduced sentence. Bauman claims that the jurors have never heard that his cousin admitted to him that he had killed Martin to a roommate and that prosecutors had ignored evidence indicated by his cousin and the guilt of another person.
“I did some things in life that I regret,” Bauman wrote. “I am sorry for the role I had in working with Kandy and I know that her addiction probably led to her death. But I didn’t do it.”
Martin’s family rejected his refusals. Speaking on behalf of the family, Martin Lisa Martin’s daughter -in -law told us to USA Today that no doubt Bauman killed her and “countdown” for his execution.
“There is absolutely no part of us who believes in one of the stories she says,” she said, adding that it was difficult for the family to see Bauman’s complaints. “What is left of Candy is in an ark in the ground, so daring to regret itself.”
Who is Marion Bauman?
Bauman grew up in a rural area in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, about halfway between Charleston and Colombia.
He had a missing father and his mother became ill when Bauman was a teenager who made him a man at the house, his lawyer Lindsay Van told USA Today. “He is just a truly loyal man from his oldest years, and unfortunately it has put him in the drug trade in the area,” she said.
“My family was poor, but we got along,” Bauman recently wrote in his online testimony. “I didn’t finish high school. I worked in some workplaces for manual labor, but I could never end the ends.”
So, he turned to the sale of Crack Cocaine, at the beginning, to support his mother and sister, and in the end, his wife and step -old children, Van said.
After being in prison, Bauman’s wife gave birth to the couple’s baby’s daughter, who has since had her own baby’s daughter and made Bauman Grandpa. He also has three brought -in -law, who he considers his own. Despite the circumstances, he says everyone is close.
Van said Bauman ripen while he was in prison, developed a deep faith in God and became a small writer, singing a poem entitled “While I breathe, I hope.” It partly reads: “The doors continue to close, stinging with a huge blast … With my hope it disappears, I stop breathable? I still breathe, so I know. While I breathe, I hope.”
Bowman’s lawyers concerned about the drug for execution, racial bias
Bauman’s lawyers say there is a “secrecy” veil around Pentobarbital, and the execution drug is used to kill it.
In an attempt to suspend the execution, Van has argued in recent court documents that the state violates Bauman’s rights by refusing to overturn basic details of the drug, such as the expiration date and how it is stored. She also raised questions about the purity and quality of drugs after a second dose was given to a prisoner from South Carolina Richard Moore 11 minutes after his execution began in November.
In court reports, the state claims that Bauman was able to choose a fired squad or electric chair for his execution, but he decided to die through a deadly injection for “Martin’s horrible murder.” A judge denied Van’s request this week.
Van said Bauman chose a deadly injection, despite unanswered questions, as the squad and the electric chair are “barbaric and unconstitutional”. If Bowman had not chosen among the three, the default method would have been an electric chair.
Bauman also claims that he has never had a fair experience, partly because of his race.
Bauman said his first words to his public defender to him were: “Mr. Bauman, I am your PD (public defender), would you like to plead guilty?”
“I said,” Of course not! I didn’t kill anyone! “Remember Bowman. Five months later, he had a new lawyer, whom Bowman said he told him,” Son, you must plead guilty. You are accused of killing a white girl, and you and your family are black. (The prosecutor) will like this. “
He says that the prosecutor in the case at one point asked him to plead guilty 13 times, but he denied each of them and the advice of his lawyers to do so.
“I would not have been convicted of something I did not do,” he said. “The only thing I’ve ever wanted is a fair process with a lawyer who will listen to me.”