South Carolina is set to execute an inmate after a "meritless" appeal that his 389-pound weight could complicate the process was rejected.
Marion Bowman Jr., 44, is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Friday. Bowman's final appeal related to his weight, with an anesthesiologist fearing that the state's secret lethal injection protocols would not adequately account for Bowman's size, the National Criminal Justice Association stated.
The association noted that it can be difficult to get an IV into a blood vessel and challenging to determine the right drug dosage. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal, calling it "meritless."
Bowman was convicted in the shooting death of Kandee Martin in 2001. Martin's burned body was found in the trunk of a car, ABC Columbia reported.
The station reported that Bowman has consistently proclaimed his innocence. In fact, Bowman was offered life in prison in a plea deal, but rejected the offer and went to trial instead.
"After more than two decades of battling a broken system that has failed him at every turn, Marion's decision is a powerful refusal to legitimize an unjust process that has already stolen so much of his life," the station quoted Bowman's attorney, Lindsey Vann.
Vann and Bowman's other current attorneys said that he was convicted based on the testimony of friends and family members who prosecutors offered plea deals, the association website stated.
