In South Carolina, the governor has the lone ability to grant clemency and reduce a death sentence to life in prison. However, no governor has done that in the state's 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976.

The state is scheduled to execute Freddie Owens on Sept. 20, which will be South Carolina’s first execution carried out since 2011.

At times, Freddie Eugene Owens' letters are incredibly vulnerable as he says he's "also human." At others they threaten violence and say "betrayers will be slayed"