SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia's attorney general says city officials in Savannah overstepped their authority by making it illegal to leave firearms in unlocked cars.
Savannah's mayor and city council in April enacted the new city ordinance aimed at making it harder for criminals to steal guns, citing local police statistics showing more than 200 guns reported stolen last year from vehicles that weren't locked. The law carries maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.
State Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, said in a letter to Savannah officials Friday that the gun ordinance runs afoul of a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating “the possession, ownership, transport, (or) carrying” of firearms.
"Because the General Assembly has expressly designated the regulation of firearms as an issue of general, state-wide concern, no local ordinance can regulate firearms,” Carr wrote.
Carr's letter foreshadows a likely court battle over whether city governments like Savannah's can impose gun safety measures that have received little support in a state legislature dominated by Republicans. A lawsuit filed in Chatham Count Superior Court last week by a man described as frequent visitor to Savannah asks a judge to halt enforcement of the city's gun ordinance.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said Monday that City Hall isn't budging. A Democrat and former police officer, Johnson supported the city's ordinance as a way to make gun owners act responsibly without infringing on their rights to own or carry firearms.
“We certainly encourage our citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Johnson said in a statement Monday, “but this ordinance remains in effect and will continue to be enforced.”
Savannah's city council voted unanimously April 11 to require parked vehicles to be locked when guns are stored inside and to require people to report gun thefts to police within 24 hours. No one spoke against the ordinance during a public comment period at City Hall, where it was supported by members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
According to Savannah police, there were 244 guns reported stolen from vehicles last year and 203 of them were taken from unlocked cars. Police have reported a similar number so far this year, with 56 of 69 thefts coming from unlocked cars.
Before Savannah took action, gun control advocates earlier this year failed to persuade state lawmakers to adopt a $300 state income tax credit to pay for gun locks, gun safes and safety classes.
In his letter, Carr noted that Georgia courts have struck down prior gun restrictions imposed by local governments. He cited a 2007 ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals that overturned a Coweta County ordinance prohibiting firearms at sports fields and other recreational facilities operated by the county.
Carr's letter warned city officials they could face civil liability for enforcing it.
“Given this concern alone, it appears that the City should give immediate consideration to rescinding its approval” of the gun ordinance, Carr said.
FILE - Savannah Mayor Van Johnson speaks during a new conference, March 11, 2020, in Savannah, Ga. Georgia's attorney general says city officials in Savannah overstepped their authority by making it illegal to leave firearms in unlocked cars. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum, File)
FILE - Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr speaks during a news conference, Sept. 5, 2023, at the Georgia Department of Public Safety in Atlanta. Georgia's attorney general says city officials in Savannah, Ga., overstepped their authority by making it illegal to leave firearms in unlocked cars. (Natrice Miller/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is set to execute its first inmate in 13 years after an unintended pause because the state could not obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison. He was convicted of the 1997 killing of a clerk who could not get the safe open at a convenience store in Greenville.
Owens’ last-ditch appeals have been repeatedly denied, including by a federal court Friday morning. Owens has also petitioned for a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court. South Carolina's governor and corrections director swiftly filed a reply, stating the high court should reject Owens' petition. The filing said nothing is exceptional about his case.
The scheduled 6 p.m. time of the execution passed as state officials awaited a decision from the high court.
His last chance to avoid death is for Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life in prison.
McMaster said he will follow historical tradition and announce his decision minutes before the lethal injection begins when prison officials call him and the state attorney general to make sure there is no reason to delay the execution. The former prosecutor promised to review Owens’ clemency petition but has said he tends to trust prosecutors and juries.
Owens may be the first of several inmates to die in the state's death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution. Five other inmates are out of appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way to hold an execution every five weeks.
South Carolina first tried to add the firing squad to restart executions after its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and no company was willing to publicly sell them more. But the state had to pass a shield law keeping the drug supplier and much of the protocol for executions secret to be able to reopen the death chamber.
To carry out executions, the state switched from a three-drug method to a new protocol of using just the sedative pentobarbital. The new process is similar to how the federal government kills inmates, according to state prison officials.
South Carolina law allows condemned inmates to choose lethal injection, the new firing squad or the electric chair built in 1912. Owens allowed his lawyer to choose how he died, saying he felt if he made the choice he would be a party to his own death and his religious beliefs denounce suicide.
Owens changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while in prison but court and prison records continue to refer to him as Owens.
Owens was convicted of killing Irene Graves in 1999. Prosecutors said he fired a shot into the head of the single mother of three who worked three jobs when she said she couldn't open the store's safe.
But hanging over his case is another killing: After his conviction, but before he was sentenced in Graves’ killing, Owens fatally attacked a fellow jail inmate, Christopher Lee.
Owens gave a detailed confession about how he stabbed Lee, burned his eyes, choked and stomped him, ending by saying he did it “because I was wrongly convicted of murder,” according to the written account of an investigator.
That confession was read to each jury and judge who went on to sentence Owens to death. Owens had two different death sentences overturned on appeal only to end up back on death row.
Owens was charged with murder in Lee's death but was never tried. Prosecutors dropped the charges with the right to restore them in 2019 around the time Owens ran out of regular appeals.
In his final appeal, Owens' lawyers said prosecutors never presented scientific evidence that Owens pulled the trigger when Graves was killed and the chief evidence against him was a co-defendant who pleaded guilty and testified that Owens was the killer.
Owens’ attorneys provided a sworn statement two days before the execution from Steven Golden saying Owens was not in the store, contradicting his trial testimony. Prosecutors said other friends of Owens and his former girlfriend testified that he bragged about killing the clerk.
“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit. We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens,” attorney Gerald “Bo” King said in a statement.
Owens' lawyers also said he was just 19 when the killing happened and that he had suffered brain damage from physical and sexual violence while in a juvenile prison.
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty plans a vigil outside the prison about 90 minutes before Owens is scheduled to die.
South Carolina’s last execution was in May 2011. It took a decade of wrangling in the Legislature — first adding the firing squad as a method and later passing a shield law — to get capital punishment restarted.
South Carolina has put 43 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Only nine states have put more inmates to death.
But since the unintentional execution pause, South Carolina’s death row population has dwindled. The state had 63 condemned inmates in early 2011. It had 32 when Friday started. About 20 inmates have been taken off death row and received different prison sentences after successful appeals. Others have died of natural causes.
Rev. Hillary Taylor protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
A demonstrators protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Jesse Motte, right, protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Rev. Hillary Taylor protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
South Carolina prepares for first execution in 13 years
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
South Carolina prepares for first execution in 13 years
