WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 150,000 African American churches and 27.7 million members overnighted a letter to the Honorable Gov. Henry McMaster to spare the life of Mr. Khalil Allah, formerly Freddy Owens, who is to be executed in two days by the State of South Carolina.

According to the Wednesday, September 18, 2024 Guardian article, South Carolina is on track to execute a man on death row for the first time in 13 years, despite new evidence raising doubts about critical testimony used to secure his conviction.

Allah, 46, is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection on Friday, one of six executions that could move forward in the coming months in South Carolina, marking a brutal resurgence of capital punishment since the state’s last execution in 2011.

Allah, previously known as Freddie Owens, was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of a store cashier named Irene Graves in 1997, when he was 19 years old. He has long argued that he did not shoot her, and the state’s key witness alleged in an affidavit last month that he made false remarks at the instruction of prosecutors during the trial.

The Right Most Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative, says, "It is the chief job of Christ's church to preserve life-we are doing our job.”

The text of the letter from Rev. Evans reads as such,
“The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ asks you in HIS name to have mercy and Grace in the case of Mr. Khalil Allah, formerly Freddy Owens. God has given you the power to His will, not the state's. 'Thou shall not kill', as the Holy scripture says.

As President of the National Black Church Initiative, a coalition of 150,000 Black churches, I beg you in Christ for the life of my brother Khalil Allah.

New evidence and a recanting witness raise severe doubts about his guilt, but the state is still rushing to execute him. The key witness for the prosecution has come forward to say he lied, and the State of South Carolina will put to death an innocent man.”

A second Guardian article dated Thursday, September 19th, elaborated there was no forensic evidence tying Allah to the shooting. The state’s central evidence against Allah was testimony from his friend and co-defendant, Steven Golden, who was also charged with the robbery and murder. Two days previous, Golden came forward with an explosive affidavit, stating that Allah “is not the person who shot Irene Graves” and “was not present” during the robbery. Golden said he concealed the identity of the “real shooter” out of fear that “his associates might kill me”, and that he was coming forward now because he wanted “a clear conscience”.

“I don’t want [Allah] to be executed for something he didn’t do,” he wrote in the new affidavit. Khalil Allah, has always maintained his innocence.


ABOUT NBCI
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 150,000 African American and Latino churches working to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment. The mission of NBCI is to provide critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants, churches, and the public. NBCI, utilizing faith and sound health science and partners with major organizations and officials, reduces racial disparities in the variety of areas cited above. NBCI's programs are governed by credible statistical analysis, science-based strategies and techniques, and methods that work and offer faith-based, out-of-the-box, and cutting-edge solutions to stubborn economic and social issues.

Anthony Evans
National Black Church Initiative
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