Attorney picks execution method after South Carolina death row man refuses

Freddie Owens, who will now die by lethal injection, said it would be akin to suicide' to participate in decision

A lawyer representing the first death row inmate likely to be executed in South Carolina since 2011 has decided that he should die by lethal injection after the prisoner refused to choose between three different killing methods, saying that to do so would be akin to suicide".

Freddie Owens is now set to be executed using a fatal dose of the sedative pentobarbital. The prisoner had been given until Friday to decide between the three execution methods: lethal injection, the electric chair and the firing squad.