Execution Date Set for Man Convicted of Killing Convenience Store Clerk

  COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The state Supreme Court has set an
execution date for the man convicted of killing a Greenville
convenience store clerk.
    The South Carolina Corrections Department said in news release
Friday that Freddie E. Owens will be put death on Oct. 3.
    Owens has been sentenced to death three separate times for
killing Irene Grainger Graves during a convenience store holdup in
1997. His first two sentences were overturned.
    Owens also is accused of killing a man in jail after his first
conviction in Graves’ death. At his sentencing hearing a few days
later, Owens told the jury he killed 28-year-old Christopher Lee by
strangling him with a bedsheet.
    Owens has not been prosecuted in that case.