South Carolina carried out its third execution in four months on Friday, putting to death Marion Bowman Jr., a 44-year-old inmate convicted of murder. Bowman was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. following a lethal injection at the state prison.

The state executed Bowman for the 2001 murder of 21-year-old Kandee Martin, a young mother who was killed five days before her son's second birthday.

South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn't find lethal injection drugs.

South Carolina has put 45 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. Nine states have put more inmates to death.

Lawyers for a South Carolina inmate set to die by lethal injection next week want his execution halted so they can get more information about the drug that will kill him.

Bowman is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. on Friday at a Columbia, South Carolina prison for the killing of 21-year-old Kandee Martin.

Bowman was sentenced to death for the Feb. 16, 2001, shooting death of 21-year-old Kandee Martin five days before her son's second birthday.

South Carolina has executed their first death row prisoner this year, Marion Bowman Jr., who has been in prison since 2002 after being found guilty of killing a friend - though Bowman maintained he wa

South Carolina put a third inmate to death in four months Friday as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn’t find lethal injection drugs. Marion Bowman Jr.