At times, Freddie Eugene Owens' letters are incredibly vulnerable as he says he's "also human." At others they threaten violence and say "betrayers will be slayed."

In South Carolina, which on Friday will execute its first inmate since 2011, 43 convicted murderers have been executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated here in 1976. Few death row inmates have been acquitted in that time, but a substantial number have still managed to get off death row.

Robert Roberson, a Texas death row inmate with autism, gains support to halt his execution scheduled for October 17 amid new evidence.

Freddie Owens' execution appears to be moving forward despite a sworn statement from the man who testified against him that Owens wasn't even at the crime scene.

In South Carolina, the governor has the lone ability to grant clemency and reduce a death sentence to life in prison. However, no governor has done that in the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976.

A deeply troubled South Carolina inmate scarred by a traumatic childhood wrote letters on death row that at times threaten the ones he loves in chilling terms and at others show a vulnerable man who describes himself as being "fragile as a child.