South Carolina's Supreme Court has set Jan. 31 for the state's next execution after allowing a pause for the holidays.
South Carolina Public Radio reports the state is working through a backlog of inmates who are out of appeals but temporarily spared because prison officials couldn't obtain drugs needed for lethal injection.
Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.
Bowman's legal team said last week that he maintains his innocence, arguing his execution would be "unconscionable" because of unresolved doubts about his conviction.
He would be the third inmate executed by lethal injection since September after the state gained access to the drug it needed to carry out death sentences. Inmates can also choose electrocution or a firing squad.
Three more inmates are awaiting execution dates that the state Supreme Court has ruled can be set five weeks apart.
