Life on South Carolina death row: months of ‘barbaric’ isolation before execution

While in isolation, Marion Bowman has reflected on how the men of death row take care of each other when they aren’t kept apart. Illustration: Guardian Design

For 135 days, Marion Bowman Jr has been locked in a solitary cell narrower than his arm span, cut off from nearly all human interaction, counting down the days until the state of South Carolina executes him.

The 44-year-old is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection on Friday, which would make him the third man on South Carolina death row to be executed in rapid succession as the state aggressively revives capital punishment. The cases have sparked outrage over concerns about wrongful convictions, the racist application of the death penalty and the painful, drawn-out method of killing.