S.C. leaders oppose death row inmate’s request to delay execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. — In a return filed Monday, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office urged the state Supreme Court to deny Steven Vernon Bixby’s request to delay his execution until after the holidays.Bixby is currently on death row after being convicted in 2007 of the killings of State Constable Donnie Ouzts and Sgt. Danny Wilson with the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office during a standoff in 2003.In Bixby’s petition, he cited a previous stay of execution granted to a death row inmate in 2024, whose execution date would have fallen around Thanksgiving or Christmas.Read the full return below: SC Supreme Court s motion on Stephen Bixby s petition to stay execution by lorenza.medley However, in the return, the State argued that the previous schedule change was not due to the holidays, but rather a logistical circumstance after South Carolina amended its execution statutes and resumed executions following a 13-year pause.The State also argued that Bixby’s current stay was only p