[2][3] On February 17, 2001, the burnt body of 21-year-old Kandee Louise Martin was found inside the trunk of her burned car in Dorchester County, South Carolina.

Bowman reportedly asked his sister to stop the car as he wanted to talk to Martin, whom he knew from high school.

[6][7] Both Travis Felder and James Gadson were also dealt in court with lesser charges in relation to Martin's murder after they both reached plea deal agreements with the prosecution.

In fact, Gadson had reportedly gave inconsistent testimonies and it was alleged that one of the trial witnesses had confessed to being the real killer but not Bowman.

[21] In 2023, Bowman was one of the several death row inmates who sued the state of South Carolina against its capital punishment laws, seeking to prohibit the use of firing squad and electric chair on the grounds that they were cruel and unusual punishments and would cause unnecessary pain and suffering to the condemned, which made these execution methods unconstitutional.

[22] The state's legal representatives, however, responded that both the electric chair and firing squad fit the existing protocols and it was not necessitated in law that death had to be instantaneous or painless.

This decision allowed the possibility of re-starting executions in South Carolina for all the 32 inmates on the state's death row, including Bowman.

[34] After the loss of his legal motion in 2024, Marion Bowman Jr. remained on death row for murdering Kandee Martin until his execution in 2025.

[36] The other five inmates named on the list were Freddie Eugene Owens, Richard Bernard Moore, Brad Sigmon, Steven Bixby, and Mikal Mahdi.

"[42] On November 14, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court granted the inmates a temporary respite, agreeing to not authorize any new death warrants until at least January 3, 2025.

Bowman had the opportunity to select any of the three execution methods to carry out his death sentence: electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad, and he was given a deadline of January 17, 2025.

While Bowman was on death row, Moore, who was ultimately executed on November 1, 2024, showed him how to cope with the toll of detention, taught him to read and play chess, and advised him to focus on not stressing over things beyond his control.

[50][51] On December 17, 2024, while his death warrant was still pending before the courts, Marion Bowman Jr. appealed to vacate his conviction on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

[52] Apart from his arguments over an unfair trial, Bowman also asked for his death sentence to be downgraded to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Bowman's counsel presented sworn statements from several former nurses and death row staff members, who described him as a gentle giant with a special ability to assist inmates with mental health issues in working with psychologists and adhering to their medication.

[53] In a public statement on January 2, 2025, Bowman stated that he had sexual relations with Martin and also sold drugs to her, but he continued to claim he never killed her.

[54] The statement was published a day before the South Carolina Supreme Court issued Bowman an execution date of January 31, 2025.

[55] On January 8, 2025, Bowman asked for a postponement of his execution date until his appeal over constitutional violations of his trial was fully resolved.

[57] In another appeal filed on January 23, 2025, Bowman asked for more information on the pentobarbital deployed for lethal injection executions in South Carolina.

The report showed that there were fluid found in the lungs, which indicated that Moore "consciously experienced feelings of drowning and suffocation during the 23 minutes that it took to bring about his death."

Apart from this, it was revealed that Moore was given two large doses of pentobarbital 11 minutes apart, and Bowman stated he required more information and explanation on this fact.

[58] U.S. District Judge Jacquelyn D. Austin heard the appeal and dismissed it on January 28, 2025, stating that Bowman was not entitled to increased access to information about the drugs planned for his lethal injection execution, and she stated that if Bowman still harboured concerns about the efficiency of the lethal injection drugs, he could still elect to be executed by firing squad or the electric chair.