South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn’t find lethal injection drugs.

South Carolina executed Marion Bowman Jr., the third inmate in four months, as the state resumes executions after a 13-year pause. Bowman maintained his innocence until his final moments.

Marion Bowman Jr., a 44-year-old inmate, is scheduled to be executed Friday night, marking the first execution in South Carolina this year. Bowman, a native of

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected what is likely the final appeal of a South Carolina inmate the day before his scheduled execution for a 2001 killing of a friend found dead in her burning car.

South Carolina has put 45 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Nine states have put more inmates to death.

Marion Bowman Jr. dies Jan. 31, becomes third man put to death since South Carolina resumed executions. He was convicted of killing young mother Kandee Martin.