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.

Marion Bowman Jr. is set to be executed on Friday for the shooting death of Kandee Martin in 2001. Martin's body was found in the trunk of her burned car.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the final appeal of a South Carolina inmate, he decided not to ask the governor for clemency, saying he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison for a murder he has always insisted he did not commit.

The nation’s highest court turned down a death row inmate’s request to halt his execution Thursday, clearing the way for him to face the death chamber. Marion Bowman, 44, is slated to die by lethal injection at 6 p.