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.

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.