PICKENS — It has been almost three years since Jerry Buck Inman killed a Clemson University student, and now a judge has sentenced him to death for the crime.

But will he waive his rights to appeal the judge’s decision?

According to his attorney Jim Bannister, that decision will be — to a great degree — up to Inman himself, who told Judge Ned Miller more than once he wants to die for what he did.

Bannister said he believes Inman will, at some point, stop the legal process that could delay or keep him from being executed, but he said he doesn’t know when that will be.

The Greenville attorney, who fought for Inman’s life, said if his client waives his rights, and no one else challenges his competency to do so, the Tennessee man could be executed within three to six months.

Until ,or unless that day comes, it’s his ethical duty as Inman’s attorney to do all he can to keep that from happening, Bannister told the Sentinel.

In his closing arguments, he told the judge that sentencing Inman to death would only give him what he was asking for and would not be the appropriate punishment.

Instead, he said life in prison would be more fitting for the man who spent the majority of his adult life in prison for rape and before that lived a very troubled childhood.

Bannister also said executing Inman would not do “honor to Tiffany Souers and the life she led,” referring to the 20-year-old engineering student’s Christian beliefs and the good she did in the community.

Prior to sentencing Inman to death Wednesday, a social worker took the stand and painted a picture of a very disturbed man who suffered from several mental illnesses.

Dr. Marti Loring told Circuit Judge Ned Miller that Inman grew up amidst alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence, and that there were indications he was sexually abused by both his biological father and a step-brother who was later convicted as a pedophile.

She told the judge about how Inman was forced to watch another being sexually abused at the age of 3, that he was given drugs by family members at age 9 and that he was sexually and physically abused.

Both Ariail, in closing arguments, and the judge, before handing down his sentence, acknowledged Inman’s troubled childhood and mental illness but said it was no excuse for what he did.

They said he was still capable of making choices.

Inman himself agreed when he asked Miller to sentence him to death.

Bannister said he had 10 days following the sentencing to file motions for consideration of a new sentencing trial.

If Miller grants that motion, a new sentencing will take place; if not, the case will go straight to the state Supreme Court, he said.

There, he said he would continue the arguments he started in the Pickens County courtroom – that Inman had a right to a jury sentencing after pleading guilty and that misconduct on the part of the solicitor should have resulted in an automatic sentence of life without parole because of the double jeopardy clause that would prohibit a retrial.

“That’s why my fight was so intense about that issue,” he said, referring to the solicitor’s questioning of Loring about being licensed to practice in this state.

Miller ruled the questioning was inappropriate, but not deliberate; and therefore, he did not declare a mistrial, as Bannister requested.

“If I had won that fight, the death penalty would have been off the table,” Bannister said.

Prior to sentencing, Miller accused the defense team of being more focused on the misconduct issue than it was on presenting a full defense on Inman’s behalf.

In response, Bannister said the judge was not privy to all the information the defense had.

“From his position, he felt what he was saying was accurate,” Bannister said. “But my ethical obligations are to get a life without parole verdict regardless of what my client appeared to want. I give it all I’ve got from start to finish.”

Following the sentencing, the solicitor said that putting the prosecution on trial in this type of case was a “growing movement in the defense bar.”

“It’s something that’s happening more and more,” he said.

Ariail said he was confident from the start that Miller would hand down a fair sentence.

He said his team got the sentence they felt was appropriate.

“We’re satisfied with the job we did and the role we played,” Ariail said.

Inman is currently on death row at Lieber Correctional Institute near Ridgeville.