A man sentenced to 49 years in prison after pleading guilty to strangling a woman now wants a judge to let him out 47 years early.

Christopher Joshua Howell pleaded guilty on April 3, 2008, to the Aug. 10, 2007, murder of Margaret Ann Stevens. Stevens was found strangled to death by family and friends on a path near the Buffalo Mill Pond. Howell was sentenced to 49 years without possibility of parole and is currently serving his sentence at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville and wants out.

In papers filed Friday in the Union County Clerk of Court’s Office, Howell is asking the court of post-conviction relief on the grounds of ineffective trial counsel. Howell claims his plea was involuntary and his case was never properly investigated. He is asking that his conviction and prison sentence be vacated.

During Howell’s trial, the prosecution said Stevens had gone to meet with Howell around 2 a.m. to purchase pills from him. A friend who knew of Stevens’ plans told investigators with the Union County Sheriff’s Office she’d called Stevens at 1:55 a.m. and was told she was with Howell. The woman said Stevens told her Howell was trying to get her to go into the woods with him but she was refusing to go. She said she tried to call Stevens several more times but was unable to get her.

The public defender who represented Howell said on the day of the murder, Howell had consumed Xanax, Oxycontin, cocaine and beer. He said in three statements given since his arrest, Howell had said he couldn’t believe what he’d done, that he couldn’t understand why he’d did it and that while he remembered choking Stevens it was a blur. The defense argued it was the alcohol and the drugs that caused Howell — who had no previous history of violence — to do what he’d done.

The prosecution countered that during their investigation, deputies interviewed a man who told them Howell had come to him looking for a ride out of town, saying he’d thought he’d killed someone by choking them. When deputies found Howell, the prosecution said he was snorting cocaine. When questioned by investigators, Howell claimed he and Stevens had sex and then for some reason he began choking her behind with his hands and wrapped his belt around her neck. After she was dead, he took her cellphone with him.

In his application for post-conviction relief, Howell states he appealed his conviction to the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Nov. 2, 2009. The court dismissed it on Dec. 16, 2009.

Howell is the second person convicted of murder in Union County to seek post-conviction relief from the court this month. Susan Smith, who was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 for the 1994 murders or her sons Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. She is serving her sentence at the Leith Correctional Institute in Greenwood.

Smith filed for post-conviction relief last week on the grounds that her rights were violated. She is asking that the court overturn her setence and give her a new trial.