COLUMBIA, SC — A South Carolina prisoner who was sentenced to death for killing a store clerk in 1999 chose on Friday to be put to death by lethal injection instead of by firing squad or electric shock.
This month, men who work at the state jail told Richard Moore that he could choose how he would be killed on November 1. By state law, he had until Friday to make a choice, or he would be killed.
Moore wants the U.S. Supreme Court to save his life. Moore’s execution would be the second in South Carolina after a 13-year break because the state couldn’t get the drug it needed for the fatal injection.
Moore, who is 59 years old, is on death row for killing worker James Mahoney in 1999. Authorities say Moore broke into the Spartanburg County store without a gun to rob it. He then got into a fight with the clerk after taking one of his two guns. Moore was hit in the arm, and Moore’s blood was found on Mahoney’s body when he stepped on the cashier to get money.
Following is a certified letter from South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling to Moore. It says that the state’s electric chair was tested last month, its firing squad has the right weapons and training, and experts at the state crime lab tested the drug for the lethal injection and found it to be pure.
Moore will be executed using the state’s new lethal injection protocol, which involves a single dose of pentobarbital. This is the same way used by the federal government to put people to death. In the past, the state had put people to death with three drugs.
As Moore’s allies fight for his life, executions start up again.
As of last month, Freddie Owens was the first person in South Carolina to be put to death by fatal injection in 13 years. Moore will be put to death on November 1.
While Moore was being executed, his lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop it. They said a lower court should look into whether it was fair that there were no African Americans on the jury that decided his fate in Spartanburg County, which had a 20% Black population in the 2000 U.S. Census.
Plus, they want Moore to be the first person in South Carolina to have their death sentence changed to life in prison without the chance of parole since the U.S. began executions in 1976.
Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina is the only one who can give clemency. Although McMaster used to be a prosecutor, he didn’t give it to Owens because he trusted judges and the court system.
Moore’s lawyers said McMaster couldn’t fairly decide whether to commute Moore’s death sentence to life in prison because, as state attorney general, he oversaw prosecutors who were fighting Moore’s appeals. McMaster also told reporters that he had no plans to commute Moore’s sentence when his execution date was set but then canceled in 2022.
Instead, they want the judge to give the power of clemency to a parole board, the deputy governor, or someone else they think will be more fair.
But Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said she doesn’t want to take away the constitutional right of the governor of South Carolina to be the only one to decide on clemency. She also said she thinks McMaster will carefully consider Moore’s plea when it is filed.
Moore’s family and lawyers say that putting him to death is an unfair sentence. They say Moore should be let out of jail because he has a perfect record while he is there and is known for helping other prisoners. This is because the governor and prison director have made it a mission to help inmates change their lives.
“He feels terrible about the terrible choices he made in his life and is sorry for them.” But he has worked hard for the past 20 years to make up for it by loving the people he still has in his life, said his lawyer, Lindsey Vann.
The prosecution wants the death sentence. Twenty-five years ago
Moore shot and killed 40-year-old clerk James Mahoney. Mahoney had some disabilities but loved his family and tried to help his coworkers.
Trey Gowdy, a Republican who later spent four terms in Congress, and Barry Barnette, who is now the solicitor for Spartanburg County, were the prosecutors in Moore’s case. Both have refused to say anything, and Gowdy has said that the trial in 1999 speaks for itself.
Gowdy reminded the panel that Moore had a history of stealing and robbing to get money for drugs when he asked them to sentence Moore to death.
He talked about how Moore, who had been shot in the arm during the fight, walked over the dead clerk’s body while looking for cash after killing Mahoney.
“The cold, wet drops of blood of a career criminal are dripping on his back,” Gowdy said. “The hopes, goals, and dreams of a 40-year-old man are coming out of his heart.” “Ladies and gentlemen, there is a time for mercy.” “That time is over now.”
The problems the defense team had with the first trial
Supporters of Moore said that the trial showed many things that are wrong with the death penalty in South Carolina, such as how prosecutors bring a lot of death penalty cases just for political reasons, even if the cases don’t involve the worst, most cruel, and most heinous criminals.
Vann also brought up the issue of a panel that doesn’t have any Black people on it.
“The thought of Richard’s trial really strikes me: a white prosecutor, a white judge, white defense lawyers, and an all-white jury. He is the only African American in the room, and he is being judged by a jury that doesn’t have anyone else who looks like him,” Vann said.
Moore’s execution dates were pushed back twice before, when the state only had an electric chair and a shooting squad. Since then, lethal injection has become a choice. This was made possible by a law that keeps the identities of people who sell drugs for lethal injection secret.
