South Carolina man sentenced to death after governor rejects clemency request

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Richard Moore, scheduled to be executed by injection Friday in South Carolina for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk in 1999, lost his last chance to save his life.

Republican Governor Henry McMaster rejected Moore’s request for clemency. No South Carolina governor has authorized the state’s 44 previous executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Governors in 24 other states have done so.

The three jurors who sentenced Moore to death in 2001, including one who wrote Friday: sent letters ask McMaster to change the sentence to life without parole. They were joined by former state prison director Judge Moore, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several pastors.

They all said Moore, 59, is a changed man who loves God, dotes on his new grandchildren as best he can, helps guards keep the peace and mentors other inmates after his drug addiction clouded his judgment and led to a shooting. in which James Mahoney was killed, according to police. petition for pardon.

Moore is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. at the Columbia County Jail. He had two deadlines have been postponed as the state grappled with problems that led to a 13-year pause in the death penalty, including the refusal of companies to sell lethal injections to the government, an obstacle that was resolved by passing a secrecy law.

Moore would be second prisoner executed in South Carolina since executions resumed there. Four more people are unable to appeal, and the state appears poised to execute them in five week intervals through spring. If Moore dies Friday, 30 people will remain on death row.

The governor said he is carefully reviewing everything Moore’s lawyers send and, as usual, will wait a few minutes before the execution begins to announce his decision once he hears by phone that all appeals have been completed.

“Mercy is a matter of grace, a matter of mercy. There is no standard. There is no real law on this,” McMaster told reporters on Thursday.

In a video interview that accompanied his clemency petition, Moore expressed remorse for killing Mahoney.

“This is definitely a part of my life that I would like to change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I pray for forgiveness for this particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s relatives did not speak publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, family members have said they are deeply hurt and want justice to be served.

Moore’s lawyers say his original lawyers did not thoroughly analyze the crime scene and left unchallenged prosecutors’ contention that Moore, who arrived at the store unarmed, shot at the customer and that his intent all along was robbery.

They say the clerk pulled a gun on Moore after they argued because he was 12 cents short on something he wanted to buy.

Moore said he wrestled the gun out of Mahoney’s hands and the clerk pulled out a second weapon. Moore was shot in the arm and returned fire, hitting Mahoney in the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $1,400.

According to Moore’s current lawyers, no one on death row in South Carolina began their crime unarmed or without the intent to kill.

John Ozmint, a former prosecutor who was director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011 and joined those asking for clemency, said Moore’s case is not the worst of the worst crimes that are routinely committed. initiate a death penalty case.

There are many people who were not sentenced to death, but committed much more serious crimes, Ozmint said, citing the example Todd Kohlheppwho was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing seven people, including a woman he raped and tortured for days.

Lawyers for Moore, who is Black, also say he received an unfair trial. There were no African Americans on the jury, although 20% of Spartanburg County residents were black.

Moore, a born-again Christian, will be able to continue mentoring and positively influencing fellow inmates if his sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole, Ozmint said.

“He wants to continue his work of making a positive impact on everyone around him that he can reach,” Ozmint said in a video asking for clemency. “I hope Governor McMaster gives Richard the rest of his life so he can give it to others.”

Moore’s son and daughter said he remains involved in their lives. One day he asked them about their school activities and gave them advice in letters. Now he has grandchildren whom he sees via video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm to them if Moore was removed from their lives.

“Even though my dad wasn’t home, it still didn’t stop him from having a big impact on my life, a positive impact,” said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force at her father’s encouragement.

She said her five-year-old daughter asks, “Is that Pa Pa?” when the phone rings in their home on a military base in Spain.

“He’s a great man and I want her to know her grandfather for who he is,” she said.

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