South Carolina to execute Richard Moore despite objections from judge and jury: 'Grant him clemency' | South Carolina

South Carolina is on track to execute a man on death row on Friday, despite growing concerns about the validity of his sentence and objections from the judge who originally sentenced him to death.

Richard Moore, 59, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. unless the state's Republican governor, Henry McMaster, grants clemency. Moore's children have pleaded for his life to be spared, and his efforts for a resentencing are now supported by the former head of the Department of Corrections, three trial jurors, the judge who presided over the case and a former state Supreme Court justice.

The case has drawn attention because of racial bias and the unusual nature of his death sentence, and is part of a spate of quick executions the state is seeking.

An all-white jury convicted Moore, who is Black, 25 years ago of an armed robbery and murder of a white supermarket clerk. Moore said the killing was in self-defense.

On September 16, 1999, Moore entered the store unarmed where James Mahoney was working the counter. Since there were no recordings, the exact circumstances of the incident are unclear. Moore said they got into an argument because he was missing change, prompting Mahoney to point a gun at him.

During their scuffle, both men were shot – Moore in the arm and Mahoney fatally in the chest. Moore took cash from the store.

There is no doubt that Moore was unarmed when he arrived. Mahoney was carrying a gun and there were two guns behind the counter. A store witness said he overheard an argument and then saw Moore put his hands on the clerk's hands and that Moore shot in his direction. The witness was not hit and said he played dead and did not see the rest of the encounter.

A forensic investigator hired by Moore's attorneys reviewed evidence at the crime scene in 2017 and concluded that the first shot was fired as the two men struggled over the gun.

Moore's lawyers argued that regardless of the details of the shooting, he should not receive the death penalty, which is reserved for only the “worst of the worst” murders, because he arrived unarmed and had no premeditated plans for armed robbery or murder. In 2022, state Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn agreed, writing in a dissenting opinion that the death sentence was “invalid,” “disproportionate,” and a “relic of a bygone era.”

Hearn said it was “astonishing” that prosecutors could not identify a comparable death penalty case involving a robbery that began unarmed, pointing out that Spartanburg County, where Moore was charged, was in the has historically shown “alarming” racial disparities in the death penalty; All but one of the 21 cases between 1985 and 2001 involved white victims.

Moore's team had also filed a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that prosecutors had illegally removed two qualified black jurors, but the court declined Thursday to stop the execution.

In a clemency video filed with Moore's petition this week, former South Carolina Department of Corrections Chief Jon Ozmint said he hoped the governor would “give Richard the rest of his life so he can continue to advocate for the lives of others.” . In an earlier letter, Ozmint said he was a supporter of the death penalty and had never recommended overturning a death sentence, but said staff “trusted” Moore as a “trusted and respected” man on death row.

“The commutation would have a positive impact on hundreds of offenders who would be impacted by Richard’s story of redemption and positive example,” Ozmint wrote.

Gary Clary, the former district judge who handed down Moore's death sentence, wrote to McMaster on Wednesday, saying he had “investigated the case of every person on death row in South Carolina” and that Moore's case was “unique”: “After After “After many years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask you to grant Mr. Moore executive clemency as an act of grace and mercy.”

Three jurors wrote that they supported the commutation based on Moore's rehabilitation. Thousands have signed petitions to stop the execution.

Lindsey Vann, Moore's longtime attorney, said she knew of no other case in South Carolina under the modern death penalty in which a judge imposing the sentence favored a pardon. She said Thursday that Moore tried to remain optimistic: “He's grateful for all the support, it gives him some hope … but there are obviously difficult conversations, conversations with people for what may be the last time.”

Moore remained close to his two children, who had visited him behind glass since they were children. His daughter Alexandria Moore, 31, recalled him teaching Spanish and solving letter puzzles as a child and said he had become a beloved grandfather to her two daughters, telling the Guardian: “I'll always be my daddy's girl… Even . “With the physical distance, he is very much here and a part of my girls' lives and my life.”

During his incarceration, Moore turned to faith, focused on painting and made pen pals, his lawyers said. His clemency video includes an excerpt from a previous interview in which Moore expressed remorse: “That's definitely a part of my life that I wish I could change, because I took my own life… I destroyed the family of the deceased. “I pray for the forgiveness of this special family.”

In South Carolina, executions recently resumed after a 13-year hiatus amid a lack of lethal injections and questions about the other methods proposed, namely electrocution and firing squads. The state stockpiled pentobarbital, a sedative, after passing a law to protect the identities of companies supplying the drug, fearing public backlash.

The state Supreme Court has authorized executions to be scheduled approximately every five weeks, an extraordinary pace that lawyers argued would overwhelm lawyers representing multiple defendants and lead to botched executions because of the rushed process.

The first defendant to be executed last month was Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, 46, who was executed days after a key witness came forward saying he had lied at trial and that Allah was innocent.

“It's like an assembly line. “The state is motivated to kill convicted people as quickly as possible, despite evidence that might change their minds,” said Paul Bowers of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. “At the first execution there was a dramatic change in the testimony of the key witness and that was not enough to convince the governor…As for Richard Moore, we are desperately trying to appeal to Henry McMaster's conscience.”

McMaster's office did not respond to requests for comment. He said earlier this week that he would announce his decision minutes before Moore's execution.