Just hours before his execution, a South Carolina man begs the governor for clemency

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Richard Moorewho is scheduled to be executed by injection Friday in South Carolina for the fatal 1999 shooting of a supermarket worker has one last chance to save his life.

Moore's lawyers have asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency, which no South Carolina governor has granted in the state's 44 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Governors in 24 other states have done so.

Three jurors who sentenced Moore to death in 2001, including one who wrote Friday: sent letters He asked McMaster to commute his sentence to life without parole. They are joined by a former state prison warden, Moore's trial judge, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several pastors.

They all say Moore, 59, is a changed man who loves God, cares for his new grandchildren as much as he can, helps guards keep the peace and mentors other prisoners after his drug addiction clouded his judgment and led to the shootout in which James Mahoney was killed Request for clemency.

Moore is scheduled to die in a Columbia prison at 6 p.m. He had two Execution dates postponed While the state sorted out issues that led to a 13-year pause in the death penalty, it also included the refusal of companies to sell lethal injection drugs to the state, a hurdle resolved by the passage of a secrecy law.

Moore would be that second prisoner executed in South Carolina since executions resumed. Four others have not been appealed and the state appears poised to sentence them to death five week intervals through spring. If Moore dies on Friday, there would be 30 people still on death row.

The governor said he was carefully reviewing everything sent by Moore's lawyers and, as usual, would wait minutes before the execution began to announce his decision once he heard by phone that all appeals had been completed.

“Grace is a question of grace, a question of mercy. There is no standard. There’s no real law on this,” McMaster told reporters Thursday.

In an interview for a video accompanying his clemency petition, Moore expressed remorse for Mahoney's killing.

“It’s definitely a part of my life that I would like to change. I took a life. I took someone's life. I destroyed the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I pray for the forgiveness of this special family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney's relatives did not comment publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, family members have said they have suffered deeply and that they should receive justice.

Moore's lawyers say his original attorneys did not carefully analyze the crime scene and left unchallenged prosecutors' contention that Moore, who came into the store unarmed, shot a customer and that his intent was robbery from the start.

According to their report, the clerk pointed a gun at Moore after the two argued because he was 12 cents short of what he wanted to buy.

Moore said he grabbed the gun out of Mahoney's hand and the employee pulled out a second gun. Moore was shot in the arm and fired back, hitting Mahoney in the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $1,400.

No one else on South Carolina's death row began their crime unarmed and without the intent to kill, Moore's current lawyers say.

Jon Ozmint, a former prosecutor who was director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011 and has joined clemency seekers, said Moore's case does not involve the worst type of crimes that would normally prompt a death penalty case .

There are many people who were not sentenced to death but committed much more heinous crimes, Ozmint said, citing the example of 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 his trial was not fair. There were no African Americans on the jury, even though 20% of Spartanburg County residents were black.

Moore, a born-again Christian, would be able to continue to mentor and positively influence his fellow inmates if his sentence was reduced to life in prison without parole, Ozmint said.

“He wants to continue his work and have a positive impact on everyone around him that he can,” Ozmint said in the clemency petition video. “I hope that Governor McMaster will give Richard the rest of his life to serve others.”

Moore's son and daughter said he remained interested in their lives. He once asked them about school work and gave them advice in letters. He now has grandchildren who he sees on video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm that would occur to them if Moore were removed from their lives.

“Even though my father wasn't there, that didn't stop him from having a huge, positive influence on my life,” said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force at her father's encouragement.

She said her 5-year-old daughter asked, “Is that Pa Pa?” when the phone rang at their home at a military base in Spain.

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