South Carolina death row inmate must choose between three ways to die as execution is set
A South Carolina death row inmate must choose how his life will ultimately end – and he only has a little more than a week to do so.
Richard Moore, 59, received the maximum sentence for the 1999 shooting of a store clerk in Spartanburg County.
Now he must decide whether to be executed by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection.
If he fails to choose his fate before October 18, he will die by electrocution.
The state’s electric chair, built in 1912, was found to work properly after being tested last month.
The firing squad can be used in South Carolina, as allowed by a 2021 law.
Richard Moore, 59, a death row inmate from South Carolina, has the choice of dying by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection
Moore, a black man, has been on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years and remains the only death row inmate in the state convicted by a jury that did not include African Americans.
South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said the firing squad has the proper ammunition, weapons and training. Three volunteers are instructed how to shoot from a distance of 15 feet, aiming at a target placed directly on the heart.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, South Carolina has put to death a total of 44 inmates.
But Moore will be the second execution in the state after a 13-year hiatus because he was unable to obtain the drug needed for a lethal injection. When the privacy measure was originally introduced, companies refused to sell it.
But after a shield law passed last year, the state was allowed to obtain the drug again.
It has since been found to be pure, stable and powerful enough to carry out the execution after being tested by state crime lab technicians.
But Moore is now trying to stop the execution through an appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections death chamber includes the electric chair (right) and the firing squad chair (left)
In photo: Firing squad chair at Utah State Prison – The firing squad can be used in South Carolina, allowed by a 2021 law
In September 1999, Moore entered a supermarket with the intention of robbing it. Despite arriving unarmed, he was able to take a gun from James Mahoney, the store clerk, leading to a shootout between the two. Mahoney was killed after being shot in the chest.
Although Moore had a job and remained an active parent in the years before the crime that led him to become a death row inmate, he faced a series of crimes, including: traffic felon, unlawful possession of a weapon, purse snatching, breaking and entering , theft, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, according to Post and courier.
Ultimately, he came to realize that he was living a double life – consumed on the one hand by crack cocaine.
Moore, a black man, has been on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years.
He remains the only death row inmate in the state convicted by a jury that did not include African Americans.
Since Moore was initially unarmed at the time of his crime, it can be argued that there was a lack of premeditation.
In September 1999, Moore entered a store unarmed with the intention of robbing it, leading to a shootout in which he was able to grab a gun and shoot the store clerk in the chest, killing him.
Moore is now seeking to stop the execution through an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and plans to ask the governor for mercy, hoping to change his sentence to life without parole.
But if he is executed, he would be the first person put to death in modern times who was originally unarmed and defended himself when threatened with a weapon.
Moore has no further violations on his record since his time in prison. He has offered to help rehabilitate other inmates behind bars.
He plans to talk to Republican Governor Henry McMaster for clemency, hoping to reduce his sentence to life without parole instead of death.
But in the modern era of capital punishment, no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency to his prisoners.
Executions were common in the state in the early 2000s. An average of three executions were carried out annually.
Since the accidental execution pause, the population of death row inmates has declined. In early 2011, the state had 63 inmates awaiting death. But now there are only 31 left.
About 20 inmates have been taken off death row after successfully appealing to the courts for a different sentence. Others died of natural causes during the temporary break in prison.
After a thirteen-year hiatus, people protested the death penalty ahead of Freddie Owen’s scheduled execution date
South Carolina executed its first death row inmate in 13 years by lethal injection in September.
Freddie Owens, 46, was found guilty by a jury of killing a store employee during a 1997 armed robbery in Greenville. He spent more than 20 years on death row before being executed on September 20.
Before his scheduled execution, several groups gathered to protest the death penalty.
South Carolina must argue that there is an “aggravating” circumstance to carry out the death penalty. WBTW reported. The overall decision to impose the death penalty is decided by a jury.
More than 650 people have been executed in South Carolina, including infamous serial killer Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins Jr. in 1991.