COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court set Friday, Nov. 1, as the date to put to death a man who killed a store clerk a quarter-century ago, the second of an expected six executions in about six months as the state ramps up its use of capital . punishment after a break of 13 years.
Richard Moore entered Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County unarmed to rob it in September 1999 and killed James Mahoney in a shootout after taking one of two guns from him, authorities said. Moore, who is black, is the only man on South Carolina’s death row convicted by a jury that did not include African Americans.
South Carolina was once one of the busiest states for executions but had had trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs for years because of drug companies’ concerns that they would have to reveal they had sold the drugs to officials.
The state Legislature has since passed a law allowing officials to keep suppliers of lethal injection drugs secret, and in July the state Supreme Court ruled cleared the way to restart performances.
Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection on September 20 when the death chamber was reopened for executions of prisoners left without regular occupations during the intermission. Four other inmates are also barred from appeals, and the state Supreme Court allows executions every five weeks. Judges issued death sentences on Friday, and the court was closed a week ago as the remnants of Hurricane Helene passed through the state.
Moore will likely have the choice of dying by lethal injection, electrocution, or the newly added option of a firing squad. A Utah inmate was the last person executed by firing squad in the U.S. in 2010, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
The prison governor has until next week to confirm that all three execution methods will be available. He must also provide Moore’s lawyers with proof that the lethal injection drug is stable and properly mixed, according to the Supreme Court’s 2023 interpretation of the state secrecy law on executions that helped reopen the door to South Carolina’s death chamber.
South Carolina previously used a mix of three drugs, but will now use one drug: the sedative pentobarbital, for lethal injections in a protocol similar to executions carried out by the federal government.
Moore, 59, then has about a week to let the state know how he wants to be killed. If he doesn’t make a choice, the state will send him to the electric chair by default. In 2022, Moore chose the firing squad, but that was before lethal injection was available. Lawsuits then pushed back his execution date to April 2022.
Moore plans to ask Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for mercy and reduce his sentence to life without parole. No South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of capital punishment.
Defense attorneys have also begun their latest appeal. Defense attorney Lindsey Vann said prosecutors asked extensive and varied questions of potential black jurors, then struck the two African Americans who remained on the jury for reasons that did not apply to white potential jurors.
Moore’s lawyers have said his death sentence is unjust because Moore did not intend to kill anyone and acted in self-defense.
Moore told investigators he entered the store unarmed, looking for money for cocaine. Mahoney pulled a gun on Moore and he wrestled the gun away from the clerk, according to trial testimony.
Mahoney pulled out a second gun and the men shot at each other. Moore was wounded in the arm and Mahoney was shot in the chest. Prosecutors said Moore left a trail of blood through the store as he searched for cash, stepping over Mahoney twice.
Moore has no violations on his record and has offered to help rehabilitate other inmates while he is behind bars.
South Carolina has put 44 prisoners to death since the US renewed the death penalty in 1976. In the early 2000s, an average of three executions were carried out per year. Nine states have put more prisoners to death.
But since the accidental execution pause, South Carolina’s death row population has declined. At the beginning of 2011, the state had 63 convicted prisoners. Currently there are 31. About 20 prisoners have been arrested. taken off death row and received several prison sentences after successful appeals. Others died of natural causes.