The son of a South Carolina inmate urges the governor to save his father from execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. — COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Richard Moore He never intended to kill anyone the night he robbed a South Carolina supermarket and the black man was convicted by a jury that did not include African-Americans, his son and lawyers say as they fight to save the inmate from execution next month .

Moore entered a Spartanburg County store unarmed in 1999 to rob it, grabbed a clerk’s gun when it was pointed at him and fatally shot the clerk in the chest as the two struggled.

The inmate’s son, Lyndall Moore, said his father is now the only inmate left on the state’s death row, convicted by a non-Black jury.

“He’s a human being who has made mistakes,” Moore added. “And this particular mistake led to the death of another human being. But his sentence is completely out of proportion to the actual crime.”

South Carolina ended a 13-year hiatus on executions last month with the lethal injection of Freddy Owens. Moore will be executed on November 1.

Moore’s attorneys have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying a lower court should rule on whether it was fair that no African Americans were on the jury that considered Moore’s fate in Spartanburg County. which was 20% black in the 2000 US census.

They also hope Moore will become the first South Carolina inmate to have his death sentence commuted to life without parole since executions resumed in the US in 1976.

Only South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster can do that grant leniency. McMaster, a former prosecutor, has not allowed Owens to do so and has previously said he tends to trust juries and the legal system.

But Moore’s family and lawyers argue that executing Moore is too harsh a punishment. In a state where the governor and director of the prison have prioritized reaching prisoners turn their lives aroundMoore’s spotless record behind bars and his reputation for helping other inmates deserve a reprieve, they say.

“He is deeply remorseful and sorry for the terrible, tragic decisions he has made in his life. But he has really tried to make up for that over the past 20 years by loving the people he still has in his life,” said attorney Lindsey Vann.

Moore killed 40-year-old clerk James Mahoney, a man with several disabilities who loved his family and tried to care for his coworkers.

The prosecutors in Moore’s case included Trey Gowdya Republican who later served four terms in Congress, and Barry Barnette, currently a Spartanburg County attorney. Neither has commented, with Gowdy saying the 1999 lawsuit speaks for itself.

In asking the jury to sentence Moore to death, Gowdy reminded them of Moore’s criminal record for theft and robbery to obtain drug money.

He focused on how Moore, who had also been shot in the arm during the struggle, walked over the dying clerk’s body looking for money after shooting Mahoney.

“A 40-year-old man’s hopes, goals and dreams come from his heart, and the cold, wet blood of a career criminal drips down his back,” Gowdy said. “There is a time for mercy, ladies and gentlemen. That time has come and gone.”

Moore’s supporters said the trial represents enough of what is wrong with South Carolina’s death penalty, arbitrary as it is, because prosecutors can make political points by bringing a bunch of death penalty cases when the cases aren’t the worst of unrepentant , cruel and heinous criminals.

And then there’s the problem of a jury without black representation, Vann said.

“I’m really impressed with the image I’ve had of Richard’s trial, where there’s a white prosecutor, a white judge, white lawyers, an all-white jury and he’s the only person in the room who is African-American. is American and he is judged by a jury that has no one who looks like him,” Vann said.

Moore has had two previous performance datesboth postponed at a time when the state only had the electric chair and a firing squad. Since then, lethal injection has been added as an option, helped by the passage of a law allowing suppliers of lethal injection drugs to remain secret.

Lyndall Moore said the more people get to know his father, the more they realize what a tragedy it would be to make the terrible thing Richard Moore did by killing a man even worse by taking someone who turned their lives around gave and tried to give him something. something in return.

He said he hoped McMaster would take the time to really get to know his father, not just look at a file on his desk.

‘He is not a threatening figure. He’s just a regular guy. … He’s had a lot of time to think about it, to think about what got him to this point. He clearly regrets everything,” Lyndall Moore said.

Richard Moore told it The post and courier from Charleston in 2022 that his attorneys advised him not to contact Mahoney’s family, but if he did, he would let them know that he was “truly, deeply sorry that he died because of my actions.”

“I am not the same person I was the night I took Mr. Mahoney’s life. I have grown. I feel like I still have a story to tell,” Moore said.