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South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite pleas from judge, jury and former corrections director – WSWS

South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite pleas from judge, jury and former corrections director – WSWS

Richard Moore was executed Friday in South Carolina, becoming the second person executed in the state in just over a month, after a 13-year hiatus. Moore, 59, was convicted of killing James Mahoney in 1999 at a convenience store in Spartanburg, a city in northern South Carolina. Moore’s all-white jury convicted him of murder and armed robbery after only two hours of deliberation and sentenced him to death after just another hour.

Photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections of Richard Moore, who was executed Friday for the September 1999 slaying of a convenience store clerk. [AP Photo/South Carolina Dept. of Corrections]

Moore’s execution was all the more remarkable considering that when he walked into Nikki’s Speed ​​Mart on September 16, 1999, he was unarmed. Moore is believed to be the only person in the history of South Carolina’s death penalty executed in connection with an armed robbery who did not bring the fatal weapon to the scene of the crime.

Both guns were behind the counter when Moore entered the store. Moore’s attorneys argued that Moore killed Mahoney in self-defense, stating, “No other death penalty case in South Carolina has involved an unarmed defendant who defended himself when the victim threatened him with a gun.”

Prosecutors say Moore pulled Mahoney’s gun away from him and that Mahoney then grabbed a second gun and shot Moore in the arm before Moore fired the fatal shot. Moore made off with more than $1,400 in cash. Moore’s attorneys argued that he came to the store to buy beer and cigarettes and an argument arose when he was short 12 cents and wanted to use coins from the coin cup to complete his purchase.

On October 31, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Moore’s arguments for a retrial, clearing the way for his execution. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster refused to grant a pardon, despite receiving a petition with over 50,000 signatures calling for clemency. The pleas of the judge, three jurors and the former director of the state Department of Corrections also went unheeded.

In a final statement read by Moore’s attorney Lindsey Vann, Moore said in part, “To the family of Mr. James Mahoney, I am deeply sorry for the pain and sorrow I have caused you all. To my children and grandchildren, I love you and I am proud of you.”

According to The State Gazette of Columbia, South Carolina, after witnesses were allowed to see the execution, prison officials administered a single dose of pentobarbital, a sedative, while Moore lay strapped to a gurney facing the ceiling. A minute after the lethal drug was administered, witnesses heard between four and six deep breaths followed by shallow breaths. His chest seemed to stop moving at 18:04

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