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1 of 2 | Authorities in South Carolina on Friday night executed Richard Moore, despite pleas for clemency to the state’s Republican governor. File photo courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Corrections
Nov. 2 (UPI) — Authorities in South Carolina on Friday night executed Richard Moore despite pleas for clemency from the state’s Republican governor.
Prison officials confirmed that Moore was pronounced dead following a lethal injection at 6:24 p.m. EDT at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster declined to intervene after Moore and his legal team asked for clemency, clearing the way for the execution.
Several Moore supporters, including two former jurors and the judge who presided over his murder trial, signed a petition calling on McMaster to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
McMaster was expected to wait until the last moment before making a decision.
Moore was sentenced to death for the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk James Mahoney during a robbery in Spartanburg, South Carolina
He was convicted at trial.
The lawyers argued that the trial was unfair because there were no African Americans on the 12-person jury.
Supporters also argued that trial lawyers erred by not pursuing a self-defense narrative. Moore and Mahoney initially struggled and each ended up with a firearm, both of whom were shot at that time.
Moore was hit in the arm and left the stage.
“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 am so proud of you. Thank you for the joy you brought to my life,” Moore said when he was given a chance to speak his final words, according to South Carolina Department of Corrections officials.
Moore’s legal team and those who signed the petition argued that his case did not meet the requirements of capital murder.
Prosecutors say Moore showed no remorse by leaving the scene of the robbery with $1,400 in cash and failing to call for help.
Moore was originally scheduled to be executed in 2022, choosing death by firing squad instead of the electric chair.
South Carolina halted executions in 2011 when they could not obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs.
The state executed Freddie Owens in September, the first death sentence carried out in South Carolina in more than a decade.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this would not be a death penalty case in most counties,” former South Carolina Department of Corrections Director John Ozmint told the Greenville News in an interview earlier this week.
