COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Richard Moorewho is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Friday in South Carolina for fatally shooting a convenience store clerk in 1999, has one last chance to save his life.

Moore’s lawyers have asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency, which no South Carolina governor has granted in the state’s 44 previous executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Governors in 24 other states have done so. .

Two jurors who sentenced Moore to death in 2001 also they have sent letters asking McMaster to change his sentence to life in prison without parole. They are joined by a former state prison warden, Moore’s trial judge, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several pastors.

Everyone says Moore, 59, is a changed man who loves God, dotes on his new grandchildren as best he can, helps guards keep the peace and mentors other prisoners after his drug addiction clouded his judgment and led to the shooting in which James Mahoney was killed, according to the petition for clemency.

Moore is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. in a Columbia prison. has had two postponed execution dates as the state fixed problems that created a 13-year pause on the death penalty, including companies’ refusal to sell lethal injection drugs to the state, a hurdle that was resolved by passing a secrecy law.

Moore would be the second inmate executed in South Carolina since it resumed executions. Four more are out of appeal and the state appears willing to execute them in five week intervals until spring. If Moore dies Friday, there would be 30 people left on death row.

The governor said he is carefully reviewing everything sent by Moore’s attorneys and, as usual, will wait until minutes before the execution begins to announce his decision once he hears by phone that all appeals have been finalized.

“Lenience is a matter of grace, a matter of mercy. There is no standard. There’s no real law about it,” McMaster told reporters Thursday.

In a video interview accompanying his plea for clemency, Moore expressed remorse for Mahoney’s murder.

“This is definitely part of my life and I wish I could change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I pray for the forgiveness of that particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s relatives have not spoken publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, family members have said they suffered deeply and want justice to be done.

Moore’s attorneys say his original attorneys failed to analyze the crime scene carefully and left unchallenged prosecutors’ argument that Moore, who entered the store unarmed, shot a customer and that his intention all along was a robbery. .

According to his story, the employee pointed a gun at Moore after the two argued because he was 12 cents short for what he wanted to buy.

Moore said he knocked the gun out of Mahoney’s hand and the employee pulled out a second gun. Moore was shot in the arm and fired back, hitting Mahoney in the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole about $1,400.

No one else on South Carolina’s death row began their crime unarmed and without intent to kill, Moore’s current attorneys say.

Jon Ozmint, a former prosecutor who was director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011 and who has added his voice to those calling for clemency, said Moore’s case is not the worst of the worst types of crime that typically trigger a case. of death penalty.

There are many people who were not sentenced to death but committed much more heinous crimes, Ozmint said, citing the example of Todd Kohlheppwho was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing seven people, including a woman he raped and tortured for days.

Lawyers for Moore, who is black, also say his trial was unfair. There were no African Americans on the jury even though 20% of Spartanburg County residents were black.

Moore, a born-again Christian, can continue to mentor and positively influence other inmates if his sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole, Ozmint said.

“He wants to continue his work of having a positive impact on everyone around him that he can reach,” Ozmint said in the clemency request video. “I hope Governor McMaster gives Richard the rest of his life to dedicate to others.”

Moore’s son and daughter said he remains committed to their lives. He once asked them about school work and gave them advice by letter. Now he has grandchildren whom he sees via video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm it would do to them if Moore were removed from their lives.

“Even though my father was away, that hasn’t stopped him from having a big impact on my life, a positive impact,” said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force thanks to her father’s support.

He said his 5-year-old daughter asks “is that Pa Pa?” when the phone rings at his home on a military base in Spain.

“He is a great man and I want her to know her grandfather for the man he is,” she said.