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    • Richard Moore will be executed in South Carolina. What to know.
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    Richard Moore will be executed in South Carolina. What to know.

    Sakege Posted on

    Moore’s attorney describes a formerly addicted man who is now a devout Christian, a good father and a changed man. Only the governor can stop the execution now.

    The last black man on death row in South Carolina to be convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury, according to his attorney, is ready to be executed for killing a convenience store employee during an alleged robbery in 1999.

    Richard Moore is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Friday for the death of James Mahoney. If he advances, that will make Moore the second inmate executed in the state in a five-week period after a more than decade-long hiatus in the death penalty in South Carolina. Moore would also become the 21st inmate executed in the United States in 2024.

    The death sentence imposed by an all-white jury not only raises serious questions about whether Moore received fair treatment in the South Carolina court system, but his attorney argues that Moore was unarmed when he entered the store and wasn’t even there . to steal it.

    “This is not the worst of the worst,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, told USA TODAY. “This is not the cold-blooded, premeditated murder that you think of when you think of the death penalty.”

    Moore recently said he is praying for the forgiveness of Mahoney’s family.

    “I hate that it happened. I wish I could go back and change it,” Moore said through tears as part of her clemency request to the governor. “I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke up a family.”

    Here’s what you need to know about Moore’s execution, who he killed and why Moore’s trial judge, two jurors and the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections believe he deserves clemency from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

    Why was Richard Moore convicted?

    Moore was convicted of shooting and killing James Mahoney on September 16, 1999, at Nikki’s Speed ​​Mart in Spartanburg, a city in northern South Carolina.

    At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Moore confronted Mahoney with the intention of robbing Nikki’s, even though he was unarmed, according to trial coverage from the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

    It was Mahoney who pulled out a .45 caliber handgun, after which Moore overpowered and disarmed him. Moore then shot a customer, Mahoney pulled out another gun and a shootout ensued, prosecutors said. Mahoney was killed and Moore was hit in the left arm, the Greenville News reported.

    Moore ended up leaving the store with $1,400 in cash after spilling blood on Mahoney by running over him, and then tried to buy crack cocaine at a nearby house, prosecutors said.

    Moore’s attorney argues that he was not robbing the store and that a confrontation only arose after Moore was a few pennies short of paying for his purchases and refused to leave the store.

    The jury convicted Moore of murder and sentenced him to death.

    His execution had previously been scheduled twice. It was first scheduled for 2020, but South Carolina did not have the lethal injection drugs to carry it out. It was then scheduled for 2022, when Moore would be killed by firing squad, but his lawyers were able to delay it after challenging the constitutionality of the method.

    Who is Richard Moore?

    “Richard is a devout Christian father, grandfather and friend to many, who has reformed his life in the 25 years since his arrest,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, wrote in his clemency petition. “Like anyone who grows in their walk with Christ, Richard acknowledged the sins of his past and sought forgiveness for his mistakes and how they hurt others.”

    Moore’s two sons, now in their 30s, said in a clemency video that he has been a good father to them despite being behind bars since they were 4 and 6 years old.

    “I have always known my father to be a great father,” his daughter, Alexandria Moore, said in Moore’s clemency request to McMaster. “That’s the only photo I have of him, since he’s given me a tremendous amount of love. He’s never made me feel anything other than incredibly loved and special and I’m grateful for that.”

    Moore began painting in prison and likes to do landscapes, Vann said.

    At the time of the crime, Vann said in the clemency petition that Moore “was a man who loved his family and wanted to support them, but who also struggled with a drug addiction that had plagued him since his teenage years growing up in the suburbs of “Detroit. Michigan.”

    He said addiction cost Mahoney his life and Moore’s freedom, but that Moore was “finally able to break free” of his addiction in prison and has led a good, clean life behind bars.

    “We, neither Richard nor his attorney, seek to minimize the immense pain and suffering that the Mahoney family has experienced over the past 25 years,” he wrote. “His life was cut short and his family lost him forever. But Richard’s death will not undo that damage. Rather, it would remove a loving and caring presence from the lives of his family and loved ones.”

    During the penalty phase of Moore’s trial, prosecutor Trey Gowdy told jurors that Moore had repeatedly assaulted several women over the years and had previously been convicted on weapons and robbery charges in the 1980s.

    Michelle Crowder testified that Moore punched her in the neck in 1991 and repeatedly kicked her in the head and back while trying to steal her purse. She then brutally beat her fiancé, who had come to her rescue, she testified.

    “He’s had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity,” Gowdy said. “James Mahoney didn’t stand a chance.”

    Other voices calling for a pardon for Richard Moore

    Among those who believe Moore’s life should be spared in favor of a life sentence include his trial judge, two jurors and the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to Moore’s pardon package for McMaster. .

    “I hope Governor McMaster gives Richard the rest of his life to continue investing in the lives of others,” he said. Jon Ozmintwho believes in the death penalty and is the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which carries out executions in the state.

    “He’s a changed man,” Ozmint said.

    Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who imposed the death penalty, also asked McMaster to grant clemency.

    “Over the years, I have studied the case of every person residing on death row in South Carolina,” he wrote. “Moore’s case is unique, and after years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask that you grant executive clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy.”

    Who is James Mahoney?

    Mahoney’s family has not responded to an interview request made through the state Attorney General’s Office.

    They testified in court during the penalty phase of Moore’s trial that Mahoney, 42, was a loving uncle and an avid NASCAR fan.

    “I miss his future with us,” Kathy Pinson, Mahoney’s younger sister, said through tears. “I miss the holidays. I miss him coming to visit me on Sundays… to hear him knock on my back door and say, ‘Hey sister, what’s for dinner?’ “I’ll never hear that again.”

    When is Richard Moore’s execution?

    Moore will die by lethal injection at 6 pm ET on Friday at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.

    The Supreme Court of the United States denied Moore’s request to stay the execution on Thursday.

    The final means of reprieve for Moore lies with McMaster.

    Contributing: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II

    Sakege
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