Prisoner tries to postpone pardon decision | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed in just over three weeks is asking a federal judge to take away the governor’s power to grant clemency and place it at a to be placed on parole.

South Carolina’s constitution gives the governor the exclusive right to spare a prisoner’s life, and attorneys for Gov. Henry McMaster said he intends to preserve that right.

Lawyers for Richard Moore argue that McMaster cannot fairly consider the inmate’s request to reduce his death sentence to life without parole because he served as the state’s chief prosecutor for eight years beginning in 2003 and oversaw attorneys working with successfully fought to uphold Moore’s death sentence.

“For Moore to receive clemency, McMaster would have to give up years of his own work and that of his former colleagues at the Attorney General’s Office,” the attorneys wrote in asking a federal judge to stay the execution until the case can be fully investigated. completed. dissolved.

McMaster has taken a tough stance on crime and has said in the past that he opposes parole. The governor said in 2022 that he had no intention of commuting Moore’s sentence while an execution date was possible, Moore’s attorneys said in court papers filed Monday.

Lawyers for McMaster said he has not made a decision on whether to grant clemency to Moore, and courts have repeatedly said that attorneys general who become governor do not give up their right to decide whether to overrule the death penalty.

Currently, nine states, including South Carolina, are governed by former attorneys general. Among the top prosecutors cited by the state who later became governors and made clemency decisions is former President Bill Clinton in Arkansas.

“Moore’s claims are based on the underlying assumption that the governor will not commute his death sentence. Whatever the Governor ultimately decides, that decision is his,” McMaster’s attorneys wrote.

A hearing on Moore’s request is scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in Columbia.

Moore, 59, faces the death penalty for the September 1999 shooting of store clerk James Mahoney. Moore entered the Spartanburg County store unarmed to rob it, and the two ended up in a shootout after Moore was able to grab one of Mahoney’s guns. Moore was wounded, while Mahoney died from a bullet to the chest.

Moore did not call 911. Instead, his blood drops were found on Mahoney when he stepped over the clerk and stole money from the register.

State law gives Moore until Oct. 18 to decide whether to be electrocuted by default. His execution would be the second in South Carolina after a 13-year hiatus because the state was unable to obtain a drug needed for lethal injection.

No South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of capital punishment. McMaster has said he judges each case on its merits after a thorough review.

Moore’s lawyers have said he is an ideal candidate to receive a life sentence because he is a mentor to his fellow inmates.

“Over the past two decades, Moore has worked to right his tragic wrongs by being a loving and supportive father, grandfather and friend. He has an exemplary criminal record,” they wrote.

McMaster has said he will follow a long-standing tradition in South Carolina and wait until minutes before an execution is scheduled to take place to announce whether he will grant clemency in a phone call that prison officials make to see if there are any last calls or other reasons to spare a man. the prisoner’s life.

And his lawyers said his decision on whether to spare Moore’s life will be made under a different set of circumstances than his decision to fight to have Moore’s death penalty upheld on appeal.

“Clemency is an act of mercy,” the governor’s lawyers wrote. “Mercy is given to someone who does not deserve reprieve, so granting clemency in no way requires the decision maker to ‘abandon’ their previous work.”