Moore’s attorney describes a former addict who is now a devout Christian, a good father and a changed man. Only the governor can now stop the execution.
The last black man on south carolina’s death row to be convicted by an all-white jury, according to his attorney set to run for killing a store clerk during an alleged robbery in 1999.
Richard Moore will be executed by lethal injection on Friday for the death of James Mahoney. If things move forward, it will be Moore the second prisoner executed in the state in a period of five weeks after a more than decade-long hiatus from the death penalty in South Carolina. Moore would be too the 21st prisoner executed in the US in 2024.
Not only does the death sentence imposed by an all-white jury raise serious questions about whether Moore was given a fair chance in South Carolina’s legal system, his attorney claims Moore was unarmed when he walked into the supermarket and wasn’t even there. to rob 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 forgiveness from Mahoney’s family.
“I hate that it happened. I wish I could go back and change it,” a tearful Moore said as part of his plea for clemency to the governor. ‘I took a life. I took someone’s life. I destroyed a family.’
Here’s what you need to know about Moore’s execution, who he killed and why Moore’s judge, two jurors and the former director of South Carolina’s corrections department all think he deserves clemency from Republican Governor Henry McMaster.
What was Richard Moore convicted of?
Moore was convicted of fatally shooting James Mahoney on September 16, 1999, at Nikki’s Speed Mart in Spartanburg, a city in northern South Carolina.
During the trial, prosecutors told jurors that Moore confronted Mahoney with the intention of robbing Nikki’s home even though he was unarmed, police said. coverage of the process from Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.
It was Mahoney who pulled a .45-caliber rifle, after which Moore overpowered and disarmed him. Moore then shot a customer, Mahoney pulled another gun and a gunfight ensued, prosecutors said. Mahoney was killed and Moore was hit in the left arm, the Greenville News reported.
Moore eventually left the store with $1,400 in cash after dripping blood on Mahoney while stepping over him, then tried to buy crack cocaine at a nearby home, prosecutors said.
Moore’s attorney argues that he did not rob the store and that a confrontation only occurred after Moore was a penny short of paying for his purchases and refused to leave the store.
The jury convicted Moore of murder and sentenced him to death.
He was previously executed twice. It was first scheduled in 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 postpone it after challenging the constitutionality of the method.
Who is Richard Moore?
“Richard is a devoted Christian father, grandfather and friend to many who has turned his life around in the 25 years since his arrest,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, wrote in his clemency petition. “Like anyone growing in their walk with Christ, Richard acknowledged the sins of his past and has sought forgiveness for his mistakes and the ways they have hurt others.”
Moore’s two children, now in their 30s, said in a clemency video that he has been a good father to them, despite having since been behind bars when he was four and six years old.
“I have only known my father to be a wonderful father,” his daughter, Alexandria Moore, said in Moore’s clemency petition for McMaster. “That’s the only picture I have of him. He gives me so much love. He has never made me feel anything but incredibly loved and special and I’m grateful for that.”
Moore took up painting in prison and enjoys creating landscapes, Vann said.
When the crime occurred, Vann said in the pardon 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 outside Detroit.” Michigan.”
She said the addiction cost Mahoney’s life and Moore’s freedom, but Moore was “finally able to escape” his addiction in prison and has lived a good, clean life behind bars.
“We – neither Richard nor his counsel – are not attempting to downplay the immense grief and suffering the Mahoney family has experienced over the past 25 years,” she wrote. “His life was cut short and his family lost him forever. But Richard’s death will not undo that damage. Instead, it would remove a loving and supportive 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 multiple women over the years and had previously been convicted in the 1980s on gun and burglary charges.
Michelle Crowder testified that Moore punched her in the neck and repeatedly kicked her in the head and back in 1991 when he tried to steal her purse. He then severely assaulted her fiancé, who had come to her aid, she testified.
“He’s had chance after chance after chance,” Gowdy said. “James Mahoney didn’t have a chance.”
Other voices are calling for a reprieve for Richard Moore
Those who believe Moore’s life should be spared in favor of life in prison include his judge, two jurors and the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to Moore’s clemency package to McMaster.
“I hope Governor McMaster will give Richard the rest of his life to continue pouring into the lives of others,” he said. Jon Ozmintwho believes in the death penalty and is a former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which carries out the state’s executions.
“He is a changed man,” Ozmint said.
Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who imposed the death penalty, also asked McMaster for leniency.
“Over the years, I have studied the case of every person on death row in South Carolina,” he wrote. “Moore’s case is unique, and after years of thought and consideration, I humbly ask that you grant clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy.”
Who is James Mahoney?
Mahoney’s family did not respond to a request for interviews through the state attorney general’s office.
They testified in court during the penalty phase of Moore’s trial that the 42-year-old Mahoney 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 over on Sundays… hearing him knock on my back door and say, ‘Hey sis, what’s for dinner?’ I’ll never hear that again.”
When is Richard Moore’s execution?
Moore will die by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday at 6:00 PM ET.
The US Supreme Court denied Moore’s request for a stay of execution on Thursday.
The final recourse to grant Moore a reprieve lies with McMaster.
Contributions: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II