South Carolina sets the execution for Nov. 1 as the state increases use of the death chamber

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Friday set Nov. 1 as the execution date for a man who killed a store clerk a quarter-century ago, stepping up the state's second of an expected six executions in about six months the use of the death penalty after a 13-year break.

Richard Moore entered Nikki's Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County unarmed in September 1999 to rob him and killed James Mahoney in a shootout after taking one of two guns from him, authorities said. Moore, a black man, is the only man on South Carolina's death row to be convicted by a non-African American jury.

Moore's attorney said South Carolina has never executed anyone in modern times who was initially unarmed and then defended himself when threatened with a weapon.

“Moore’s execution would not be an act of justice; it would be a random act of revenge. Moore is not the “worst of the worst” who should receive the death penalty. Instead, his death sentence is based on racial discrimination that the justice system has failed to correct,” attorney Lindsey Vann said in a statement.

Once one of the states with the highest rate of executions, South Carolina has struggled for years to obtain drugs for lethal injections because drug companies feared they would have to disclose that they had sold the drugs to officials.

The state legislature has since passed a law allowing officials to keep lethal injection suppliers secret, and in July the state Supreme Court cleared the way for executions to resume.

Freddie Owens was executed by lethal injection on September 20, when the death chamber was reopened for executions of prisoners who had been deprived of regular appeals during the break. Four other inmates also no longer have the opportunity to appeal, and the state Supreme Court allows one execution every five weeks. Judges issue death sentences on Fridays, and the court was closed a week ago as the remnants of Hurricane Helene moved through the state.

Moore will likely have the choice of dying by lethal injection, electrocution or the newly added option of a firing squad. According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, a Utah inmate in 2010 became the last person executed by firing squad in the United States.

The prison director has until next week to confirm that all three methods of execution will be available. He must also provide Moore's lawyers with evidence that the lethal injection drug is stable and correctly mixed, according to the Supreme Court's 2023 interpretation of the state's execution secrecy law that helped close the door to South Carolina's death chamber to reopen.

South Carolina previously used a three-drug mix, but now one drug, the sedative pentobarbital, is used for lethal injections, a protocol similar to executions carried out by the federal government.

Moore, 59, will then have about a week to tell the state how he wants to be killed. If he doesn't make a choice, the state will send him to the electric chair by default. In 2022, Moore opted for the firing squad, but that was before lethal injection was available. Court disputes then pushed back his execution date to April 2022.

Moore plans to ask Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for clemency and reduce his sentence to life in prison without parole. No South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of the death penalty.

The defense attorneys have also begun their final appeals. Vann said prosecutors asked potential black jurors extensive and varied questions and then struck the two African-Americans who remained in the jury pool for reasons that did not apply to white potential jurors.

Moore's lawyers said his death sentence was unfair because Moore did not intend to kill anyone and acted in self-defense.

Moore told investigators he went into the store unarmed and looked for money for cocaine. According to court testimony, Mahoney pointed a gun at Moore and he wrestled the gun away from the employee.

Mahoney pulled out a second gun and the men shot at each other. Moore was wounded in the arm and Mahoney was shot in the chest. Prosecutors said Moore left a trail of blood inside the store as he searched for cash, stepping over Mahoney twice in the process.

Moore has no violations on his prison record and offered to work toward the rehabilitation of other prisoners while he remains behind bars.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, South Carolina has executed 44 prisoners. In the early 2000s, an average of three executions were carried out there per year. Nine states have executed more prisoners.

But since the accidental pause in executions, the number of death row inmates in South Carolina has declined. There were 63 convicted inmates in the state at the beginning of 2011. There are currently 31. About 20 prisoners were released from death row and received various prison sentences after successful appeals. Others died of natural causes.

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