South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite a widely supported plea to reduce the sentence to life in prison

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina set Richard Moore put to death by lethal injection on Friday for the 1999 fatal shooting of a store clerk, despite widespread calls for mercy from parties including three jurors and the judge of his trial, a former prison warden, pastors and his family.

Moore, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m

Moore was convicted of murdering the Spartanburg store clerk in September 1999 and sentenced to death two years later. Moore entered the store unarmed, grabbed a gun from the victim when it was pointed at him and fatally shot him in the chest while the victim shot him with a second gun in the arm.

Moore’s attorneys asked Republican Governor Henry McMaster to reduce his sentence to life without parole because of his spotless criminal record and his willingness to be a mentor to other inmates. They also said it would be unjust to execute someone for what could be considered self-defense, and that it would be unfair that Moore, who is black, was the only state death row inmate tried by a jury without an Afro Americans had been convicted.

But McMaster refused to grant clemency. No South Carolina governor has reduced the death sentence, and 45 executions have been carried out since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restart executions nearly 50 years ago.

Unlike previous executions, the death chamber curtain was open when media witnesses arrived. Moore’s final words had already been read by Lindsey Vann, his attorney of 10 years.

Moore had his eyes closed and his head toward the ceiling. A prison official announced that the execution could begin at 6:01 p.m. Moore took several deep breaths over the next minute, which sounded like snoring. Then he took a few shallow breaths until about four past six, when his breathing stopped.

Vann cried when the employee announced that the execution could begin. She was holding a prayer bracelet with a cross. Beside her sat a spiritual advisor, his hands on his knees, palms up. Vann held a prayer bracelet with a cross.

Two members of the victims’ family were also present, along with attorney Barry Barnette, who was part of the prosecution team that convicted Moore. They all looked stoic.

Three jurors who sentenced Moore to death in 2001, including one who wrote Friday: letters sent asks McMaster to change his sentence to life without parole. They were accompanied by a former state prison warden, Moore’s judge, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several ministers.

They all said Moore, 59, was a changed man who loved God, doted on his new grandchildren as much as he could, helped guards keep the peace and mentored other inmates after his addiction to drugs clouded his judgment and led to the shootout in which James Mahoney was killed, according to the pardon request.

Moore previously had two performance dates postponed while the state resolved issues that caused a thirteen-year hiatus in 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 is the second prisoner executed in South Carolina since it resumed executions. Four others have no further appeal and the state appears prepared to put them to death five-week intervals through the spring. There are now thirty people on death row.

The governor said before the execution that he would carefully review everything Moore’s lawyers sent and, as usual, wait until a few minutes before the execution was to begin to announce his decision once he heard over the phone that all appeals have been completed.

“Clemency is a matter of grace, a matter of mercy. There is no standard. There is no real law on it,” McMaster told reporters Thursday.

In an interview for a video accompanying his clemency petition, Moore expressed regret over Mahoney’s murder.

“This is definitely a part of my life that I would like to change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I have broken the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I pray for the forgiveness of that particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s relatives did not speak publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, family members have said they have suffered deeply and that justice is being served.

Moore’s attorneys said his original attorneys did not carefully analyze the crime scene and left unchallenged prosecutors’ claim that Moore, who entered the store unarmed, shot a customer and that his intent from the start was robbery.

According to their story, the clerk pulled a gun on Moore after the two argued because he was 12 cents short of what he wanted to buy.

Moore said he wrestled the gun from Mahoney’s hand and the clerk pulled a second gun. Moore was shot in the arm and returned fire, hitting Mahoney in the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $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 served as director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011 and who added his voice to those seeking clemency, said Moore’s case was not the worst crime that would usually trigger a death penalty trial .

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

Lawyers for Moore, who is black, also said his trial was not fair. There were no African Americans on the jury, even though 20% of Spartanburg County residents were black.

Moore’s son and daughter said he remained involved in their lives. He once asked them about school work and gave advice in letters. He now has grandchildren whom he sees via video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm they would experience if Moore were removed from their lives.

“Even though my father has been gone, that still doesn’t stop him from having a big impact on my life, a positive impact,” said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force with her father’s encouragement.