COLUMBIA, S.C. – Richard Moore never meant to kill anyone the night he robbed a South Carolina convenience store and the Black man was convicted by a jury with no African Americans, his son and lawyers say as they fight to save the inmate from execution next month.
Moore went unarmed into a Spartanburg County store to rob it in 1999, took a gun from a clerk when it was pointed at him and fatally shot the clerk in the chest as the two struggled.
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The inmate's son, Lyndall Moore, said his father is now the only prisoner left on the state's death row convicted by a jury without any Black people.
“He's a human being who made mistakes,” Moore added. “And this particular mistake led to the death of another human being. But his sentence is completely disproportionate to the actual crime.”
Executions resume as Moore's supporters fight for his life
South Carolina ended a 13-year pause on executions last month with the lethal injection of Freddie Owens. Moore is set to be executed Nov. 1.
Moore's lawyers have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, saying a lower court should review whether it was fair that no African Americans were on the jury that considered Moore's fate in Spartanburg County, which was 20% Black in the 2000 U.S. Census.
They also hope Moore will become the first South Carolina inmate whose death sentence is commuted to life without parole since executions in the U.S. resumed in 1976.
Only South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster can grant clemency. A former prosecutor, McMaster didn't grant it for Owens and has said previously that he tends to trust juries and the court system.
But Moore's family and lawyers contend executing Moore is too harsh a punishment. In a state where the governor and prison director have made a priority of getting inmates to turn their lives around, Moore's spotless record behind bars and his reputation for helping other inmates merits a reprieve, they say.
“He’s very remorseful and sorry for the horrible, tragic decisions he made in his life. But he spent the past 20 years really trying to make up for that by loving the people he still has in his life," attorney Lindsey Vann said.
Prosecutors push for death penalty 25 years ago
Moore killed clerk James Mahoney, 40, a man with some disabilities who loved his family and tried to take care of co-workers.
The prosecutors in Moore's case included Trey Gowdy, a Republican who later served four terms in Congress, and Barry Barnette, currently the solicitor in Spartanburg County. Both have declined comment, with Gowdy saying the 1999 trial speaks for itself.
In asking the jury to sentence Moore to death, Gowdy reminded them of Moore's criminal record for stealing and robbing to gain drug money.
He focused on how after shooting Mahoney, Moore — also shot in the arm in the struggle — walked over the dying clerk's body looking for cash.
“The hopes and the goals and the dreams of a 40-year-old man are coming out of his heart, and the cold, wet drops of blood of a career criminal are dripping on his back,” Gowdy said. “There is a time for mercy, ladies and gentlemen. That time has come and gone.”
Defense team's problems with the original trial
Moore's supporters said the trial represents plenty that is wrong about the death penalty in South Carolina, how arbitrary it is because prosecutors can make political points by bringing a number of death penalty cases when the cases don't represent the worst of unrepentant, cruel and heinous criminals.
And then there is the problem of a jury without Black representation, Vann said.
“I’m really struck by the image that I’ve had of Richard’s trial where there’s a white prosecutor, white judge, white defense attorneys, an all-white jury and he’s the only person in the room who is African American and he’s being judged by a jury who has no one who looks like him," Vann said.
Moore has had two prior execution dates, both postponed at a time when the state only had the electric chair and a firing squad. Since then, lethal injection has been added as an option, aided by passage of a law allowing suppliers of lethal injection drugs to remain secret.
Urgent efforts as execution date looms
Lyndall Moore said the more people get to know his father, the more they realize what a tragedy it would be to take an awful thing Richard Moore did in killing a man and make it worse by taking someone who turned their life around and tried to give something back.
He said he hopes McMaster would take the time to really get to know his father, not just glance at a file on his desk.
“He's not some menacing figure. He’s just a regular dude. ... He’s had a lot of time to think about, to reflect on what's gotten him to this point. He’s very clearly, very obviously regretful of everything,” Lyndall Moore said.
Richard Moore told The Post and Courier of Charleston in 2022 that his lawyers advised him not to reach out to Mahoney's family, but if he did, he would let them know he is "truly, truly sorry that he died at the hands of my actions.”
“I am not the same person I was the night I took Mr. Mahoney’s life. I have grown. I feel as though I still have a story to tell," Moore said.