S Carolina executes Richard Moore despite plea to cut sentence to life

South Carolina put Richard Moore to death by lethal injection Friday for the 1999 fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk, despite a broad appeal for mercy by parties that included three jurors and the judge from his trial, a former prison director, pastors and the his family.

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

Moore was convicted of killing the Spartanburg convenience store clerk in September 1999 and sentenced to death two years later. Moore went into the store unarmed, took a gun from the victim when it was pointed at him and fatally shot him in the chest as the victim shot him with a second gun in the arm.

Moore's lawyers asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to reduce his sentence to life in prison without parole because of his spotless prison record and 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 unfair that Moore, who is Black, was the only inmate on the state's death row convicted by a jury without any African Americans.

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

Three jurors who condemned Moore to death in 2001, including one who wrote Friday, sent letters asking McMaster to change his sentence to life without parole. They were joined by a former state prison director, Moore's trial judge, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several pastors.

They all said Moore is a changed man who loves God, dotes on his new grandchildren the best he can, helps guards keep the peace and mentors other prisoners after his addiction to drugs clouded his judgment and led to the shootout in which James Mahoney was killed, according to the clemency petition.

Moore's son and daughter said he has remained engaged in their lives. He once asked them about schoolwork and gave advice in letters. He now has grandchildren whom he sees on video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm to them if Moore is removed from their lives.

Even though my father has been away, that still has not stopped him from making a big impact on my life, a positive impact, said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force at her father's encouragement.

She said her 5-year-old daughter asks, Is that Pa Pa? when the phone rings at their home at a military base in Spain.

He is a great man, and I want her to know her grandfather as the man that he is, she said.