Lawyer for death row prisoner criticizes “broken system”

SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX Carolina) – Hours before an Upstate man is set to be killed by lethal injection, his attorney spoke to FOX Carolina about why they believe he deserves mercy.

FOX Carolina reporter Brookley Cromer was selected as a media witness to Richard Moore's execution. He was convicted of the 1999 murder of James Mahoney, an employee at Nikki's Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County.

Several jurors and the judge in Moore's original case wrote petitions to Gov. Henry McMaster to save his life. Governor's clemency, which no South Carolina governor has granted in modern history, is Moore's last chance.

Otherwise, Moore will be executed Friday evening.

Lindsey Vann, the executive director of Justice360, said Moore recovered from drug addiction in prison and turned his life around.

“We have the person of Richard Moore, who has shown tremendous growth and reform in the time since he was sent to death row and has really demonstrated the rehabilitation that is the goal of our corrections department,” Vann said.

Vann also raised concerns about the way the death penalty is administered in South Carolina.

“It shows that our system is completely arbitrary,” she said. “There is no rhyme or reason to who gets the death penalty and who doesn’t. You know, if you take a look, you see so many really terrible cases that they don't even decide to seek the death penalty. I think of Todd Kohlhepp in Spartanburg, the same county where Richard Moore came from. They didn’t even seek the death penalty in this case, so I think that shows the system is broken.”

Kohlhepp, a serial killer who admitted to seven murders, was sentenced to life in prison.

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