SC carries out the execution of Richard Moore, runner-up in 2024

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – Richard Moore was executed by lethal injection on Friday. Governor Henry McMaster denied the death row inmate a clemency request.

Moore was sentenced to death for the September 1999 death of James Mahoney, a Spartanburg supermarket employee.

In 1999, Moore entered the store unarmed – prosecutors allege he robbed it – while his lawyers claim a fight instead broke out between Moore and the clerk because he was missing change.

The two got into a shootout using the clerk's guns, Moore shot him and then left the store with stolen cash.

Moore's lawyers say his death sentence is an excessive punishment – and argue that he is also currently the only death row inmate in South Carolina to be convicted by an all-white jury.

McMaster's decision came after protesters handed him a petition signed by thousands calling on him to grant Moore clemency.

No South Carolina governor in modern history has granted clemency to a death row inmate.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Thursday to stop Moore's execution.

“Grace is a question of grace, a question of mercy. There is no standard. There is no real law about it. But as I've said all along and keep saying, I planned to check everything I can. … There is nothing insignificant about a death penalty case. I think they’re all a little different, but they’re all very serious considerations,” McMaster said before making his decision.

Moore is the second death row inmate to be executed in South Carolina. The first was Freddie Owens, who died by lethal injection on Friday, September 20th.

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