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Richard Moore executed in South Carolina: “I took a life”

Moore's death sentence, handed down by an all-white jury more than 20 years ago, raised questions about whether he was justified during his trial in the shooting death of a supermarket employee

South Carolina executed Richard Moore on Friday for the 1999 shooting death of a supermarket employee.

Moore, 59, was executed by lethal injection and declared dead at 6:24 p.m. ET after making a series of unsuccessful arguments before Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and the U.S. Supreme Court, among others. According to his attorney, he was the last black man on South Carolina's death row to be convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.

Not only does the death sentence handed down by an all-white jury raise serious questions about whether Moore was given a fair chance in the South Carolina court system, his attorney also argues that Moore was unarmed when he entered the supermarket and wasn't even there rob it.

“This is not the worst of the worst,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, told USA TODAY this week. “This is not the premeditated, cold-blooded killing that you think of when you think of the death penalty.”

After the execution, his legal team at Justice 360 ​​said in a statement that Moore's execution “underscores the flaws in South Carolina's death penalty system.”

“Who is executed and who gets to spend their life in prison seems to depend only on chance, race or status,” they said. “It is intolerable that our state would mete out the ultimate punishment in such an arbitrary manner.”

Here's what you need to know about Friday's execution.

What was Richard Moore convicted of?

Moore was convicted of fatally shooting James Mahoney on September 16, 1999, at Nikki's Speed ​​Mart in Spartanburg, a city in northern South Carolina.

At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Moore confronted Mahoney about intending to rob Nikki's even though he was unarmed, according to coverage of the trial by the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

It was Mahoney who pulled out a .45 caliber gun, whereupon Moore subdued and disarmed him. Moore then shot a customer, Mahoney pulled out another gun and a shootout ensued, prosecutors said. Mahoney was killed and Moore was struck in the left arm, the Greenville News reported.

Moore eventually left the store with $1,400 in cash after dripping blood on Mahoney as he climbed over him and then tried to buy crack cocaine at a nearby house, prosecutors said.

Moore's attorney argues that he did not rob the store, and a confrontation only occurred when Moore was only able to pay a few cents for his purchases and refused to leave the store.

Moore recently said he was praying for forgiveness from Mahoney's family.

“I hate that it happened. I wish I could go back and change it,” Moore said tearfully in his clemency petition to the governor. “I took a life. I took someone's life. I destroyed a family.”

What were Richard Moore's last words and last meal?

Before lethal drugs flowed through Moore's body, his final words were an apology to Mahoney's family.

“I am deeply sorry for the pain and grief I have caused you all,” he said.

“To my children and granddaughters: I love you and am so proud of you,” Moore continued. “Thank you for the joy you have brought into my life. To all my friends, family and friends, new and old, thank you for your love and support.”

Moore's last meal consisted of a steak, fried catfish and shrimp, scalloped potatoes, green peas, broccoli with cheese, sweet potato pie, chocolate cake and grape juice.

Who was Richard Moore?

Moore was “a devoted Christian father, grandfather and friend to many who transformed his life in the 25 years since his arrest,” his attorney Lindsey Vann wrote in her clemency petition. “Like anyone growing in their walk with Christ, Richard recognized the sins of his past and asked for forgiveness for his mistakes and how they hurt others.”

Moore's two children, now in their 30s, said in a clemency video that he had been a good father to them even though he had been in prison since then, when they were 4 and 6 years old.

“I have always known my father to be nothing but a great father,” his daughter Alexandria Moore said in Moore’s clemency petition to McMaster. “That’s the only picture I have of him. He gives me a lot of love, he has never made me feel anything other than incredibly loved and special and I am grateful for that.”

At the time of the crime, Vann said in the clemency petition that Moore was “a man who loved his family and wanted to support them, but who also struggled with a drug addiction that had plagued him since his teenage years growing up outside Detroit.” , plagued. Michigan.”

She said that addiction cost Mahoney his life and Moore's freedom, but that in prison Moore was able to “finally break free of his addiction” and live a good, clean life behind bars.

During the penalty phase of Moore's trial, prosecutor Trey Gowdy told jurors that Moore had repeatedly assaulted several women over the years and had previous convictions for weapons and burglary in the 1980s.

Michelle Crowder testified that in 1991, Moore punched her in the neck and repeatedly kicked her in the head and back as he tried to steal her purse. He then brutally beat her fiancé, who had come to her aid, she testified.

“He had opportunity after opportunity,” Gowdy said. “James Mahoney had no chance.”

In Justice 360's statement after the execution, Moore's legal team said that “South Carolina needlessly took the life of a loving father and grandfather, a faithful friend and a devoted follower of Christ.”

“The state has removed a shining example of reform and recovery,” they said. “By killing Richard, the state also created more victims. Richard's children are now fatherless and his grandchildren will have to grow up without their 'Pa Pa'.”

Others who asked for reprieve for Richard Moore

Those who believe Moore's life should have been spared in favor of a life sentence include his trial judge, two jurors and the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to Moore's clemency package to McMaster.

“He is a changed man,” wrote Jon Ozmint, a death penalty believer and former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which carries out the state’s executions.

Retired District Court Judge Gary Clary, who handed down the death sentence, also called on McMaster to grant clemency “as an act of grace and mercy.”

McCaster rejected the clemency request late Friday without giving a reason. Moore was executed shortly afterwards.

Featuring: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II

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