Jurors, Judge, and Former Prison System Director Plead for Clemency for Richard Moore

More than two dozen people, including two jurors, the trial judge, and the former director of the state corrections department, submitted lettersto South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster asking him to spare the life of Richard Moore, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection today.

In a clemency petitionfiled on Wednesday, counsel for Richard Moore, 59, wrote that he deeply regrets taking the life of James Mahoney, a clerk at a Spartanburg convenience store, in September 1999, when he was struggling with drug addiction.

"This is definitely part of my life I wish I could change. I took a life. I took someone's life. I broke the family of the deceased," Mr. Moore saidin a video interview submitted with his clemency petition. "I pray for the forgiveness of that particular family."

A Force for Good

Family members, friends, and others who have known and worked with Mr. Moore for years implored the governor to show mercy to a man who, as Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011, wrote, "has proven himself to be a reliable, consistent force for good, on death row."

The petition describes how Mr. Moore has worked to atone and repair the harm he caused, overcoming his drug addiction and seeking out ministers who guided him in deepening his faith. Since he was baptized in prison, he has mentored other men on death row and encouraged friends and family in their faith.

Mr. Moore stayed in his children's lives, helping them with homework through letters and phone calls, and supporting them as his daughter entered the Air Force and his son graduated as valedictorian of his high school and went on to earn a degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a loving grandfather who shares virtual visits with his two young granddaughters, who live in Spain. "Even with the physical distance," his daughter said, "he is very much here and a part of my girls' lives and my life."

Mr. Moore's son wrote that his father "has grown into a person committed to taking responsibility for his actions, and to doing his absolute best to lead a life of faith and good deeds." He asked the governor to grant his father's clemency request "so he can serve as an example to get those most at risk of going down a similar path and so he can play as much of a role as possible in the lives of his family."

With an exemplary record in prison-he's had no disciplinaries in the past two decades, his attorneys said-Mr. Moore stands out, even to seasoned corrections professionals. Mr. Ozmint, who supports the death penalty, recognized that in his rehabilitation, "our criminal justice system has already achieved its highest and most lofty purpose in the life of Richard Moore."

If his sentence were commuted to life in prison, Mr. Ozmint added, "His story and his manner of living would allow him to be an influential force for good in general population, with an ability to have a positive impact on the most recalcitrant and hopeless of young offenders."

After hearing about his rehabilitation, two of the jurors who originally sentenced him to death now support a life sentence for Mr. Moore. As juror Doris Robertson wrote, she "would support the decision to commute Mr. Moore's death sentence to life without the possibility of parole based on the work he has done to rehabilitate himself while incarcerated."

Our System Is Broken

Death is the ultimate punishment that is supposed to be reserved for a small subset of murders considered the "worst of the worst." Mr. Moore's petition argues his case does not meet that high bar because, unlike any other death penalty case in the state, "he did not plan to commit a murder, did not bring a weapon into the store, and reacted after being threatened with not one, but two guns already in the store."

There was no dispute that Mr. Moore was unarmed when he entered the convenience store, but the State alleged at trial that he took a gun from the clerk, fired at a customer, and then fatally shot the clerk in order to rob the store.

Mr. Moore has consistently maintained that he entered the store to make a purchase, but when he was 12 cents short, the clerk ordered him to get out and pulled a gun. Mr. Moore said he automatically reached for the gun, the two men struggled, and the pistol fired before he wrestled it away from the clerk, who pulled another gun and fired at Mr. Moore.

Shot through the arm, Mr. Moore sought cover and fired "blindly" from behind a pillar toward the clerk. He did not shoot at the customer, who was uninjured. After the shooting stopped, Mr. Moore admitted he went behind the counter and took a bag of money before leaving the store, according to the petition.

An expert crime scene analysis confirmed Mr. Moore's version of events, the petition notes, but his defense lawyers failed to present it at his 2001 trial.

Either way, current counsel argues the crime "does not rise to the level of the worst-of-the-worst because he did not enter the store armed."

Former South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn agreed, writing in a 2022 dissentthat this case demonstrates that "our system is broken."

"[E]ntering a convenience store unarmed falls well short of engaging in a cold, calculated, and premeditated murder," she wrote, adding that it "does not represent the 'worst of the worst' in terms of those murders reserved for the death penalty." In fact, she added, she could not find "any other case involving a defendant receiving the death penalty where he entered the place of business unarmed."

Justice Hearn supports commuting Mr. Moore's sentence, stating, "I do not believe Richard Moore deserves to die." The fact that he is facing execution, moreover, "tells [her] our system is not working as it should."

After likewise finding no similar case, the trial judge who originally sentenced Mr. Moore to death also called for clemency. Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary said he has "studied the case of each person who resides on death row in South Carolina" and finds "Moore's case is unique."

Mr. Ozmint, also a former prosecutor, wrote that "objectively reviewed, Richard's crime would never have been considered for the death penalty in most counties in our state."

He pointed to "the uncontested fact that Richard did not have a weapon when he entered the store where he shot Mr. Mahoney. So, even if he had planned to steal something from the store, he certainly did not plan to commit an armed robbery." This fact, along with Mr. Moore's rehabilitation, led Mr. Ozmint-for the first time ever-to recommend clemency.

Counsel for Mr. Moore also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution to review the claim that he was denied a fair trial when prosecutors struck all the Black prospective jurors. The Court has recognized that the potential for racial bias in a death penalty case is heightened when the defendant is Black and the victim is white, as in this case. The Court denied Mr. Moore's petition yesterday. He is the only Black man on South Carolina's death row convicted and sentenced by a jury with no Black jurors, according to The Post and Courier.

Human Beings Are Capable of Redemption

Mr. Moore's lawyers asked a federal judge to transfer clemency power to an impartial board or official, arguing Mr. McMaster could not be fair because he oversaw prosecutors on Mr. Moore's appeals as attorney general, and in 2022, when an execution date was set for Mr. Moore, the governor told reporters he had no intention of granting him clemency. A federal court deniedthat request, ruling that the governor has sole power to grant clemency.

If Richard Moore is executed, "we would not be ridding ourselves of a violent criminal nor a threat to others," his son wrote to the governor. "Rather, we would be losing a clear testament to the fact that human beings are capable of reflecting on and seeking redemption for their worst actions, and that a troubled past is not guarantee of a troubled future."

Mr. McMaster saidhe will not announce his decision until minutes before 6 pm EDT today, when the execution is scheduled to begin.

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