The children of a South Carolina man on death row are pleading for clemency days before his scheduled execution, in a case that advocates and a state supreme court justice say should not be eligible for capital punishment.
Richard Moore, 59, is due to be killed by lethal injection on Friday despite growing concerns about racial bias in his conviction and the highly unusual nature of his death sentence.
Moore, who is Black, was convicted by an all-white jury of an armed robbery and murder of a white convenience store clerk in 1999. Moore, however, was unarmed when he entered the store. The man working the counter, James Mahoney, pulled a gun on him, and as they scuffled, both men were shot – Moore in the arm, and Mahoney fatally in the chest.
Moore’s attorneys say he was defending himself, and under the modern death penalty in the last 50 years, no one in South Carolina has been executed for a robbery that began unarmed. Experts say his sentence was a product of discriminatory proceedings and violated legal standards stipulating executions be reserved for the most serious murders.
“He has always made an effort to be there for us and be a presence in our lives,” his son, Lyndall Moore, 30, told the Guardian. “He’s a human being. He made some mistakes, but he’s not a menace. He’s not a monster. There is no gain in allowing the state to take his life, it doesn’t make anything better … He’s a changed man. He deserves to keep living. We want him here.”
The looming execution comes amid rising opposition to the death penalty surrounding recent cases. South Carolina had not executed anyone in 13 years, but resumed killings last month, starting with Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, 46, killed after the state’s lead witness said he lied at trial and Allah was innocent. Days later, Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, even though prosecutors backed his wrongful conviction claims. And in Texas earlier this month, Robert Roberson was minutes away from execution when the state supreme court intervened amid widespread support of his innocence.
Moore’s story reveals numerous flaws with the death penalty, advocates say.
A death sentence deemed ‘invalid’
Moore grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan, during the crack cocaine epidemic and struggled with addiction from a young age, his attorneys said.
The exact circumstances of the shooting on 16 September 1999 are unclear as there was no footage. Prosecutors relied on one witness inside, who testified he heard an argument and saw Moore with his hands on the clerk’s hands and that Moore pointed a gun and fired in his direction. The witness, who was not hit, said he played dead and did not see the rest of the encounter, but heard shots.
Moore has said he was trying to make a purchase, but was short on change, and when he refused to leave, the clerk pulled his gun, leading to the struggle: “He has always maintained that he did not go in intending to rob the store or kill anyone and this was simply a reaction to being threatened,” said Lindsey Vann, one of his attorneys.
A forensic investigator hired by the defense reviewed crime scene evidence and concluded in 2017 that the first shot was fired while they were both struggling over the gun. There’s no dispute that Moore arrived unarmed; Mahoney carried a gun on him and the store had two firearms behind the counter.
After the shooting, Moore took cash from the store.
In 2021, Moore’s lawyers argued before the state supreme court that his death sentence was disproportionate. Out of 183 people sentenced to death in the state since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated, there has been no comparable case of a deadly robbery that began unarmed.
The court rejected the arguments. But in a dissent, Justice Kaye Hearn said Moore’s sentence was “invalid” and “disproportionate”, noting prosecutors’ “stunning admission” that they couldn’t identify a single similar case: “Richard Moore will be put to death for a sentence that I do not believe is legal.”
His case doesn’t qualify as the “worst of the worst” reserved for execution, she said: “Moore’s case highlights many of the pitfalls endemic to the death penalty, beginning with the role race plays … Moore’s death sentence is a relic of a bygone era, where he was convicted by a jury comprised of eleven Caucasians and one Hispanic.” (Moore’s attorneys say records show the Hispanic juror identified as white.)
Hearn also noted “alarming” disparities in Spartanburg county, where he was prosecuted. From 1985 to 2001, out of 21 death penalty cases, all but one involved white victims. And in the span of eight years, prosecutors sought capital punishment in 43% of eligible cases involving white victims, but in none with a Black victim.
In a recent US supreme court petition, Moore’s team argued prosecutors unlawfully removed two qualified Black jurors.
He is the only remaining person on South Carolina death row convicted by an all-white jury.
One of Moore’s prosecutors was Trey Gowdy, who later served in Congress and led investigations into Hillary Clinton, and is now a Fox News host. Gowdy, elected prosecutor in 2001, said in an email his predecessor had initially chosen to seek the death penalty, adding “murder committed during the commission of a robbery” was “sufficient justification” for execution. He said no trial or appellate court ruled that he struck a juror based on race during his career.
Spartanburg county’s prosecutor declined to comment, and the state attorney general’s office did not respond to inquiries.
‘He lifts me up’
This is the third time Moore has had a scheduled execution. The last two were postponed as drug manufacturers stopped supplying lethal injections, fearing public backlash, and his attorneys challenged other proposed methods. South Carolina has been able to resume lethal injections this year after passing a law shielding suppliers’ identities.
This month, Moore was forced to choose an execution method, selecting lethal injection, instead of electrocution or firing squad. His last hope is with the US supreme court and Republican governor, Henry McMaster, who could grant clemency, a step no South Carolina governor has taken for any death row defendant in decades. Two jurors from his trial wrote letters supporting his clemency petition this month.
His daughter, Alexandria Moore, 31, said he’d worked hard to be a devoted father since he was incarcerated when she was six: “Despite everything, he has remained my dad. That has not gone away and it never will.” She recalled him teaching him Spanish and sending word puzzles and drawings through the mail when she was young. Her brother said he learned multiplication through his dad’s letters.
They’ve only ever been able to visit him behind glass.
Alexandria now has a five-year-old daughter and a newborn, and her father has had regular video visits with his grandkids: “Even with the physical distance, he is very much here and a part of my girls’ lives and my life. My daughter dances for him and shows him her toys.”
“He deserves a fair chance. He deserves to be heard. People forget that people who are incarcerated are still human,” she continued. “These people are not just a number, not just an inmate, they are people with families and stories and they still deserve justice ... The death penalty is inhumane.”
Moore has leaned into his faith and painting over the years and connects with pen pals and friends around the world, his family said.
“He really works to keep his people supported,” said Vann, who has represented him for a decade, recounting his efforts to help a pen pal who suffered a death in the family. “He’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever known. Even when I’m so disappointed in a [ruling], he’ll remind me to stay positive, that we’ve still got more fight left in us and that he’s grateful for the advocacy our office has provided. He lifts me up when I should be the one supporting him.”
In recent phone conversations with his children, they’ve tried to hold on to optimism, his son said: “He’s cherishing the life he has and being hopeful.”
As the execution date nears, Alexandria said she’d been thinking of the saying: “People won’t remember what you did for them, they’ll remember how they made you feel.”
“I will always be a daddy’s girl, and that’s not because of what he’s done, it’s how he’s made me feel,” she said. “He has left and will continue to leave such a positive mark all over the world.”
