Richard Moore was executed on Friday by lethal injection for the murder of James Mahoney, a Spartanburg County store clerk. Following a 13-year hiatus, Moore, 59, becomes the second person to die in South Carolina in just over a month.
Despite pleas for mercy from three of the jurors who convicted Moore, the judge who sentenced him, and the former commissioner of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, who got to know Moore while he was on death row, Moore’s execution took place at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time on Friday.
Moore is believed to be the only executed armed robber in South Carolina history who did not bring the deadly weapon to the crime scene. The jury sentenced him to death after removing all Black jurors.
Former South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn, in a rare dissent to a 2022 opinion sustaining Moore’s sentence, called Moore’s sentence “disproportionate,” his conviction by a largely all-white jury a “relic of a bygone era,” and proof “that our system of capital punishment is broken.”
However, last week, the United States Supreme Court declined to defer Moore’s execution to hear arguments about the unjust removal of Black jurors. A petition for clemency with over 50,000 signatures did not influence South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who stated that he decided against a pardon after researching the case and visiting with Mahoney’s family.
Moore’s lethal injection commenced at 6:01 p.m. Friday in the state death chamber at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
The execution was witnessed by two members of Mahoney’s family, Moore’s attorney Lindsey Vann, his spiritual adviser, three members of the media, a South Carolina Department of Corrections official, a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent, and Spartanburg Solicitor Barry Barnette, who assisted in Moore’s prosecution in 2001.
Moore added, “To the family of Mr. James Mahoney, I am profoundly sorry for the hurt and suffering I have caused you all. I love and am very proud of my children and grandkids. Thank you for the joy you have brought into my life.
“To all of my family and friends—new and old—thank you for your love and support.”
After the statement was delivered and the media witnesses were allowed into the room, prison officials in another room administered a single shot of pentobarbital, a potent sedative that can cause breathing to stop in high quantities, via an intravenous line connected to Moore’s left arm. The media witnesses were Joseph Bustos of The State Media Co.
Witnesses described Moore strapped to a gurney and covered in a blanket as the lethal substance entered his body. He closed his eyes and faced the ceiling. Within a minute of the execution, witnesses reported hearing four to six deep gasps. Then his breathing became shallow. At 6:04 p.m., witnesses stated that Moore’s chest had stopped moving.
Witnesses reported that the killing chamber remained silent for the following 20 minutes. Barnette and Mahoney’s family members stared straight ahead. At 6:24 p.m., a jail medical specialist declared Moore dead.
Outside, some 40 people, including Moore’s attorney, death penalty opponents, and clergy, conducted a prayer vigil.
According to Chrysti Shain, director of communications for the Department of Corrections, his final dinner was a medium-cooked steak, fried catfish and shrimp, scalloped potatoes, green peas, broccoli with cheese, sweet potato pie, German chocolate cake, and grape juice. They served it at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Moore, an unemployed father of two who had suffered with crack addiction for years, shot and murdered Mahoney during an incident at Nikki’s Speed Mart, an all-night store near Spartanburg.
Moore entered the store as the 42-year-old cashier, a devoted son and uncle who adored NASCAR, was watching TV behind the counter.
Prosecutors claim Moore, who was unarmed, was robbing the store to support his addiction. Moore has repeatedly stated that he was there to purchase beer and cigarettes. When he came up short by 12 cents, an argument erupted about whether he may use coins from the change cup.
Mahoney produced a gun, which the larger Moore took from his grasp. A witness claimed Moore fired a gun at him, but Moore’s defenders argue forensics show it was the clerk who fired the first shot. Mahoney pulled a second gun, and the two men exchanged gunfire at close range.
Mahoney shot Moore in the heart, killing him.
Moore exited the business, dripping blood and carrying $1,408 in cash. Minutes later, police apprehended him after he struck a telephone pole with his pickup.
“I did it, I did it; I give up, I give up,” Moore told the officer on the scene.
Prosecutors excluded all eligible Black jurors from the jury pool, leading to Moore’s conviction in 2001. After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury sentenced him to death.
Moore’s execution has sparked issues about the fairness of the death penalty in South Carolina. Former Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who presided over Moore’s trial and sentenced him to death, stated in a letter requesting clemency that Moore’s situation was “unique” among South Carolina’s death row convicts.
Following Moore’s execution, state Senator Josh Kimbrell, a Spartanburg Republican, issued a statement denouncing the punishment. While Moore’s acts were horrific, Kimbrell noted that they did not compare to those of Alex Murdaugh, the Lowcountry lawyer who killed his wife and kid in a premeditated attack to conceal millions of dollars in embezzlement, or Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons. Both Smith and Murdaugh did not receive death sentences, and Smith will be eligible for parole later this month.
Kimbrell argued that capital punishment should be used “fairly, consistently, and in cases that truly meet the threshold of society’s most heinous crimes.” “Tonight’s execution of Richard Moore does not rise to that level.”
Who was Richard Moore?
Moore, a Michigan native with eight siblings, was the only one to graduate high school. However, an addiction to crack cocaine that he developed as a youngster sent him down a path of crime.
By 1999, South Carolina and Michigan had already convicted Moore of robbery and severe assault. He was on probation, recently unemployed, and has two children, ages 4 and 6.
Moore became a fervent Christian while in jail, devoted his time to mentoring other inmates, and began painting.
Moore remained active with his family over the years, according to his son Lyndall Moore, and encouraged his children not to make the same mistakes that he did.
“He’s not some sort of monster,” Lyndall said. “He’s just a guy who struggled, but always a guy with a good heart, you know, a normal guy trying to be a good father.”
He is a “reliable, consistent force for good, on death row,” wrote former South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Jon Ozmint. “Commutation would have a positive influence on hundreds of offenders who would be impacted by Richard’s story of redemption and his positive example.”
In urging clemency for Moore, Ozmint wrote, “Perhaps the most compelling reason to commute Richard’s sentence is precisely because he is at peace with whatever decision you reach.”