‘Not the worst of the worst’: Richard Moore set for execution in South Carolina on Friday

Moore’s attorney describes a formerly addicted man who is now a devout Christian, a good father and a changed man. Only the governor can stop the execution now.

The last Black man on South Carolina’s death row to be convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury, according to his attorney, is set to be executed for killing a convenience store clerk during an alleged robbery in 1999.

Richard Moore is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Friday for the death of James Mahoney. If it moves forward, that will make Moore the second inmate executed in the state in a five-week period following a more than decade-long break in the death penalty in South Carolina. Moore also would become the 21st inmate executed in the U.S. in 2024.

Not only does the death sentence imposed by an all-white jury raise serious questions about whether Moore got a fair shake in the South Carolina court system, his attorney argues that Moore was unarmed when he walked into the convenience store and wasn’t even there to rob it.

“This isn’t the worst of the worst,” his attorney, Lindsey Vann, told USA TODAY. “This isn’t the premeditated cold-blooded killing you think of when you think of the death penalty.”

Moore said recently that he prays for forgiveness from Mahoney’s family.

“I hate it happened. I wish I could go back and change it,” a tearful Moore said as part of his request for clemency to the governor. “I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke a family.”

Here’s what you need to know about Moore’s execution, who he killed and why Moore’s trial judge, two jurors and the former director of South Carolina’s corrections department all believe he deserves clemency from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

What was Richard Moore convicted of?

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

At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Moore confronted Mahoney with the intent to rob Nikki’s, even though he was unarmed, according to coverage of the trial from the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

It was Mahoney who drew a .45-caliber gun, after which Moore overpowered and disarmed him. Moore then shot a customer, Mahoney drew another gun, and a shootout ensued, prosecutors said. Mahoney was killed and Moore was hit in the left arm, the Greenville News reported.

Moore ended up leaving the store with $1,400 in cash after dripping blood on Mahoney while stepping over him, and then tried to buy crack cocaine at a nearby home, prosecutors said.

Moore’s attorney argues that he wasn’t robbing the store and a confrontation only arose after Moore was pennies short of being able to pay for his purchases and refused to leave the store.

The jury convicted Moore of murder and sentenced him to death.

He has previously been scheduled for execution twice. It was first scheduled in 2020, but South Carolina didn’t have the lethal injection drugs to carry it out. It was then scheduled for 2022, when Moore was set to be killed by a firing squad, but his attorneys were able to delay it after challenging the constitutionality of the method.

Who is Richard Moore?

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

Moore’s two children, who are now in their 30s, said in a clemency video that he has been a good father to them despite being behind bars since then were 4 and 6 years old.

“I have only ever known my dad as a great father,” his daughter, Alexandria Moore, said in Moore’s clemency request to McMaster. “That’s the only picture I have of him, as giving me copious amounts of love, he has never made me feel anything but incredibly loved and special and I’m grateful for that.”

Moore has taken up painting in prison and likes to do landscapes, Vann said.

Back when the crime happened, 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 of Detroit, Michigan.”

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

“We − neither Richard nor his counsel − do not seek to minimize the immense grief and suffering the Mahoney family has experienced over the past 25 years,” she wrote. “His life was cut short and his family lost him forever. But Richard’s death will not undo that harm. Instead, it would remove a loving and supportive presence from the lives of his family and loved ones.”

During the penalty phase of Moore’s trial, prosecutor Trey Gowdy told jurors that Moore had repeatedly assaulted multiple women over the years and had previously been convicted on weapons and burglary charges in the 1980s.

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

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

Other voices requesting reprieve for Richard Moore

Among those who believe Moore’s life should be spared in favor of life in prison include his trial judge, two jurors and the former director of South Carolina’s corrections department, according to Moore’s clemency package to McMaster.

“I hope that Governor McMaster will give Richard sort of the rest of his life to continue to pour into the lives of others,” said Jon Ozmint, who believes in the death penalty and is the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which carries out the state’s executions.

“He’s a changed man,” Ozmint said.

Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who imposed the death sentence, also asked McMaster to grant clemency.

“Over the years, I have studied the case of each person who resides on death row in South Carolina,” he wrote. “Moore’s case is unique, and after years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask that you grant executive clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy.”

Who is James Mahoney?

Mahoney’s family has not responded to a request for interviews made through the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

They testified in court during the penalty phase of Moore’s trial that the 42-year-old Mahoney was a doting uncle and an avid NASCAR fan.

“I miss his future with us,” Kathy Pinson, Mahoney’s younger sister, said through tears. “I miss the holidays. I miss him coming over on Sundays … to hear him knock on my back door and say, ‘Hey sis, what’s for supper?’ I’ll never hear that again.”

When is Richard Moore’s execution?

Moore is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET Friday at at the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Moore’s request for a stay of execution on Thursday.

The last means of a reprieve for Moore lies with McMaster.

Contributing: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II