A South Carolina death row inmate must choose how his life will ultimately end – and he only has a little over a week to do so.
Richard Moore, 59, was issued the maximum sentence over the 1999 shooting of a store clerk in Spartanburg County.
Now he must decide whether he is executed by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection.
If he fails to choose his fate by October 18, he will die by electrocution.
The state’s electric chair, which was built in 1912, was found to be working properly after being tested just last month.
The firing squad can be used in South Carolina allowed by a 2021 law.
Richard Moore, 59, a South Carolina death row inmate, has the choice to either die by the firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection
Moore, a Black man, has now been on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years and remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a jury with no African Americans
Bryan Stirling, South Carolina’s Corrections Director, said that its firing squad has the appropriate ammunition, guns and training. Three volunteers have been instructed on how to shoot from 15 feet away, aiming at a target placed directly on the heart.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in the United States, South Carolina has put a total of 44 inmates to death.
But Moore will be the second execution in the state following a 13-year pause due to not being able to obtain the drug needed for lethal injection. When the privacy measure was originally put in place, companies refused to sell it.
But after a shield law passed last year, the state was allowed to reobtain the drug.
It has since been found to be pure, stable and potent enough to carry out the execution after being tested by technicians at the state crime lab.
But Moore is now attempting to stop the execution through appeals to the US Supreme Court.
The death chamber in South Carolina Department of Corrections includes the electric chair (right) and the firing squad chair (left)
Pictured: firing squad chair in Utah State Prison – The firing squad can be used in South Carolina allowed by a 2021 law
In September of 1999, Moore went into a convenience store with the intentions to rob it. Despite arriving unarmed, he was able to take a gun from James Mahoney, the store clerk, which led to a shootout between the two. Mahoney was killed after taking a bullet to the chest.
Although he Moore held a job and remained an active parent over the years before the crime that led him to becoming a death row inmate, he had a revolving series of crimes, including: habitual traffic offender, unlawful weapon possession, purse snatching, breaking and entering, robbery and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, according to Post and Courier.
He eventually came to the realization that he was living a double life – one side consumed by crack cocaine.
Moore, a Black man, has now been sitting on South Carolina’s death row for 23 years.
He remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a jury with no African Americans.
Since Moore was initially unarmed at the time of his crime, it can be argued that there was a lack of premeditation.
In September of 1999, Moore went into a store, unarmed, with the intentions to rob it which led to a shootout where he was able to grab hold of a gun and shoot the store clerk in the chest, killing him
Moore is now attempting to stop the execution through appeals to the US Supreme Court and plans to ask the governor for mercy, hoping to change his sentence to life without parole
But if executed, he would be the first person put to death in modern times that was originally unarmed and defended themselves when threatened with a weapon.
Moore has no violations on his prison record since being in the facility. He has offered to help rehabilitate other prisoners while behind bars.
He plans to talk with republican, Gov. Henry McMaster for mercy, hoping to reduce his sentence to life without parole instead of death.
But in the modern era of the death penalty, no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency to any of its inmates.
In the early 2000s, executions were common in the state. An average of three executions were carried out each year.
Since the unintentional execution pause, the death row population has reduced. In early 2011, the state had 63 inmates waiting for death. But now, only 31 remain.
Around 20 inmates have been taken off death row after successfully appealing to the courts for a different sentence. Others have died in prison from natural causes during the temporary pause.
After a 13-year pause, people protested the death penalty ahead of Freddie Owens scheduled execution date
South Carolina executed its first death row inmate in 13 years in September through means of lethal injection.
Freddie Owens, 46, was found guilty by a jury in the killing of a shop worker during a 1997 armed robbery in Greenville. He was on death row for more than 20 years before his execution on September 20.
Ahead of his scheduled execution, multiple groups came together to protest the death penalty.
South Carolina must argue that there is an ‘aggravating’ circumstance in order to pursue the death penalty, WBTW reported. The overall decision to impose death is decided by a jury.
More than 650 people have been executed in South Carolina, including the infamous serial killer, Donald Henry ‘Pee Wee’ Gaskins Jr in 1991.