South Carolina man on death row chooses execution by firing squad
A South Carolina man sentenced to death chose to die by firing squad instead of electric chair.
Richard Moore, 57, is scheduled for execution on April 29, more than 20 years after he was sentenced to die. He made his decision Friday.
After years of failing to acquire lethal injection drugs, South Carolina legislators passed a law last year that required people on death row to choose between the electric chair or a three-person firing squad.
Moore’s execution date was chosen late last week, and he was given eight days to decide how he wanted to die. If he’s killed as scheduled, Moore will be the first person executed in South Carolina since 2011 — and only the fourth person killed by a firing squad in the U.S. since at least 1967.
Defense attorneys have tried multiple legal avenues to prevent Moore’s death. His team has most recently argued that both options in South Carolina are “antiquated and barbaric,” Columbia newspaper The State reported.
“I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” Moore said in a statement.
South Carolina is one of four states that allow death by firing squad. The last person executed in that manner in the U.S. was Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah in 2010. All three firing squad executions in the U.S. since 1967 have occurred in Utah.
Oklahoma and Mississippi also allow death by firing squad, but earlier this year Oklahoma refused a man’s request for one. Instead, the state killed Donald Grant by lethal injection.
South Carolina prison officials have said they simply cannot purchase lethal injection drugs because no one will sell them. South Carolina last killed someone in 2011, leaving 35 people, all men, sitting on death row indefinitely since then. Moore was the first person forced to choose how he’ll be killed.
Moore has been on death row since 2001, when a jury sentenced him to die for killing a convenience store clerk in a robbery gone wrong. Moore entered Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County in 1999 planning to rob the store but carrying no firearms.
The man behind the counter, James Mahoney, pulled a gun when Moore tried to rob him. Moore wrestled the weapon away from Mahoney, who then pulled a second gun. A gunfight ensued, with Moore fatally shooting Mahoney and leaving the store with slightly more than $1,400 in cash.
Moore was also injured in the shootout; Mahoney had shot him in the arm. Moore later crashed his car and surrendered to police. He admitted to killing Mahoney.
In the years since, Moore’s lawyers have argued that his crime shouldn’t be a death penalty offense because he entered the store unarmed, showing he didn’t intend to kill anyone. However, only a single South Carolina Supreme Court judge out of five agreed with that argument in a decision issued earlier this month.
With News Wire Services
