Richard Moore is sentenced to execution in South Carolina. What you need to know.

Moore’s lawyer describes a former drug addict who is now a devout Christian, a good father and a changed man. Now only the governor can stop the execution.

The last black man sentenced to death in South Carolina and convicted by an all-white jury should be executed for the killing of a convenience store clerk during an alleged robbery in 1999, his lawyer said.

Richard Moore is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Friday for the death of James Mahoney. If the case moves forward, Moore will become the second inmate executed in the state within a five-week period, following a more than decade-long hiatus from South Carolina’s execution of the death penalty. Moore will also become the 21st prisoner executed in the United States in 2024.

Not only does the death sentence handed down by an all-white jury raise serious questions about whether Moore received a fair sentence in the South Carolina justice system, his lawyer argues that Moore was unarmed when he entered the store and wasn’t even there. rob him.

“This is not the worst of the worst,” his lawyer Lindsey Vann told USA TODAY. “This is not the kind of premeditated, cold-blooded murder you think of when you think of the death penalty.”

Moore recently said he was praying for forgiveness from Mahoney’s family.

“I hate that this happened. I wish I could go back and change that,” Moore said tearfully as part of his clemency plea to the governor. “I took a life. I took someone’s life. I destroyed my family.”

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

Why was Richard Moore convicted?

Moore was convicted of fatally shooting James Mahoney on September 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 intention of robbing Nikki’s restaurant even though he was unarmed, according to reporting on the trial in the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

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

Moore ended up leaving the store with $1,400 in cash after drawing blood on Mahoney by stepping over him and then trying to buy crack cocaine from a nearby house, prosecutors said.

Moore’s attorney argues that he did not rob the store and the confrontation only arose after Moore was a few pennies short of paying for purchases and refused to leave the store.

The jury found Moore guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.

He was previously sentenced to death twice. It was first scheduled for 2020, but South Carolina did not have lethal injections to carry it out. It was then scheduled for Moore to be executed by firing squad in 2022, but his lawyers 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 turned his life around in the 25 years since his arrest,” his lawyer Lindsey Vann wrote in her clemency petition. “Like anyone who grows in their walk with Christ, Richard recognized the sins of his past and sought forgiveness for his mistakes and the ways they hurt others.”

Moore’s two children, now in their 30s, said in a video announcing the pardon that he was a good father to them, even though they have been behind bars since then, ages 4 and 6.

“I have only ever known my father as a great father,” his daughter Alexandria Moore said in Moore’s appeal to McMaster for clemency. “This is the only picture of him that I have because he gives me a lot of love, he never made me feel incredibly loved and special and I’m grateful for that.”

Moore began painting in prison and enjoys painting landscapes, Vann said.

When the crime occurred, Vann said in a petition for clemency that Moore “was a man who loved his family and wanted to support them, but who also struggled with drug addiction that had plagued him since his teenage years growing up outside of Detroit. Michigan.”

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

“We – neither Richard nor his lawyer – seek to minimize the enormous grief and suffering that the Mahoney family has endured 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 this damage. Instead, she will remove a loving and supportive presence from the lives of his family and loved ones.”

During Moore’s sentencing phase, prosecutor Trey Gowdy told jurors that Moore had repeatedly assaulted several women over the years and had previous gun and burglary convictions in the 1980s.

Michelle Crowder testified that Moore punched her in the neck in 1991 and repeatedly kicked her in the head and back as he tried to steal her purse. He then brutally beat her fiancé, who came to her aid, she said.

“He had chance after chance,” Gowdy said. “James Mahoney didn’t stand a chance.”

Other voices ask for reprieve for Richard Moore

Those who believe Moore’s life should be spared in favor of a life sentence include his judge, two jurors and the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to Moore’s clemency package to McMaster.

“I hope Gov. McMaster gives Richard the opportunity to continue to make a difference in the lives of others,” said John Ozmint, who believes in the death penalty and is the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections. which carries out state executions.

“He has changed,” Ozmint said.

Retired District Court Judge Gary Clary, who imposed the death sentence, also asked McMaster for clemency.

“Over the years, I have studied the cases of every person sentenced to death in South Carolina,” he wrote. “Moore’s case is unique, and after many years of thought and consideration, I humbly ask that you grant clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of mercy and mercy.”

Who is James Mahoney?

The Mahoney family did not respond to an interview request made through the state Attorney General’s Office.

During Moore’s sentencing phase, they testified in court that Mahoney, 42, was a loving uncle and an avid NASCAR fan.

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

When is Richard Moore’s execution?

Moore is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 pm ET on Friday at Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Moore’s request to stay his execution.

Moore’s final reprieve lies in McMaster’s hands.

Contributing: Tom Langhorne, Terry Benjamin II