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Convicted killer Richard Bernard Moore was put to death by the state of South Carolina on Friday evening (November 1, 2024) for the 1999 murder of Spartanburg County convenience store clerk James Mahoney.
Moore, 59, died by lethal injection at 6:24 p.m. EDT.
Moore became the 45th person put to death by the Palmetto State since a nationwide ban on executions was lifted in 1976 – but only the second condemned inmate to die since 2011. Five weeks ago, the state executed condemned inmate Freddie Eugene Owens – the first execution carried out in South Carolina in more than thirteen years.
Moore’s execution was controversial for several reasons. First, allegations were raised that electoral politics had played a role in the original decision by the S.C. seventh circuit solicitor’s office to seek the death penalty in his case. Also, his attorneys repeatedly pointed out that Moore was initially unarmed when he broke into the store where Mahoney was working – raising questions as to whether his case met the statutory threshold for capital prosecution.
Also, in the days leading up to Moore’s death, three members of the 12-person panel that put him on death row endorsed the commutation of his sentence to one of life without the possibility of parole. The trial judge – former state representative Gary Clary – also urged commutation of his sentence, as did a former director of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) and a former S.C. supreme court justice.
Nonetheless, on Thursday (October 31, 2024) the U.S. supreme court declined to intervene in the matter…
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That left South Carolina governor Henry McMaster as Moore’s last hope. South Carolina’s state constitution (Article IV, Section 14) gives the governor “the power… to grant reprieves and to commute a sentence of death to that of life imprisonment.”
The former prosecutor, as expected, also declined to intervene. Since the nationwide prohibition on capital punishment was lifted in 1976, no governor has ever granted clemency to a condemned inmate.
“I have carefully reviewed and thoughtfully considered the application, matters of record including transcripts, briefs and judicial decisions, as well as certain additional petitions or informal requests for executive clemency,” McMaster wrote. “I have also spoken with members of Mr. Mahoney’s family.”
“I have declined to grant executive clemency in this matter,” McMaster concluded.
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How did we get here? On September 16, 1999, Moore entered Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County with the intention of committing a robbery to subsidize his crack cocaine habit. He was unarmed when he first entered the store. During the robbery, Mahoney produced a weapon – which Moore wrestled away from him. Mahoney then pulled a second gun and fired it at Moore – striking him in his left arm. Moore returned fire with the gun he had seized, shooting and killing Mahoney.
Moore proceeded to rob the store of more than $1,400, thus meeting one of the aggravating factors which allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty in murder cases.
South Carolina provides for the death penalty in murder cases where a “statutory aggravating circumstance is found beyond a reasonable doubt.” These aggravating circumstances are specifically enumerated in the S.C. Code of Laws (§ 16-3-20) – and are determined on a case-by-case basis in proceedings which are held separately from the murder trial once a guilty plea or verdict has been entered into the record.
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One of those aggravating circumstances refers to a murder being committed “for the purpose of receiving money or a thing of monetary value.”
I editorialized in favor of Moore’s execution earlier this week, although I acknowledged his case didn’t offer the “most compelling fact pattern for a capital sentence.” I further concurred that political considerations “probably factored into prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty.”
Accordingly, I wouldn’t have criticized McMaster for commuting Moore’s sentence had he decided to do so.
Still, the robbery met the threshold for a capital prosecution – and Moore’s lawyers did him absolutely zero favors in an eleventh hour petition which effectively accused each of the jurors who sentenced him to death of being racist.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
Moore is currently in paradise if he truly was a follower of Jesus.
Yep!
If the death penalty is to have any validity, it must be applied equally and not arbitrarily. For Moore to be executed when he clearly did not act with premeditation, and for the death penalty not to even be considered when Alec Murdaugh planned and carried out the slaughter of his wife and son, makes a mockery of the entire system of justice.
Why is Susan Smith still being fed-clothed-and housed by the tax payers! Give her the NEEDLE! But do it real SLOW !
I mean the death penalty will always be suspect because the state can and will always be capable of getting it wrong and killing innocent people. That being said, yeah, the disparity between those two is especially egregious.
There are many convicts more deserving of the death penalty than this guy.
I hope if “Alex” does get his new trial, that the Attn. Gen. puts the death penalty in play.