S.C. condemned man appeals to Supreme Court to stop his execution

COLUMBIA S.C. (WIS) - The attorneys for South Carolina inmate Richard Moore, who is scheduled to be executed on Friday, filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution.

Moore is the second inmate to be executed in South Carolina after a 13-year pause.

His attorneys argue Moore shot and killed a store clerk in Spartanburg County in 1999 in self-defense, as he walked into the store unarmed. They also argue that racial resentment against Moore, a Black man, played a role in the all-white jury’s decision.

His attorneys point to the fact that two qualified Black jurors were removed during jury selection.

In the filing to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, Moore’s attorneys point to the state Supreme Court’s “well-documented reluctance” to address Black jurors being removed.

The filing says during jury selection, white jurors were asked five questions on average, where the two Black jurors the state struck down were asked 40 and 17 questions.

Moore’s attorneys point out that the state Supreme Court has not found that a prosecutor “exercised his peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner in 32 years.”

“The totality of these circumstances s a finding that racial discrimination played a constitutionally impermissible role in jury selection at Moore’s trial under this Court’s precedents,” his attorneys argued.

Moore has chosen to die by lethal injection on Nov. 1, 2024.

Attorney keeps fighting

As his execution day draws closer, Moore’s attorney Lindsey Vann continues to argue that he was wrongfully convicted, and his case is caught in the middle of a number of racial and political factors.

Vann said due to an all-white jury issuing his judgment, a contentious political race between solicitors at the time of his trial, and what they feel is a conflict of interest with the governor — Richard Moore should be removed from death row.

Prosecutors said Moore was robbing the store, but he said he was defending himself after Mahoney pulled a gun on Richard Moore in an argument over him not having enough change for the items he was buying.

Vann also said the state had Black jurors who were qualified to hear the case and struck them from the jury.

Vann argues that pursing the death penalty against Richard Moore was a political move by the prosecutors in the case, Holman Gossett and Trey Gowdy.

“Holman Gossett made the death penalty an issue in the case. He said Trey Gowdy is not going to be tough on crime. He’s not going to use the death penalty,” Vann said.

According to the Greenville News, Gossett had a history of seeking the death penalty against Black defendants when the victim was white, and almost never pushed for the death penalty when the victim was Black.

Lyndall Moore said his father has been in prison since he was 4 years old.

“This isn’t planned, premeditated type of case that you think of when you think of a death penalty case,” he said. “He didn’t walk into the store planning to kill anyone. I don’t even think he walked into the store thinking that a killing could happen because he didn’t have a weapon to carry something out like that.”

The defense argues Richard Moore acted in self-defense. The prosecution hasn’t provided comment ahead of this story.

The former solicitor Holman Gossett prosecuted the case — died in July of 2023 and the deputy solicitor at the time of the trial — who is the current solicitor in Spartanburg County declined to comment.

Gov. Henry McMaster was the attorney general during Moore’s trial.

Richard Moore’s attorney’s have filed a lawsuit that said McMaster should not be the one to grant clemency — claiming that in the past — McMaster said that he would not.

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (SCDAP) Executive Director Hillary Taylor also argues race played a factor in how the prosecution tried the case.

“Holman Gossett had almost exclusively tried black defendants with white victims for the death penalty. All but 1 one of 16 cases out of Spartanburg County in the modern death penalty era have been Black defendants with white victims. Right off the bat, that shows you that the death penalty is not tried for the worst of the worst,” said Taylor.

Richard Moore has many hoping for a breakthrough — like former death row inmate Raymond Patterson who was granted release after who was in prison with Moore.

“Anybody who comes in, we try to make them feel like they are not alone. That they’ve got people backing them up,” Patterson said. “They need to do away with the death penalty because like I said, the death penalty is not a solution to a problem. It’s not used fairly. It’s used as a token for the Black, the poor, the poor white.”

Meanwhile, Richard Moore’s son is coming to grips with a challenging reality as the potential end draws closer.

“You know we think about it of course. I think about how I imagine I’ll be feeling afterwards,” he said. “It’s not done until it’s done, you know? He’s still here. So, I’m going to keep living and he’s going to keep living because he’s still here.”

Richard Moore’s execution is scheduled for Nov. 1. He chose lethal injection for his execution.

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