Jurors, judges and former prison director all plead for mercy for convicted South Carolina inmate

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – Sentenced to death in South Carolina Richard Moore has more than 20 people asking the governor to spare his life in a clemency petition filed Wednesday, just two days before he is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1999 slaying of a store clerk.

There are two jurors and the judge from his original trial. There is a former director of the state prison system who says Moore deeply regrets his crime and is a force for good behind bars both for fellow inmates and his children and grandchildren.

Six childhood friends, five relatives, several former lawyers who said Moore still controls their families after they failed to keep him from death row, and the partner of a psychologist whose study of Moore led to a deep friendship for both of them, according to Moore’s Petition.

“I have often wondered why Richard would rather spend his life in a prison cell than end this hell he has to face every day. When I asked him, he told me that he finds that now he has something to offer the world,” Ravi Walsh wrote in 42 pages of letters sent to Republican Governor Henry McMaster, the only person with the power to remove Moore from death row.

It has no governor offered mercy to any of the 44 inmates executed in South Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976. No other state has executed so many inmates without sparing anyone.

McMaster has promised to review Moore’s request thoroughly. As is customary, the governor has said he will not announce his decision until minutes before Friday’s scheduled execution at 6 p.m. 18.00.

Moore’s attorneys said clemency is an act of grace and mercy and should mostly focus on what Moore, 59, has done since he shot and killed James Mahoney in a shootout at a Spartanburg convenience store in September 1999.

Moore is a born-again Christian who mentors fellow inmates on death row, and if his sentence is reduced to life without parole, his good influence could spread to many more inmates, said Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections. of corrections from 2003 to 2011.

“His history and way of life would allow him to be an influential force for good in the general population with an ability to have a positive impact on the most recalcitrant and hopeless of young offenders,” Ozmint wrote, adding, that he supports the death penalty and has never advocated for another inmate for clemency.

The petition includes a video with portions of an interview with Moore.

“This is definitely a part of my life that I wish I could change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I ask for that particular family’s forgiveness.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s family have not spoken publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, Mahoney’s family has said they suffered deeply and want justice to be served.

Moore’s plea for clemency said his lawyers did not give him the best defense at his trial in 2001. They include another crime scene analysis along with Moore’s version of what happened, showing the clerk pulled a gun on Moore after they two argued because he lacked 12 cents for what he wanted to buy.

Moore said he wrestled the gun from the clerk’s hand and Mahoney pulled another weapon. Moore was shot in the arm and fired back, killing Mahoney with a bullet to the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole about $1,300.

No one else on South Carolina’s death row started their crime unarmed and without intent to kill, Moore’s current attorneys said.

Ozmint and others said the death penalty should be reserved for the worst crimes and not sought arbitrarily. Current attorney Barry Barnette, who was an assistant prosecutor in Moore’s case, did not seek the death penalty several years ago for Todd Kohlheppwho killed seven people, including a woman, whom he raped and tortured for several days.

Lawyers for Moore, who is black, have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution to allow a lower court to consider whether it was fair that no African-Americans were on the jury deliberating the fate of Moore in Spartanburg County, who was 20 % black in 2000 US Census.

Moore’s son and daughter said he has remained involved in their lives. He now has grandchildren whom he sees on video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm to them if Moore is removed from their lives.

“He makes no excuses for his actions – his only interest is in staying alive so he can serve as an example to those most at risk of going down a similar path and so he can play as much of a role as possible in his family’s life,” said son Lyndall Moore,

In a video of the clemency petition, Ozmint said that when he made his last visit to the inmates before their executions, he would tell them that he would “see them on the other side.” He said the most compelling reason to grant Richard Moore mercy is that he will be at peace with whatever is decided – whether he is in heaven or left on earth to do good works.

“I know I will see Richard on the other side. I just don’t know when,” Ozmint said. “I hope Governor McMaster will give Richard the rest of his life to pour into the lives of others .”