Richard Moore (Provided/Justice360)
COLUMBIA — Two jurors and the judge who sentenced a man to death more than 20 years ago are newly asking Gov. Henry McMaster to spare his life.
Attorneys for Richard Moore officially asked McMaster on Wednesday to grant the 59-year-old clemency, in a last-ditch effort to avoid his execution scheduled for Friday.
Moore’s attorneys decided not to appeal a federal judge’s decision that McMaster has sole authority to decide whether to commute Moore’s sentence to life in prison. McMaster has said he will not announce his decision until minutes before the execution is set to begin, just as he did just before Freddie Owens’ execution last month, when the answer was obviously “no.”
Moore’s attorneys are awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether it will intervene to hear allegations that attorneys improperly struck Black jurors during Moore’s 2001 trial, leaving him to be tried by one Hispanic and 11 white jurists.
The jury convicted Moore, who is Black, of shooting and killing gas station clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg two years prior.
If the nation’s high court declines to step in, McMaster’s decision will be Moore’s final chance of avoiding death by lethal injection Friday.
More than two dozen friends, family members, former attorneys and religious leaders wrote letters to McMaster requesting he commute Moore’s sentence. The letters were included in his attorney’s official request for clemency.
The authors include retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who oversaw Moore’s 2001 trial and death sentence. Clary, also a former Republican legislator, judged nine death penalty trials between 1993 and 2002, each “a tremendous burden and responsibility,” he wrote.
“In no way do I quibble with the jury’s verdict, and I make no excuse on behalf of Mr. Moore for his actions that resulted in the death of James Mahoney,” wrote Clary, who represented part of Pickens County for three terms between 2014 and 2020.
“Over the years, I have studied the case of each person who resides on death row in South Carolina,” Clary’s letter continued. “Richard Bernard Moore’s case is unique, and after years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask that you grant executive clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy.”
In brief letters, jurors Doris Robertson and Sandra Taylor wrote that they heard Moore had changed during the 23 years since his trial.
“I heard about Richard’s rehabilitation and would support a life sentence,” Taylor wrote.
Moore has had no disciplinary actions since at least 2009, according to his inmate profile, which only goes back that far. In the years before that, he had only two minor reprimands, one for having Skittles outside his cell and another for using disrespectful language, former Corrections Director Jon Ozmint wrote to McMaster.
Ozmint, who described himself as a proponent of the death penalty, has supported Moore’s push for clemency since Moore was first scheduled to die in 2020. In the letter he wrote then and submitted again Wednesday, the former prosecutor wrote that Moore could use a life sentence to become “a powerful force for good” within the prison.
“Our death row is small. The staff there know who can be trusted and Richard is clearly one of several reliable and respected inmates on the row,” wrote Ozmint, who led the prisons agency throughout Gov. Mark Sanford’s tenure, from 2003 to 2011. “His story and his manner of living would allow him to be an influential force for good in general population, with an ability to have a positive impact on the most recalcitrant and hopeless of young offenders.”
Moore’s case stands out because he entered the convenience store unarmed, Ozmint wrote.
Many men “whose crimes were far more heinous and planned than Mr. Moore” escaped death row because prosecutors chose not to seek it, Ozmint wrote. Many of those same men have had few problems in prison or even gotten out on parole without returning, suggesting that Moore could safely adjust to a less restrictive way of living, he continued.
“There simply is no rational argument to be made that the death penalty is sought and applied consistently — county by county — in our state,” Ozmint wrote. “That does not make the death penalty ineffective or unconstitutional. However, it seems fair consideration for you as chief magistrate in our state in making a clemency decision.”
Moore has remained an active father in the years since his conviction, wrote his son, Lyndall Moore, in his own letter of support. He joined outreach programs to tell at-risk youth his story in an effort to keep them from following a similar path. He became “an avid reader, artist and follower of Christ,” Lyndall Moore wrote.
SC governor can decide whether to grant death row inmate clemency, judge decides
Richard Moore is no longer the man who shot and killed Mahoney, his son wrote.
“He does not make excuses for his actions — his only interest is in staying alive so that he can serve as an example to those most at risk of going down a similar path, and so that he can play as much of a role as possible in the lives of his family,” he continued. “My father is a good person, and his life is worth sparing.”
Richard Moore regularly calls his two granddaughters, his daughter, Alexandria Moore, said in a video included with the application. When her 5-year-old, Amaya, hears the phone ring, she asks, “Is that Pa Pa?” Moore’s attorneys wrote in his clemency application.
“Even though my father has been away for a lot of my life, that still has not stopped him from making a big impact in my life, a positive impact, and I would love for Amaya to get that from him as well,” Alexandria Moore said in a video. “He is a great man, and I want her to know her grandfather as the man that he is, and that’s wonderful.”
Moore was baptized as a Christian while on death row, wrote Walter Codd, founder of PEACE Ministries. Moore regularly takes communion over the phone with Pastor Rick Russ, reads a letter from Russ.
When facing harassment from another inmate, Moore wrote to friend Ravi Walsh asking, “How can I see God in this man?” Walsh wrote in a separate letter to the governor.
“Governor, I don’t know about you, but I am still inclined to mentally curse someone out if they cut me off in traffic,” Walsh wrote. “Here is a man who is on death row asking me, ‘How can I see God in this man?’”
Relatives and childhood friends recalled Moore as a quiet, respectful boy who enjoyed hunting and fishing with his grandfather. Growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, he was swept up in the crack epidemic, wrote childhood friend Daryl Talley.
At trial, prosecutors said Moore was robbing the gas station for money to buy crack cocaine. After shooting Mahoney, Moore took $1,408 from the register before driving to his dealer’s house. Moore, who was also shot in the arm inside the gas station, asked to buy drugs or be taken to the hospital, his dealer testified.
Without access to drugs in prison, Moore got clean, his attorneys wrote.
Friends and family recalled Moore telling them how sorry he was that he killed Mahoney. He always regretted how much he hurt Mahoney’s family, he said in a video released by his attorneys.
“I hate it happened,” Moore said in the video. “I wish I could go back and change it. There are a lot of things I wish I could go back and change, but this definitely the most.”