Jurors, judge and former prison warden all ask for mercy for the convicted South Carolina inmate

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina death row inmate Richard Moore More than two dozen people are asking the governor to spare his life in a clemency petition filed Wednesday, just two days before he is set to die by lethal injection for the 1999 murder 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 for his children and grandchildren.

Also asking for leniency are six childhood friends, five family members, several former attorneys who said Moore still controls their families after they failed to keep him off death row, and the partner of a psychologist whose research on Moore led to a deep friendship. them both, according to Moore’s petition.

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

No governor has done that offered leniency to one of the 44 inmates executed in South Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the resumption of the death penalty in 1976. No other state has put so many prisoners to death without sparing anyone.

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

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

Moore is a born-again Christian who mentors his fellow inmates on isolated 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 chapter. of corrections from 2003 to 2011.

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

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

“This is definitely a part of my life that I would like to change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I have broken the family of the deceased,” Moore said. “I pray for the forgiveness of that particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s family did not speak publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, Mahoney’s family has said they have suffered deeply and that justice is being served.

Moore’s clemency petition said his lawyers did not provide him with the best defense during his 2001 trial. They include another analysis of the crime scene, along with Moore’s version of what happened, which shows that the clerk pulled a gun on Moore after the two argued because he was 12 cents short of what he wanted to buy.

Moore said he wrestled that gun from the clerk’s hand and Mahoney pulled a second gun. Moore was shot in the arm and returned fire, killing Mahoney with a bullet to the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $1,300.

No one else on South Carolina’s death row began 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 imposed 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 murdered seven people, including a woman whom he raped and tortured for days.

Lawyers for Moore, who is black, have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution so a lower court can rule on whether it was fair that no African Americans were on the jury to determine Moore’s fate in Spartanburg County, which was considered to be 20% black. in the 2000 US Census.

Moore’s son and daughter said he remained involved in their lives. He now has grandchildren whom he sees via video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm they would experience if Moore were removed from their lives.

“He doesn’t make excuses for his actions; his only interest is to stay alive so that he can serve as an example to convince those most at risk of following a similar path and thus play the greatest possible role in the lives of his family,” said son Lyndall Moore,

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

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