A South Carolina prisoner who will be the first man to be executed in the state in more than a decade chose to die by firing squad rather than the electric chair later this month, according to court documents filed Friday .
Richard Bernard Moore, 57, is also the first state inmate to choose the method of execution after legislation enacted last year made electrocution the standard and gave inmates the chance to face three prison officers with guns.
Moore spent more than two decades on death row after being convicted of the 1999 murder of James Mahoney, a Spartanburg supermarket clerk.
If executed as scheduled on April 29, he would be the first person to be sentenced to death in the state since 2011 and the fourth in the country to be killed by firing squad in nearly half a century.
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The new law was prompted by the decadeslong disruption itself, which prison officials attribute to an inability to obtain the drugs needed to perform lethal injections.
In a written statement, Moore said he did not admit either method was legal or constitutional, but that he was most opposed to electrocution and only chose the firing squad because he was forced to make a choice.
“I believe this election compels me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I have no intention of choosing to dispense with electrocution or shooting competitions,” Moore said in the statement.
Moore’s attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to delay his death while another court is determining whether the methods available constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Lawyers argue that instead of trying hard enough to obtain the drugs through lethal injection, prison officials are forcing prisoners to choose between two more barbaric methods.
His attorneys are also asking the state Supreme Court to stay the execution so the US Supreme Court can consider whether his death sentence was a disproportionate sentence compared to similar crimes. State judges rejected a similar appeal last week.
According to the Washingtonbased nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, South Carolina is one of eight states that still use the electric chair and one of four that allow a firing squad.
According to the nonprofit organization, only three executions have been carried out by firing squad in the United States since 1976. Moore’s would be the first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by a fiveman firing squad in Utah in 2010.
The South Carolina Correctional Authority said last month it had completed the development of firing squad protocols and completed a $53,600 renovation at Columbia’s death chamber, installing a lowkey metal chair that faced a wall with a 4sq .6 meters away.
In the case of execution by firing squad, three prison volunteers point their guns at the convict’s heart.
2 of 2 Columbia, SC State Death Chamber including the electric chair on the right and a firing squad chair on the left. — Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
State death chamber in Columbia, SC, including the electric chair on the right and a firing squad chair on the left. — Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Moore is one of 35 men on South Carolina’s death row. The state last scheduled an execution for Moore in 2020, which was delayed after prison officials said they could not receive deadly injectable drugs.
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During Moore’s 2001 trial, prosecutors said that Moore entered the store seeking money to support his cocaine addiction and got into an argument with Mahoney, who pulled out a pistol that Moore had stolen from him.
Mahoney pulled out a second gun and gunfire ensued. Mahoney shot Moore in the arm and Moore shot Mahoney in the chest. Prosecutors said Moore left a trail of blood inside the store while looking for cash and stepped on Mahoney twice.
At the time, Moore claimed he acted in selfdefense after Mahoney drew his first gun.
Moore’s supporters have argued that his crime does not amount to capital punishment crimes. His appeals attorneys said that since Moore did not bring a gun, he could not have intended to kill anyone when he entered.
The last person to be executed in South Carolina was Jeffrey Motts, who was on death row for strangling a cellmate while serving a life sentence for another murder.