South Carolina killer could face firing squad in weeks after prison finishes new $53,000 death chamber revamp as state schedules its first execution in 11 years
- Richard Bernard Moore, a 57-year-old man who has spent over two decades on death row for the murder of Nikki's Speedy Mart store assistant James Mahoney
- He is likely to be the first execution with the choice of death by firing squad
- State's capital punishment law changed to work around a decade-long pause in executions after corrections department could not get lethal injection drugs
A South Carolina prison has scheduled its first execution after officials finished updating a $53,600 death chamber in Columbia to prepare for capital punishments by firing squad.
The clerk of the State Supreme Court has set a April 29 execution date for Richard Bernard Moore, a 57-year-old man who has spent more than two decades on death row after he was convicted of killing convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg.
Moore could face a choice between the electric chair and the firing squad, two options available to death row prisoners after legislators altered the state's capital punishment law last year in an effort to work around a decade-long pause in executions, attributed to the corrections agency's inability to procure lethal injection drugs.
The new law made the electric chair the state's primary means of execution while giving prisoners the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.
The state corrections agency said last month it had finished developing protocols for firing squad executions and completed $53,600 in renovations on the death chamber in Columbia, installing a metal chair with restraints that faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet (4.6 meters) away.
In the case of a firing squad execution, three volunteer shooters - all Corrections Department employees - will have rifles loaded with live ammunition, with their weapons trained on the inmate's heart. A hood will be placed over the head of the inmate, who will be given the opportunity to make a last statement.
During Moore's 2001 trial, prosecutors said Moore entered the store looking for money to support his cocaine habit and got into a dispute with Mahoney, who drew a pistol that Moore wrestled away from him.
Mahoney pulled a second gun, and a gunfight followed. Mahoney shot Moore in the arm, and Moore shot Mahoney in the chest.
Prosecutors said Moore left a trail of blood through the store as he looked for cash, stepping twice over Mahoney.
At the time, Moore claimed that he acted in self-defense after Mahoney drew the first gun.
Moore's supporters have argued his crime doesn't rise to the level of heinousness in other death penalty cases in the state. His appeals lawyers have said that because Moore didn´t bring a gun into store, he couldn´t have intended to kill someone when he walked in.
At the time of the 1999 murder, the then-35-year-old Moore confronted 41-year-old victim Mahoney with the intent to rob the convenience store.
Mahoney produced a .45-caliber handgun but Moore overpowered the smaller store clerk and took it from him.
Moore then shot at local resident Terry Dean Hadden, from Pacolet, who was the only customer inside the store, playing video poker.That gave Mahoney time to grab another gun and shoot Moore in the left arm, with Moore then firing a bullet from the .45 into Mahoney's left side, exiting through his heart, killing him.
DNA evidence indicated that a profusely bleeding Moore left a blood trail inside Nikki's after the shooting, as he went from place to place in an apparent search for cash.
After dripping blood on Mahoney's body while twice stepping over it, Moore left the small store in Spartanburg County's Whitney community with $1,408 in cash. He drove to a nearby residence, where he tried to buy crack cocaine.
Moore was convicted of the murder in 2001 and now remains as an inmate at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina.
The new law made the electric chair the state's primary means of execution while giving prisoners the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.
South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of four to allow a firing squad, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Moore is one of 35 men on South Carolina's death row. He exhausted his federal appeals in 2020, and the state Supreme Court denied another appeal this week.
Lindsey Vann, an attorney for Moore, said Thursday she will ask the court to stay the execution.
The state last scheduled an execution for Moore in 2020, which was then delayed after prison officials said they couldn't obtain lethal injection drugs.
South Carolina's last execution was in 2011, when Jeffrey Motts, on death row for strangling a cellmate while serving a life sentence for another murder, abandoned his appeals and opted for the death chamber.
Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was the last person in the United States to be executed by firing squad in 2010.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10699183/South-Carolina-killer-face-firing-squad-weeks-jail-finishes-new-53-000-death-chamber.html
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