A South Carolina death row inmate must choose how his life will end — and he has just a little more than a week to do so.
Richard Moore, 59, received the maximum sentence for the 1999 murder of a store clerk in Spartanburg County.
Now he must decide whether he will be executed by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection.
If he fails to choose his fate by October 18th, he will die from electrocution.
The state's electric chair, built in 1912, worked properly after being tested last month.
The firing squad can be used in South Carolina, permitted by a 2021 law.
Richard Moore, 59, a death row inmate in South Carolina, has the option of dying by firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection
Moore, a black man, has been on South Carolina's death row for 23 years and remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a non-African-American jury.
Bryan Stirling, South Carolina's corrections director, said his firing squad has adequate ammunition, weapons and training. Three volunteers were instructed on how to shoot from a distance of 4.5 meters, aiming at a target placed directly at the heart.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in the United States, South Carolina has sentenced a total of 44 inmates to death.
But Moore will be the second execution in the state after a 13-year pause due to the inability to obtain the drug needed for the lethal injection. When the privacy measure was originally implemented, companies refused to sell it.
But after a safeguard law was passed last year, the state was allowed to reobtain the drug.
It has since been found to be pure, stable and potent enough to carry out execution after being tested by state crime lab technicians.
But Moore is now trying to stop the execution through appeals to the US Supreme Court.
The death chamber at the South Carolina Department of Corrections includes the electric chair (right) and firing squad chair (left)
Pictured: Firing squad chair at Utah State Prison – Firing squad can be used in South Carolina, allowed by a 2021 law
In September 1999, Moore entered a convenience store with the intention of robbing it. Despite arriving unarmed, he managed to take a gun from James Mahoney, the store clerk, which led to a shootout between the two. Mahoney was killed after being shot in the chest.
Although He Moore had a job and remained an active father over the years before the crime that led to him becoming a death row inmate, he committed a rotating series of crimes including: habitual traffic violator, illegal possession of a weapon , purse snatching, breaking and entering, robbery and assault and battery of a serious and aggravated nature, according to Correio and Correio.
He eventually realized he was living a double life – one side consumed by crack.
Moore, a black man, has been on death row in South Carolina for 23 years.
He remains the only death row inmate in the state to be convicted by a non-African-American jury.
As Moore was initially unarmed at the time of the crime, it could be argued that he lacked premeditation.
In September 1999, Moore entered a store, unarmed, with the intention of robbing it, which led to a shootout where he managed to grab a gun and shoot the clerk in the chest, killing him.
Moore is now trying to stop the execution through appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and plans to ask the governor for mercy, hoping to change his sentence to life in prison without parole.
But if executed, he would be the first person sentenced to death in modern times who was originally unarmed and defended himself when threatened with a weapon.
Moore has no violations on his prison record since being at the facility. He volunteered to help rehabilitate other prisoners while they were behind bars.
He plans to talk to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for mercy, hoping to reduce his sentence to life in prison without parole instead of death.
But in the modern era of the death penalty, no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency to any of his inmates.
In the early 2000s, executions were common in the state. An average of three executions were carried out each year.
Since the pause in unintentional executions, the death row population has declined. At the beginning of 2011, the state had 63 prisoners awaiting death. But now, there are only 31 left.
Around 20 inmates were removed from death row after successfully appealing to the courts for a different sentence. Others died in prison of natural causes during the temporary break.
After a 13-year break, people protested against the death penalty before Freddie Owens' scheduled execution date
South Carolina in September executed its first death row inmate in 13 years by lethal injection.
Freddie Owens, 46, was found guilty by a jury of murdering a store worker during a 1997 armed robbery in Greenville. He was on death row for more than 20 years before his execution on September 20.
Before his scheduled execution, several groups gathered to protest the death penalty.
South Carolina must argue that an “aggravating” circumstance exists to pursue the death penalty, WBT reported. The overall decision to impose death is decided by a jury.
More than 650 people have been executed in South Carolina, including the infamous serial killer, Donald Henry 'Pee Wee' Gaskins Jr, in 1991.
