south carolina is close to passing a
bill that would add the firing squad to
the list of the state's execution
methods
governor henry mcmaster has indicated he
will sign that bill
and once it becomes law death row
inmates in south carolina
will face a choice die by electric chair
or die by firing squad if lethal
injection drugs are not available
the reason south carolina is facing a
shortage
of the drugs according to the
spartanburg herald journal quote
drug makers have been reluctant to sell
those drugs to states for executions
unless the state has a law protecting
the companies from litigation
south carolina has no such law but now
if this bill does become law this man
could be one of the first to have to
make this impossible choice
richard moore was arrested in 1999 for
shooting and killing a store clerk in
spartanburg county
that's in the northwest part of the
state moore was found guilty
and sentenced to death just last week
moore's attorneys argued before the
state supreme court
that the death penalty is too harsh in
his case they say
he didn't go into the store looking to
kill anyone and in fact
he didn't even walk in with the murder
weapon
according to court documents his lawyers
found it was only during a struggle with
the store
clerk that the clerk pulled several
weapons from behind the counter
moore got a hold of one of those weapons
and they both shot
each other moore survived the clerk
james mahoney did not those court
documents also say quote the state
never explained how the confrontation
began and that quote
the state relied on circumstantial
evidence to persuade the jury
that moore intended to commit a robbery
the state argued in its filing that
quote although
moore did not have a gun on him when he
entered the store
the sentencing jury heard evidence of
his escalating history of violent
robberies against persons
who were physically unable to defend
themselves against his violent assaults
the victim's sister kathy kelly told the
post and courier in november quote
our family has suffered for over 20 plus
years
and it is past time that the state
carries out his sentence
but moore's family says he's a loving
father
and has always been supportive even now
after all these years in prison
here's what he said about that day to a
criminal justice reform advocacy group
called justice 360. i hate it happen i
wish i could go back and change it
there's a lot of things in my life i
wish i could change but this is
definitely
the most uh
ah this is definitely a part of my life
i wish i could change because
i took a life you know i took someone's
life
i want to bring in two people very close
to richard moore his daughter
alexandria moore and his attorney
lindsey fan
van is also the executive director of
justice 360. alexandria let me let me
start with you
uh take a moment help us
understand a little bit about your
father from your perspective who who is
he
what does he mean to you
my father i could say is just like
every other father in a sense of he is
always supportive
and has shown immense love throughout
the distance throughout these two
decades i've never felt him
as anything more or as anything less
than a father figure
i was always a daddy's girl and i still
am
what has the relationship um with your
father
been like while he's been in prison
these years and
on death row honestly
and surprisingly i can say that our
relationship
has been strong it has remained strong
and i'm sure it will continue
um in the future i have a granddaughter
now
and he has met her we talk constantly on
the phone
i mean i have not been without
even though i've had to visit him in
prison it i mean this
the distance between us his honest he
doesn't let it
affect his parenting at all like it just
it's incredible the effort he puts in to
make sure that i know he loves me
what did you think when when you heard
that south carolina
was trying to to pass this this new bill
that that brings back
firing squads
it was a big shock i could say
to want to put in so much effort
to put a man to death is just wild
to me the the urge to the urge to kill
someone when he didn't have
his fair affair jury i would say
what has your your father said about
this impossible choice
or has he
um for the most part my father
i would say we don't talk too intimately
about the details of
his case and the circumstances he just
continues to let me know that no matter
what happens he
has always loved me and my brother and
his granddaughter and his son-in-law he
i could say he doesn't really delve too
deep into the details
he keeps it very positive and it's just
always a happy time with him so
lindsay let me let me bring into the
conversation now because
it's important to note here you were not
trying to prove that moore
didn't commit a crime in fact we just
heard
uh from from mr moore uh admit
to the crime you're just trying to
convince the state that the death
penalty
is too harsh walk us through how you are
making that argument why do you think
you have such a strong case
yeah that's exactly right uh we are not
challenging whether richard moore
is guilty of the offense that he was
convicted of
this is a question of whether south
carolina's
ultimate punishment of the death penalty
is appropriate in this particular case
and because he entered the store without
a weapon without any real understanding
that a harm could be committed once he
entered the store
this simply doesn't rise to the worst of
the worst cases that the death penalty
is appropriate for and we've researched
all other death penalty cases in south
carolina
and we haven't found a single other case
like this where a person entered into a
confrontation without a weapon
and was threatened by somebody else and
then got the death penalty
for that crime lindsay the state was
going to execute more in december that
would have made him the first person in
south carolina to be put to death
uh since since 2011 that didn't end up
happening though
can you help us understand where the
case stands now what's next in the
process
the south carolina supreme court took up
the case again to take another look at
whether the death penalty is appropriate
in this particular case
again because this is the ultimate
punishment and it's irrevocable
there are procedural protections to make
sure that the state gets it right
and so the court is reconsidering this
there were arguments last week and now
we're waiting for
the court's decision on whether the
death sentence will stand or not
and then we'll go from there once we get
the court's order
alexandria your father has a notable
ally here
it's the former head of the south
carolina department of corrections his
name's john
osment he is a republican uh
lifelong republican strong support of
the death penalty but
he said to justice 360 that that your
father
should be able to live out his life that
this would not be
a death penalty case in most states what
does it say to you
that a person with john osmond's
background is in your father's corner
it says to me that it's it's pretty
clear that
my father deserves a chance to continue
his life
to know that someone so
with a differing opinion on the death
penalty is supportive of my father i
think everyone needs to know that
everyone needs to know that this man
has a life that he should continue to
live with his family
what would your message be alexandria to
to lawmakers
considering that this who we're
considering this this
this firing squad bill
what would my message be um
i'm not sure i have an answer to that i
just know
for my father's case specifically the
amount of effort put in
to put my dad to execute my dad
is just it's baffling and
i think what the work that justice 360
is doing right now to
help support my father is something that
they
could learn from potentially and to
prevent
more incidences and injustices like this
from happening in the future
alexandria moore will leave it there uh
lindsey van dook keep us posted
uh on the case as well we want to
continue to follow the story thank you
both
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