A jury, a judge and a former prison director are asking for mercy for a convicted South Carolina inmate

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A South Carolina death row inmate Richard Moore more than 20 people are asking the governor to spare their lives in a clemency petition filed Wednesday, just two days before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1999 murder of a store clerk.

There are two jurors and the judge from his original trial. The former director of the state prison system says Moore is deeply sorry for his crime and is a force for good for both his fellow inmates and his children and grandchildren.

Also asking for clemency are six childhood friends, five relatives, several former lawyers who say Moore continues to check on their families after they failed to keep him off death row, and the partner of the psychologist whom Moore’s examination and resulted in a deep friendship between both of them, according to Moore’s Petition.

“I have often wondered why Richard would rather spend his life in a prison cell than end the hell he endures every day. When I asked him, he told me that he discovered that he now had something to offer the world,” wrote Ravi Walsh in 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 offered grace none of the 44 prisoners executed in South Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be reinstated in 1976. No other state has sentenced so many prisoners to death without sparing anyone.

McMaster has he promised to check Moore’s petition, exactly. As usual, the governor said he would not announce his decision until a few minutes before the execution, scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. EST.

Moore’s lawyers say the pardon is an act of grace and mercy and should focus primarily on what Moore, 59, has done since he shot James Mahoney in the September 1999 shooting at a Spartanburg grocery store.

Moore is a born-again Christian who mentors his fellow inmates on solitary death row, and if his sentence is reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, his good influence could spread to many more inmates, said Jon Ozmint, director of the Department South Carolina adjustments from 2003–2011.

“His history and way of life would enable him to be an influential force for the good of society at large, able to exert a positive influence on the most reluctant and hopeless young criminals,” Ozmint wrote, adding that he supports the death penalty and has never advocated for the pardon of another inmate.

The petition includes a video containing excerpts from an interview with Moore.

“It’s definitely a part of my life that I would like to change. I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke up the deceased’s family,” Moore said. “I pray for forgiveness for this particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s family did not comment publicly in the weeks leading up to his execution. Mahoney’s family has expressed deep distress in the past and wants justice to be served.

Moore’s clemency petition claimed 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 wanted to buy.

Moore said he grabbed the gun from the seller’s hand and Mahoney pulled out a second gun. Moore was shot in the shoulder and fired back, killing Mahoney with a bullet to the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $1,300.

Moore’s current attorneys say no other death row inmate in South Carolina has begun a crime without a weapon or the intent to kill.

Ozmint and others argued that the death penalty should be reserved for the worst crimes and not be applied arbitrarily. Current Solicitor Barry Barnette, who was an assistant prosecutor in the Moore case, did not seek the death penalty several years ago because of Todd Kohlheppwho killed seven people, including a woman whom he raped and tortured for days.

Lawyers for Moore, who is black, also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution to allow a lower court to review whether it was fair that the jury hearing Moore’s fate in Spartanburg County, which had a 20% black percentage , it was fair. in the 2000 US Census.

Moore’s son and daughter said he remains involved in their lives. Now he has grandchildren whom he sees on video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm that removing Moore from their lives would do to them.

“He makes no excuses for his actions – his only goal is to stay alive, so that he can serve as an example, so that those most at risk will follow a similar path, and so that he can play as big a role as possible in the process of his family’s life,” said the son Lyndall Moore:

In a video asking for clemency, Ozmint said that during his last visit to prisoners before their execution, he told them that he would “see them on the other side.” He said the most compelling reason to show mercy to Richard Moore is that he will come to terms with whatever is decided – whether he is in heaven or left on Earth to do good deeds.

“I know I will see Richard on the other side. I just don’t know when it will happen,” Ozmint said. “I hope Governor McMaster gives Richard the rest of his life so he can pour it out into the lives of others.”