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By Jeffrey Collins

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Richard Moore, scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Friday in South Carolina for the fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk in 1999, has one last chance to have his life spared.

Moore’s lawyers requested a pardon from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, which no South Carolina governor has granted in the state’s 44 previous executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. 24 governors other states have done so.

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Two jurors who sentenced Moore to death in 2001 also sent letters asking McMaster to change his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. They are joined by a former state prison warden, the judge at Moore’s trial, his son and daughter, a half-dozen childhood friends and several pastors.

They all say Moore, 59, is a changed man who loves God, adores his new grandchildren as best he can, helps guards keep the peace and mentors other prisoners after his drug addiction clouded his judgment and led to the shooting in which James Mahoney was killed, according to the clemency petition.

Moore is expected to die at 6 p.m. in a Columbia prison. He saw two execution dates postponed as the state dealt with issues that led to a 13-year pause in the use of the death penalty, including the refusal of companies to sell lethal injection drugs to the state , an obstacle which was resolved by the adoption of a law on secrecy.

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Moore would be the second inmate executed in South Carolina since executions resumed. Four others are pending appeals, and the state appears poised to put them to death every five weeks until spring. If Moore dies Friday, there will be 30 people left on death row.

The governor said he was carefully reviewing everything sent to him by Moore’s lawyers and would wait, as is customary, until a few minutes before the execution began to announce his decision once he learned through telephone that all calls were completed.

“Clemency is a matter of grace, a matter of mercy. There is no standard. There’s no real law about it,” McMaster told reporters Thursday.

In an interview for a video accompanying his request for clemency, Moore expressed remorse for Mahoney’s murder.

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“It’s definitely a part of my life and I wish I could change.” I took a life. I took someone’s life. I broke the deceased’s family,” Moore said. “I pray for forgiveness for this particular family.”

Prosecutors and Mahoney’s relatives did not speak publicly in the weeks leading up to the execution. In the past, family members have said they have suffered deeply and want justice.

Moore’s attorneys say his original attorneys failed to carefully analyze the crime scene and fail to dispute prosecutors’ assertion that Moore, who entered the store unarmed, shot a customer and that his intention from the start was theft.

According to their account, the employee pointed a gun at Moore after the two men argued because he was short 12 cents for what he wanted to buy.

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Moore said he took the gun out of Mahoney’s hands and the employee pulled out a second gun. Moore was shot in the arm and returned fire, hitting Mahoney in the chest. Moore then went behind the counter and stole approximately $1,400.

No one else on South Carolina’s death row began their crime unarmed and without intent to kill, Moore’s current attorneys say.

Jon Ozmint, a former prosecutor who served as director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011 and who added his voice to those seeking clemency, said Moore’s case was not the worst of the worst crimes which would usually be committed. trigger a death penalty case.

Many people were not sentenced to death but committed far more heinous crimes, Ozmint said, citing the example of Todd Kohlhepp, who received a life sentence after pleading guilty to murdering seven people, including one woman he raped and tortured for days. .

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Lawyers for Moore, who is black, also say his trial was not fair. There were no African Americans on the jury even though 20 percent of Spartanburg County residents were black.

Moore, a born-again Christian, can continue to mentor and positively influence his fellow inmates if his sentence is reduced to life without parole, Ozmint said.

“He wants to continue his work of making a positive impact on everyone he can reach around him,” Ozmint said in the pardon request video. “I hope Governor McMaster gives Richard the rest of his life to devote to others.”

Moore’s son and daughter said he remained engaged in their lives. He once asked them about school work and gave them advice in letters. He now has grandchildren whom he sees on video calls. Several letter writers mentioned the harm that would be caused to them if Moore were removed from their lives.

“Even though my father was away, that didn’t stop him from having a big impact on my life, a positive impact,” said Alexandria Moore, who joined the Air Force at her father’s encouragement.

She said her 5-year-old daughter asked her “is that Pa Pa?” » when the phone rings at home, in a military base in Spain.

“He’s a wonderful man and I want her to know her grandfather as the man he is,” she said.

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