CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Despite thousands of signatures and calls for change, Governor Henry McMaster did not grant Richard Moore clemency Friday, allowing the state to carry out his execution. The death row inmate is now the second person to be put to death since the death penalty resumed in South Carolina.
Community members gathered Friday night for a prayer vigil held at the Cokesbury United Methodist Church to honor the life of Richard Moore. A single church bell rang as the names of each of the people who have been put to death in South Carolina since 1999 were called, adding Moore to the list.
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty says community vigils like these are meant to provide space for the grief surrounding the death penalty.
Moore was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. on Friday for the 1999 shooting death of convenience store clerk James Mahoney. Moore is the second person in South Carolina to be put to death since the death penalty resumed after a 13-year hiatus. No other South Carolina death penalty case has involved an unarmed defendant who says he defended himself when the victim threatened him with a weapon after Moore attempted to rob him…