COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed in just over three weeks is asking a federal judge to strip the governor who is a former attorney general of the power to grant clemency state and hand him over to a parole board. .
South Carolina’s constitution gives the governor the exclusive right to spare an inmate’s life, and Gov. Henry McMaster’s lawyers have said he intends to keep it.
Richard Moore’s lawyers argue that McMaster cannot fairly consider the inmate’s request to reduce his death sentence to life without parole because for eight years starting in 2003 he was the state’s top prosecutor and oversaw attorneys who successfully fought to uphold Moore’s death sentence.
“For Moore to receive clemency, McMaster would have to give up years of his own work and that of his former colleagues in the Attorney General’s Office,” the lawyers wrote in asking a federal judge to stay the execution until until the matter is fully resolved. resolved.
McMaster has taken tough stances on crime and has also spoken out against parole in the past. The governor said in 2022 he did not intend to commute Moore’s sentence while an execution date was possible, Moore’s attorneys said in court papers filed Monday.
McMaster’s lawyers have said he has made no decision about whether to grant Moore a pardon, and courts have repeatedly said that attorneys general who become governors do not give up their right to decide whether or not to overturn death sentences.
Currently, nine states, including South Carolina, are led by former attorneys general. Among the top prosecutors cited by the state who would later become governors and make clemency decisions was former President Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
“Moore’s claims rest on the underlying assumption that the governor will not commute his death sentence. Whatever the governor ultimately decides, that decision is solely his,” McMaster’s lawyers wrote.
A hearing on Moore’s request is scheduled for Tuesday in Columbia federal court.
Moore, 59, faces the death penalty for the September 1999 shooting of store clerk James Mahoney. Moore entered the Spartanburg County store unarmed to rob it, and the two ended up in a shootout after Moore was able to take one of Mahoney’s guns. Moore was wounded, while Mahoney died of a gunshot to the chest.
Moore did not call 911. Instead, his blood droplets were found on Mahoney as he stepped over the clerk and stole money from the register.
State law gives Moore until Oct. 18 to decide, or default, that he will be electrocuted. His execution would be the second in South Carolina after a 13-year hiatus due to the state’s inability to obtain the drug needed for lethal injection.
No South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of the death penalty. McMaster said he decides each case on its merits after careful consideration
Moore’s lawyers said he was an ideal candidate for a life sentence because he is a mentor to his fellow inmates.
“Over the past 20 years, Moore has worked to make up for his tragic mistakes by being a loving and supportive father, grandfather and friend. He has an exemplary criminal record,” they wrote.
McMaster said he would follow the long-standing tradition in South Carolina and wait a few minutes before the start of an execution to announce whether he would grant clemency in a phone call made by execution officials. prison to see if there were any final appeals or other reasons to spare an inmate’s life.
And his lawyers said his decision whether to spare Moore’s life would be made under different circumstances than his decision to fight to have Moore’s death sentence upheld on appeal.
“Clemency is an act of grace,” the governor’s lawyers wrote. “Pardon is granted to someone who does not deserve a reprieve, so granting pardon in no way requires the decision maker to “give up” on previous work. »
