Richard Bernard Moore, who is scheduled to be the first man to be executed in South Carolina in over 10 years, has chosen to be executed by firing squad rather than in the electric chair, according to court documents filed Friday.
Who is Richard Bernard Moore?
The 57-year-old is convicted in the 1999 murder of convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg during a robbery. He has already spent over 20 years in prison and is set to be executed on April 29. If the execution goes as planned, he would be the first person put to death in South Carolina since 2011.
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Last year, a law went into effect making electrocution the default and giving inmates the choice to face three prison workers with rifles instead. The law was prompted by the decadelong break, which corrections officials attribute to an inability to procure the drugs required to perform the lethal injection.
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In a court filing, Moore opted to die by firing squad over the electric chair.
His attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to delay his death, arguing that prisons officials aren’t trying hard enough to get the lethal injection drugs and are instead forcing prisoners to choose between two more “barbaric methods.”
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Moore also said in a statement on Friday that he will not lose hope in two pending court challenges to the constitutionality of death penalty methods used in South Carolina.
“I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” he said in the statement.
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South Carolina is among four states in the United States that allow a firing squad and among the eight states that still use the electric chair.
