In response to courtroom paperwork, demise row inmate Richard Moore has determined to die by firing squad somewhat than the electrical chair later this month. Richard is the primary state prisoner to face this selection of execution strategies for the reason that legislation went into impact final yr.
“I imagine this election is forcing me to decide on between two unconstitutional strategies of execution, and I don’t intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” Richard mentioned within the assertion.
Richard was convicted in 2001 of armed theft and the homicide of a comfort retailer clerk in Spartanburg County in 1999. His legal professionals have requested the state Supreme Court docket to delay Richard’s execution so the U.S. Supreme Court docket can determine if his demise sentence was a disproportionate punishment in comparison with related crimes. Nonetheless, South Carolina state justices denied the same attraction final week.
“The demise penalty needs to be reserved for individuals who commit probably the most heinous crimes in our society, and I don’t imagine Moore’s crimes rise to that degree,” Supreme Court docket Affiliate Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in a 14 web page dispute.
Many supporters have additionally argued that Richard’s crime doesn’t rise to the extent of heinousness in different demise penalty instances within the state. His appeals legal professionals have mentioned that as a result of Moore didn’t deliver a gun into retailer, he couldn’t have supposed to kill somebody when he walked in.
Richard is scheduled to be executed on April twenty ninth. He’s the primary individual executed in South Carolina since Jeffrey Motts in 2011. An inmate on demise row for strangling a cellmate whereas serving a life sentence for an additional homicide.
