Federal Court Dismisses Claims of Bias and Rules South Carolina Governor Has Sole Authority in Richard Moore’s Clemency Case

On October 21, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has the sole power to grant clemency to Richard Moore. In response to allegations of bias presented by Mr. Moore’s counsel, Judge Lewis said that “[t]he Court is confident… Governor McMaster will give full, thoughtful, and careful consideration to any clemency petition filed by Moore, giving both comprehensive and individualized attention to the unique circumstances of his case.” This decision comes ahead of Mr. Moore’s scheduled November 1, 2024. State law now forces prisoners to choose their method of execution or be executed with the default method of electrocution; Mr. Moore selected lethal injection as his execution method.  

Mr. Moore’s lawyers had asked the court to stay his execution and designate clemency power to the state parole board, which is responsible for granting clemency in non-capital cases, or another neutral party, such as the lieutenant governor. Mr. Moore’s petition alleged that Gov. McMaster could not reasonably act as a neutral party in this case given his previous role as attorney general, as well as statements made in 2022 indicating he had “no intention” of granting clemency to Mr. Moore ahead of a possible execution date. “For Moore to receive clemency, McMaster would have to renounce years of his own work and that of his former colleagues in the Office of the Attorney General,” Mr. Moore’s petition said. 

Judge Lewis found that Gov. McMaster’s previous position as attorney general did not preclude him from making a clemency decision in this case, nor did his earlier statement. “Governor McMaster’s statement was made nearly two-and-a-half years ago. At the time, Moore had yet to file a petition proposing any grace-oriented grounds for clemency, and the only basis upon which Governor McMaster could evaluate Moore’s sentence was through his knowledge of Moore’s exhaustive legal proceedings, which had thus far been unfavorable to Moore and served only to reaffirm his sentence,” Judge Lewis wrote.  

Mr. Moore, a Black man, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1999 killing of a store clerk. He had entered the store unarmed, intending to rob it. After being threatened by the clerk who had weapons, Mr. Moore defended himself, resulting in the death of the clerk James Mahoney. Lawyers for Mr. Moore highlight that he is the only South Carolina death row prisoner to have been sentenced by a jury with no Black jurors, and if executed, he would be the first put to death in the state’s modern death penalty era who was unarmed initially and subsequently defended himself when threatened.  

Earlier this year, South Carolina resumed executions after 13 years, a pause the state attributes to its difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. On September 20, 2024, the state executed Freddie “Khalil” Owens, despite a codefendant’s last-minute admission that he was not present at the crime scene. Gov. McMaster did not grant Mr. Owens clemency, nor has any South Carolina governor done so during the modern death penalty era. If executed, Mr. Moore would be the second person executed by the state this year. The state’s next tentatively scheduled execution is that of Marion Bowman on November 29, 2024. Three other death row prisoners who have exhausted their appeals are expected to receive execution dates five-weeks apart.