Entries tagged with “Richard Moore”
Mar 28, 2025
“He Looks a Little Like the Defendant”: A Closer Look at the History of Racial Bias in Jury Selection
As closing arguments of his trial began in Johnston County, North Carolina, Hasson Bacote watched as Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler urged the jury to sentence him to death. Mr. Bacote, a Black man, had been convicted of fatally shooting 18-year-old Anthony Surles during a robbery when Mr. Bacote was just 21 years old. Mr. Bacote admitted he had fired a single shot out of a trailer, but said he did not know that he hit anyone. “Hasson Bacote is a thug: cold-blooded and without…
Methods of Execution
,Mar 04, 2025
South Carolina Preparing for State’s First Firing Squad Execution, Marking First Firing Squad Execution in U.S. in 15 Years
South Carolina law requires Brad Sigmon to “elect” how the state will kill him on March 7, 2025 — and he opted for death by firing squad. His choices were lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad, with electrocution the default method of execution if no election is made. According to Mr. Sigmon’s attorney, Gerald “Bo” King, Mr. Sigmon chose the firing squad out of concern about problems with the state’s lethal injection protocol. Since Mr. Sigmon’s decision on February 21, 2025, his…
Conditions on Death Row
,Dec 05, 2024
Hidden Casualties: Executions Harm Mental Health of Prison Staff
In March, Oklahoma officials asked the state’s high court to increase the time between executions from 60 to 90 days, citing the “lasting trauma” and “psychological toll” of executions on corrections officers. But Judge Gary Lumpkin dismissed these concerns, telling officials that prison staff needed to “suck it up” and “man up.” A few weeks later, Brian Dorsey was executed in Missouri after the governor ignored the pleas of an unprecedented 72 corrections officers to grant him clemency. “We…
Nov 01, 2024
Prisoners With Executions Dates in South Carolina and Idaho File Requests for Clemency
Attorneys for South Carolina death row prisoner Richard Moore (pictured) filed a clemency petition with Governor Henry McMaster, asking him to commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Moore has garnered support from a wide range of individuals, including the former director of South Carolina Department of Corrections Jon Ozmint. In a letter to Gov. McMaster, Mr. Ozmint writes about how Mr. Moore’s “story of redemption” and good behavior will allow him to…
Upcoming Executions
,Oct 22, 2024
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.”
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 06, 2024
South Carolina Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Constitutionality of Electrocution and Firing Squad, Considers Scope of Secrecy Law
On February 6, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Owens v. Stirling, a case in which death-sentenced prisoners challenged the state’s electrocution and firing squad execution methods as unconstitutional. A South Carolina trial court had previously held an extensive evidentiary hearing and issued an injunction against use of those methods based on the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel,” “unusual,” or “corporal” punishments. For almost 90 minutes the…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Feb 09, 2023
South Carolina Supreme Court Blocks Efforts to Conceal Lethal Injection Information
On January 26, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered the state to turn over information about its attempts to obtain lethal injection drugs, as part of a suit challenging aspects of the state’s methods of execution. South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011, stating that it was too difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs. The Court’s order required the state to disclose what efforts it has made to acquire them. A lower court had ruled that the alternate methods of…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Oct 11, 2022
South Carolina Supreme Court to Hear Argument One Month Sooner on Constitutionality of Electric Chair and Firing Squad
The South Carolina Supreme Court will hear argument one month sooner on the state’s appeal of a trial court ruling that declared two of its statutorily methods of execution — death by electric chair and firing squad — unconstitutional. The argument will now be held on December 13, 2022 in the Supreme Court Courtroom in Columbia. Argument initially had been set for January 12, 2023 at Coastal Carolina University. The court did not provide any explanation for the scheduling change. The appeal…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Sep 09, 2022
South Carolina Trial Court Rules in Favor of Death-Row Prisoners Challenging Execution Methods
A South Carolina trial court has issued an injunction preventing the state from carrying out executions using a firing squad or the electric chair, ruling that those methods violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel, unusual, and corporal punishments.” In a 38-page opinion issued September 6, 2022, Richland County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) opinion offered a sweeping condemnation of the state’s 2021 method-of-execution statute, which made the…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Methods of Execution
,Aug 18, 2022
South Carolina Court Set to Rule on Prisoners’ Challenge to Electric Chair and Firing Squad Executions After Completion of Methods of Execution Trial
A decision on the constitutionality of South Carolina’s newly adopted execution methods now rests in the hands a trial court judge after lawyers for death-row prisoners and the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) presented four days of conflicting expert testimony about the amount of pain suffered during firing squad and electric chair executions. The trial before Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman (pictured) was conducted in response to a lawsuit filed on March 21, 2022 by…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,Aug 04, 2022
As Trial in South Carolina Execution-Method Challenge Begins, Review of State’s Death Penalty Reveals System that is Biased, Arbitrary, and Error-Prone
As the trial challenging South Carolina’s execution methods began on August 1, 2022, a review of the state’s death penalty by the Greenville News revealed a pattern of discrimination, geographic arbitrariness, and high error rates in the implementation of the punishment. In a two-part examination, reporter Kathryn Casteel analyzed racial and county demographics on death row, reversal rates in capital cases, and the timing of death sentences to provide context for the state’s efforts to…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Apr 26, 2022
Executions Halted in South Carolina Amid Challenges to Constitutionality of Firing Squad and Electric Chair
The South Carolina Supreme Court has halted two scheduled executions, including one that would have been the state’s first execution by firing squad, amid ongoing legal challenges by state death-row prisoners to the state’s execution methods. In separate orders, the state’s high court issued stays of execution for Richard Moore, who was scheduled to be put to death by firing squad on April 29, 2022, and to Brad Sigmon, who faced a May 13, 2022 execution date. It was the third stay of execution…
Issues
Methods of Execution
,May 06, 2021
South Carolina Legislature Authorizes Use of Electric Chair and Firing Squad as State Reaches 10 Years Without an Execution
One day shy of the tenth anniversary of the state’s last execution, the South Carolina legislature, frustrated by the state’s inability to obtain execution drugs, approved a bill that would authorize putting prisoners to death in the electric chair or by firing squad. On May 5, 2021, the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 66 – 43 to approve Senate Bill 200, bringing the bill closer to final passage. The State Senate passed an earlier version of the bill on March 2 by a vote of 32 – 11.
Issues
Dec 02, 2020
Citing State’s Lack of Execution Drugs, South Carolina Supreme Court Stays Richard Moore’s Execution
Saying that the state lacked the ability to carry out a lethal injection, the South Carolina Supreme Court has stayed the scheduled December 4, 2020 execution of Richard Moore (pictured). With no state executions scheduled for the remainder of the year, the stay means that states will carry out fewer executions in 2020 than in any year since 1983. In an order issued November 30, the court wrote that it had “been advised the South Carolina Department of Corrections does not have, and will not…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Methods of Execution
,Nov 20, 2020
South Carolina Seeks to Execute Richard Moore December 4, But Won’t Say How
South Carolina has issued a death warrant to execute Richard Moore (pictured) on December 4, 2020, but, his lawyers say, the state has refused to tell him how it intends to carry it out. In a motion to stay Moore’s execution, filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court on November 16, Moore’s lawyers say that “the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) has provided no information about how it intends to carry out the … execution,” preventing Moore from making an intelligent selection…
Issues
Military
,Mar 06, 2020
News Brief — Recent Death-Penalty Decisions Through March 6
NEWS (3/6/20): The United States Court of Military Appeals has upheld the conviction and death sentence of Timothy Hennis, following his acquittal in North Carolina on the same charges. The court’s ruling, issued on February 28, rejected Hennis’ challenges to the military court’s jurisdiction to try him for a May 1985 rape and triple murder. Hennis had been convicted of the charges in the North Carolina state courts in July 1986 and was sentenced to death. On appeal, the North Carolina Supreme…