Death row lawyer criticizes 'broken system'

SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX Carolina) – Hours before an Upstate man is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection, his attorney spoke to FOX Carolina about why she believes he deserves clemency.

FOX Carolina reporter Brookley Cromer was selected as a media witness to the execution of Richard Moore. He was convicted of the 1999 murder of James Mahoney, a clerk at Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County.

Several jurors and the judge in Moore’s original case have written petitions to Governor Henry McMaster to spare his life. Governor’s clemency, something no South Carolina governor has granted in modern history, is Moore’s last chance.

Barring that, Moore will be put to death Friday evening.

Lindsey Vann, executive director of Justice360, said Moore has recovered from drug addiction while behind bars and has turned his life around.

“We have the person of Richard Moore, who has shown tremendous growth and reform in the time since he was sent to death row and so he has really demonstrated the rehabilitation that is the goal of our Department of Corrections,” Vann said.

Vann also expressed concerns about the way the death penalty is handed out in South Carolina.

“It shows that our system is completely arbitrary,” she said. “There is no rhyme or reason to who gets the death penalty and who doesn’t. You know, if you take a look, you see so many terrible cases that they don’t even decide to seek the death penalty. I think of Todd Kohlhepp in Spartanburg, the same county that Richard Moore came from. They didn’t even seek the death penalty in that case, so I think that shows that the system is broken.”

Kohlhepp, a serial killer who admitted to seven murders, was sentenced to life in prison.