On April 15, South Carolina inmate Richard Moore decided what his fate would be at the end of the month. Moore, who had been on death row for 21 years, decided to choose a three-man firing squad over the electric chair.
Moore became South Carolina’s first state prisoner to face that choice after a state law took effect last year that makes electrocution a default method of execution but also gives the inmate a choice of facing three volunteers with rifles instead. He would be only the fourth American to be executed by a firing squad since 1976.
Moore is facing the death penalty for a murder committed during a convenience store robbery in 1999. Moore walked into Nikki’s Speedy Mart with the goal of robbing the store and ended up getting into a fight with the store clerk, who had a gun. During the fight, the gun went off and killed the store clerk, and Moore took the gun and fired a shot at a bystander, but missed.
He was later involved in a car accident, and when police arrived at the scene, he surrendered and said “I did it.” Police found a Nikki’s Speedy Mart cash bag containing $1,408 in the truck.
In 2001, Moore was convicted of murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, and assault with the intent to kill. The prosecutor sought and won the death penalty, as Moore did not dispute his guilt.
The execution is set to take place on April 29, and if so, Moore would be the first person put to death in the state since 2011.
