A prison in South Carolina is set to execute its very first death row inmate in 11 years. The state is now offering prisoners the choice to select death by firing squad after corrections invested $53,600 on restorations. The execution of Richard Bernard Moore, 57, was at first arranged for November 2020, however, his execution was postponed by the South Carolina Supreme Court after jail authorities could not acquire lethal injection drugs.
South Carolina has actually been not able to buy lethal injection drugs for several years now as U.S. pharmaceutical companies seek to limit how the product is used, which led to executions in numerous states across the country being postponed.
Moore had his execution rescheduled to April 29 by the state’s Supreme Court on Thursday, and he might end up being the state’s very first death by firing squad. He is sentenced to death for fatally shooting corner store clerk James Mahoney during a heist in 1999.
Throughout Moore’s 2001 trial, district attorneys stated he went into the shop trying to find the cash to support his drug dependency and entered a disagreement with Mahoney, who drew a handgun that Moore battled far from him.
Mahoney pulled a second weapon, and a gunfight occurred. Mahoney shot Moore in the arm, and Moore shot Mahoney in the chest. District attorneys stated Moore left a path of blood through the shop as he tried to find money, stepping two times over Mahoney.
At the time, Moore declared that he acted in self-defense after Mahoney drew the very first weapon.
According to state law, death row prisoners can pick in between the electric chair and firing squad– or lethal injection if they are offered in the state.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) revealed last month that authorities finished remodeling the capital punishment center at Broad River Correctional Institution in Colombia to “include the capacity to perform an execution by firing squad,” the SCDC stated in a press release.
South Carolina is among 4 states in the United States that permit a firing squad. Other states that permit the technique are Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The death sentence is legal in 24 states, while 3 states have moratoriums in place.
State Sen. Cock Harpootlian, a Democrat, argued that death by firing squad provides “the least painful” execution technique readily available.
“The death penalty is going to stay the law here for a while,” Harpootlian said. “If we’re going to have it, it ought to be humane.”
To date, there are 37 prisoners on death row in the state. The last individual performed in South Carolina was Jeffrey Motts, who passed away by lethal injection in May 2011. Motts was sentenced to death after killing his cellmate while currently serving a life sentence for fatally shooting 2 senior individuals throughout a break-in.
Sources NTD News, The AP
H/T The Epoch Times
