Death Row Inmate Chooses Firing Squad as Execution Method in South Carolina

Michael LucianoApr 15th, 2022, 10:03 pm
 

South Carolina execution room

A death row inmate in South Carolina has decided to be executed by firing squad, The State newspaper reported.

The other option for Richard Moore was electrocution via the state’s 110-year old electric chair. He is set to be executed by a three-person firing squad on April 29. Lethal injection was not an option.

Moore, 57, has been on death row since 2001. He made his decision formal on Friday and issued a statement.

“I believe this election is forcing me to choose between two unconstitutional methods of execution, and I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” Moore said.

Moore was convicted in 2001 and did not dispute his guilt.

In 1999, he entered a convenience store in Spartanburg County with the purpose of robbing it. Moore was unarmed, but the clerk had a gun that the two fought over. In the ensuing struggle the gun went off and fatally wounded the clerk. Moore also shot at a bystander and missed.

A jury found Moore guilty after two hours of deliberation.

State reporter Caitlyn Byrd, who broke the news of Moore’s decision, tweeted a photo released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

“The firing squad chair is on the left,” she wrote. “The covered chair is the electric chair, which doesn’t move.”

South Carolina enacted a law in 2021 making electrocution the default method of execution in the state, and it allows the condemned to opt for a firing squad.

Barring an intervention from the governor or a court, Moore would be the first prisoner in the United States executed by firing squad since 2010 when Utah used the method.

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Michael Luciano - Senior Editor

Mike is a Mediaite senior editor who covers the news in primetime. Follow him on Bluesky.