Change.org Petition: Stop the Execution of Richard Moore AGAIN

Stop the Execution of Richard Moore AGAIN 2,024 have signed Courtney McClain’s petition. Let’s get to 2,500!

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On January 5th, 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court will hear lawyers argue the constitutionality of executions by the firing squad and electric chair as modes of execution in South Carolina. This means Richard Moore, a death row inmate who’s sentencing was temporarily halted in April, is in danger of being executed once again. Mr. Moore was convicted and sentenced to death for the alleged murder of a white male store owner by an all white jury (11 White and 1 Latino) during what was reported to be a robbery.  Mr. Moore entered a convenience store unarmed with no intent to kill, and did not own the gun that was fired during the altercation. The owner of the store was killed during the incident.  During the 2021 legislative session, South Carolina state lawmakers passed a law that would require death row inmates to choose between the electric chair or a firing squad, with electrocution the default if they declined to choose. Moore was forced to make the decision to die by the state’s 110-year-old electric chair or a three-man firing squad, of which he chose firing squad. Moore would be the first person South Carolina has put to death since 2011.  But, in September of 2022, Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman, found both the firing squad and electric chair unconstitutional due deeming them cruel and unusual. Judge Newman wrote in her opinion regarding the reinstatement of these execution methods, “In doing so, the General Assembly ignored advances in scientific research and evolving standards of humanity and decency.” People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43 % of total executions since 1976 and 55 % of those currently awaiting execution. Furthermore, since October 2002, 12 people have been executed where the defendant was white and the murder victim black, compared with 178 black defendants executed for murders with white victims. In a state known for wrongfully convicting the youngest person in American history to death, 14 year old George Stinney, the reinstatement of these methods are barbaric, démodé, and must be abolished. We demand justice for Richard Moore and request that he be granted clemency.

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