South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily halts planned execution by firing squad

First execution was planned for 29 April

The South Carolina Supreme Court has temporarily paused the state’s plan to begin executing death row inmates via firing squad.

Prior to the ruling, Richard B Moore, 57, convicted of killing a store clerk in 1999, would’ve been the first person executed by firing squad under the plan, on 29 April.

Now jail officials must comply with a temporary stay.

Attorneys for Moore had asked the high court for a stay, pointing to pending litigation challenging the constitutionality of South Carolina’s execution methods.

A more thorough order from the South Carolina Supreme Court is expected, detailing their rationale for the stay.

A state judge has agreed to review a suit from Moore and three other death row inmates challenging South Carolina’s use of the electric chair and firing squad as “barbaric” and unconstitutional.

Separately, Moore has also asked a federal judge to scrutinise whether these methods are constitutional.

What’s more, his lawyers have sought more time to petition with the courts over Moore’s underlying sentence, arguing it is disporporionate considering the underlying crime at issue and the lack of obvious prior intent.

According to prosecutors, Richard Moore entered the convenience store where the killing of clerk James Mahoney took place while looking for money to feed a cocaine habbit.

The two men got into a dispute, and Mahoney pulled out a pistol. Moore wrestled it away from the clerk, who withdrew another gun. A gun battle followed, with Mahoney shooting Moore in the arm, and Moore shooting Mahoney in the chest.

Last year, facing a longtime shortage of lethal injection drugs, South Carolina made the electric chair its default method of exection, while offering a three-person firing squad as an alternative.

Moore opted for the firing squad, though he argued in court firings all of the options on offer were unconstitutional.

Utah is the only state to have executed someone by firing squad in modern US history, most recently in 2010.

On paper, four states retain the punishment—Utah, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Mississippi—while eight still use the electric chair, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Independent and the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) have launched a joint campaign calling for an end to the death penalty in the US. The RBIJ has attracted more than 150 well-known signatories to their Business Leaders Declaration Against the Death Penalty - with The Independent as the latest on the list. We join high-profile executives like Ariana Huffington, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson as part of this initiative and are making a pledge to highlight the injustices of the death penalty in our coverage.