Nov. 2 (UPI) — Authorities in South Carolina on Friday night carried out the execution of Richard Moore despite pleas for clemency to the state’s Republican governor.
Prison officials confirmed Moore was pronounced dead following lethal injection at 6:24 p.m. EDT at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to intervene following a request by Moore and his legal team for clemency, paving the way for the execution.
Several of Moore’s supporters, including two former jury members and the judge who presided over his murder trial, signed a petition calling for McMaster to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
McMaster was expected to wait until the last minute before making a decision.
Moore was sentenced to die for the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk James Mahoney during a robbery in Spartanburg S.C.