Richard Moore’s previous criminal record and Gov. Henry McMaster’s review of Moore’s clemency petition, court transcripts and court rulings led the state’s chief executive to deny the condemned man’s request for clemency, The State newspaper reported.
Moore was executed Friday for the September 1999 murder of James Mahoney, a convenience store clerk in Spartanburg.
McMaster said that a review of the documents in the case portrayed a different person than who was discussed in the media.
“The perception, the picture painted of Mr. Moore, that most people are familiar with from reading stories about it is, in my estimation, is not the same one that’s presented by the facts in that record which I read,” The State quoted McMaster as saying after he voted Tuesday.
“Well, that’s why you have to read those things, is to see what’s been exaggerated, what’s been minimized, what’s been left out to try to get a complete picture, which you often can’t get from stories on television or in the newspaper. You have to have to do a little bit of reading, a little bit of digging.”
The governor also said that he had spoken with Mahoney’s family, but did not reveal the conversation’s details, and that Moore had earlier convictions for violent robberies and assaults in Michigan and Spartanburg.
Prosecutors have said the shooting happened when Moore robbed the store to pay for his addiction, but Moore said that it came about over a purchase.
Moore had said he was 12 cents short when Mahoney rang up Moore’s beer and cigarettes, the newspaper report said. The men argued over whether Moore could take money from a change cup to make up the difference.
When Mahoney drew a pistol, Moore wrestled it from his hand. Mahoney drew a second pistol, and the men fired at each other from “nearly point blank range,” The State reported. Moore was hit in the arm while Mahoney was mortally wounded in the heart.