SCOTUS denies stay of execution for SC death row inmate

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) – The U.S. Supreme Court will not intervene in the upcoming execution of a South Carolina death row inmate whose death sentence has sparked controversy.

Two jurors and the judge for Richard Moore’s original trial are among them over 20 people who submitted petitions asking Governor Henry McMaster to spare his life.

Moore shot James Mahoney to death at Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County in September 1999. Moore was unarmed but took one of Mahoney’s guns and killed him.

Amnesty International expressed concern about how the killing was found to be premeditated if Moore did not bring a gun to the store and the all-white jury that convicted him.

The former director of the state prison system also called for clemency for Moore, saying he deeply regrets the murder.

A day before he was to be executed, the US Supreme Court rejected Moore’s request for an emergency stay of execution.

Moore is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Friday.