Richard Moore Death Row South Carolina: Death Row Inmate Chooses Firing Squad

A man sentenced to death in South Carolina has chosen the firing squad over the electric chair, making him the state’s first death row inmate to be executed by firing squad.

Richard Bernard Moore, 57, would also be the first person executed in South Carolina in more than a decade, due to the state’s inability to get the drugs needed for lethal injection.

Moore, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of a convenience store worker, will be put to death on April 29.

Moore’s attorney, Lindsey Vann, told CNN on Friday that they had requested the state Supreme Court to put the execution on hold so they can appeal his conviction to the US Supreme Court.

The South Carolina legislature approved a law last year making electrocution the state’s principal method of execution, while death row inmates can opt for a firing squad or lethal injection if those alternatives are available.

Moore’s appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which claimed his death sentence was disproportionate to penalties issued in similar cases, was denied on April 6.