WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Black man convicted by an all-white jury in the United States (US) state of South Carolina was executed on Friday for the murder of a convenience store clerk that he claimed was in self-defense, US media reported.
Richard Moore, 59, was pronounced dead at 6.24pm after receiving a lethal injection at a prison in state capital Columbia, media witnesses said.
Governor Henry McMaster declined to issue a last-minute grant of clemency.
Moore was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1999 killing of James Mahoney, a white convenience store clerk, during what prosecutors said was a robbery attempt.
Moore’s lawyers deny he ever planned to rob the store.
He entered the store unarmed, they said, but got into an argument with Mahoney because he was 11 or 12 cents short of the money needed to make his purchase.
Mahoney allegedly pulled out two guns and Moore wrestled one away, shooting the store clerk to death while being wounded in the arm himself.
According to prosecutors, Moore stole USD1,400 and went out to buy illegal substances. He was arrested soon afterwards.
Moore’s lawyers said his death sentence was unfair and racially motivated.
“No other South Carolina death penalty case has involved an unarmed defendant who defended himself when the victim threatened him with a weapon,” they said in a statement.
