I witnessed Richard B. Moore’s execution in SC. Here’s what I experienced and saw
In the early evening of Nov. 1, Richard B. Moore was executed by the state of South Carolina for the 1999 murder of James Mahoney in Spartanburg County.
I was one of the execution witnesses.
Much of how South Carolina carries out the death penalty is by law kept from the public. We don’t know who works on the execution team or where the state obtained the pentobarbital to administer to the condemned prisoner through lethal injection.
South Carolina allows up to 10 witnesses to sit in a room adjacent to its death chamber to observe the execution at South Carolina Department of Corrections’ Broad River Road complex.
During Friday’s execution, two of Mahoney’s family members, Spartanburg County Solicitor Barry Barnette, Moore’s spiritual advisor, and Moore’s lawyer, Lindsey Vann, sat in front of three media witnesses.
A corrections official and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent sat behind us.
Traveling to the capital punishment facility
Before heading to the capital punishment facility, myself and the two other media witnesses, Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press and Brookley Cromer of Fox Carolinas, left the media staging area and were driven in a minivan in a caravan of several other vehicles with witnesses to a training facility. We waited there for about an hour.
The witnesses were kept in separate rooms preventing interactions. Collins, Cromer and I were in a room together as we waited to head over to the capital punishment facility. If we went to the restroom, we had to be escorted by a corrections official.
Upon entering the capital punishment facility, we signed a log book. The witnesses only were all together once we were in the witness room for the execution.
When media witnesses entered at 5:59 p.m., the curtain to the execution chamber was already open, Moore was laying on the bed wearing a green jumpsuit. He was strapped in with belts over his shoulders. A blanket came up to Moore’s chest.
Through bullet proof glass lined with bars, we saw Moore wearing glasses and had a cropped gray beard, appearing much older than the photographs previously circulated.
The news media witnesses were supposed to be in the room before the curtain opened and to hear Moore’s final statement read by Vann. But a miscommunication occurred on the execution team and those actions took place before we were in place.
The execution room is small. The firing squad chair and the electric chair, which are permanent fixtures of the room, weren’t visible as they were partitioned off by another curtain.
We saw three lines coming from holes in the brick wall behind Moore’s head. One was an IV line going into Moore’s outstretched left arm. Another appeared to be a second transparent tube going to his right side. A third line looked like an electrical cord similar to what’s found in hospital rooms.
Based on a digital clock to our right in the witness room, two minutes after the media witnesses entered the room, a prison official with a headset asked for permission to begin the execution.
Shortly thereafter, as the pentobarbital flowed, we heard what sounded like brief snoring, similar to someone with sleep apnea. It was several deep gasps for breaths. Then his breathing turned shallow. At 6:04 p.m., Moore’s chest appeared to stop moving.
Then we waited and observed in silence.
Mahoney’s family members, a man and woman, and Barnette, looked forward the entire time, keeping stoic expressions on their faces.
Vann held a silver cross and a folded piece of paper, presumably with Moore’s final statement. She fought back tears during the execution, but she eventually couldn’t. At 6:07 p.m. Moore’s spiritual advisor extended his hand to Vann, and they held each other’s hands for the duration of the execution.
Three prison officials stood inside the execution room with Moore. At times, they closed their eyes and bowed their heads.
At 6:22 p.m. a medical professional came into the room with a stethoscope, checked for vitals. Two minutes later, one of the prison officials in the room announced, “The case of the state of South Carolina against inmate Moore was completed at 6:24 p.m. Please exit the witness chamber.”
As we exited the witness room, we signed the witness certification and then headed back to the vehicles. Collins, Cromer and myself confirmed with each other the timing of when the execution started, when gasps for breath occurred, when breathing appeared to stop, the time of death, and other details from the room we saw.
It was this information from the quiet somber room we shared to other news media waiting outside of the Broad River Road complex after the execution.
This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 12:39 PM.
