South Carolina death row inmate Richard Moore asked how he wants to be executed

A US death row inmate is being asked to choose how he would like to be executed.

Richard Moore, 59, is sentenced to death next month for fatally shooting a shop assistant in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, in September 1999.

He must inform the state's prison authorities whether he would prefer to die by firing squad, lethal injection or electric chair before 18 October, a letter told him on Tuesday.

If he does not make a decision, he will be electrocuted by default, according to state law.

Moore is appealing to the US Supreme Court to stop the 1 November execution and is asking South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, to replace it with a life sentence without parole. A South Carolina governor has never granted clemency over the death penalty in modern times.

The 59-year-old shot dead shop assistant James Mahoney after he entered the shop he worked in hoping to rob it.

Mr Mahoney was initially unarmed, but the pair ended up in a shootout and Moore took one of Mr Mahoney's guns. He died from a bullet wound to the chest, while Moore escaped with injuries.

Moore is the only man on death row in South Carolina to have been convicted by a jury without any black members.

He is also the first person to be condemned to death who was initially unarmed - but used someone else's weapon when they were threatened by one.

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13-year pause in executions

South Carolina has put 44 prisoners to death since the punishment was reintroduced in the US in 1976.

In the early 2000s, the state was carrying out an average of three executions a year - but there has been a 13-year pause since the state stopped being able to access lethal injection drugs in 2011.

If his execution goes ahead, Moore is only the second prisoner to be put to death since they restarted.

There are currently 31 inmates on death row - 20 were removed between 2011 and 2023 - when a shield law was passed allowing South Carolina to obtain the required drug. Others have died of natural causes.

Freddie Owens was executed by lethal injection on 20 September despite him asking for more information on the pentobarbital substance being used to kill him.

State officials wrote to him to say the drug was stable enough to perform the execution.

In their letter to Moore on Tuesday, they said the electric chair, built in 1912, was tested on 3 September, and a trained firing squad is available with the appropriate ammunition to fatally shoot him.

(c) Sky News 2024: South Carolina death row inmate Richard Moore asked how he wants to be executed