Richard Bernard Moore (February 20, 1965 – November 1, 2024) was an American man executed in South Carolina for murder.

He was convicted of the September 1999 murder of James Mahoney, a convenience store clerk, in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

In 1997, Moore also pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for attacking a woman.

As Hadden played on a video poker machine, he saw Moore walk toward the cooler inside the store.

[11][12] After Moore left the store, Deputy Bobby Rollins, who was on the lookout for him, heard a loud bang as he was patrolling the area.

Moore had backed his pickup truck into a telephone pole approximately one and a half miles away from the crime scene.

As Rollins approached the vehicle, he saw Moore sitting in the back of the truck bleeding from the gunshot wound to his left arm.

He was then transported to the Spartanburg County jail where he was charged with armed robbery, assault and battery with intent to kill, and murder.

A bill, approved by a 66–43 vote, gave inmates the choice to die by electrocution or firing squad if lethal injection drugs were unavailable.

[24] On April 20, the South Carolina Supreme Court halted the execution and issued a temporary stay.

At the time, the South Carolina Supreme Court did not explain why they granted Moore's request for a stay, but said they would elaborate later.

[25] On August 28, 2024, Freddie Eugene Owens, another inmate on death row in South Carolina, had his execution scheduled to be carried out on September 20, 2024.

[26] Owens's execution via lethal injection was subsequently carried out as scheduled, which ended the 13-year moratorium on the state's capital punishment.

[6] Moore filed an appeal, challenging the South Carolina governor's sole right to grant clemency.

This was rejected by a federal judge, who ruled that the governor of South Carolina should have the sole prerogative to grant or refuse clemency to death row inmates.

[29] Additionally, a clemency campaign was conducted to seek the commutation of Moore's death sentence to life imprisonment.

[32] On October 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a final appeal from Moore, who sought to put his execution on hold.

He raised allegations that his trial as an African American defendant was processed with a jury filled with 11 white people and one Hispanic juror, that the prosecution allegedly removed African American prospective jurors from the jury selection, and that it potentially undermined the integrity and impartiality of a capital trial.

Former Corrections Director Jon Ozmint, who was a huge supporter of capital punishment, stated that he found Moore to be "one of several reliable and respected inmates on the row", and in comparison with those who served life terms for crimes more heinous than his own, Moore was not among the worst of worst offenders where he deserved the death penalty.