Judge rules only the governor can grant clemency to a South Carolina death row inmate

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected the request of a South Carolina man scheduled for execution next week to remove the governor’s power to grant clemency and allow someone else to consider his case. Richard Moore’s lawyers say Gov. Henry McMaster can’t fairly decide whether to reduce his death sentence to life in prison because he was a state attorney general during Moore’s appeals and told reporters in 2022 that he had no intention of commuting Moore’s sentence. But Judge Mary Geiger Lewis has ruled that the governor is the only one given the right to grant clemency under the state constitution. Moore is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 1.