A Black man convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death for a killing he claims was in self-defense is to be executed in the US state of South Carolina on Friday.
Richard Moore, 59, is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at a prison in Columbia, the state capital, barring a last-minute grant of clemency from the governor.
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,…
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