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 argued that Gov. Henry McMaster could not fairly decide whether to reduce Moore’s death sentence to life in prison because he was a state attorney general who oversaw prosecutors fighting Moore’s appeals. McMaster also told reporters that he had no intention of commuting Moore's sentence in 2022 when an execution date was set and then canceled.
