Justice or Bias? South Carolina Resumes Executions After Decade-Long Hiatus

Justice or Bias? South Carolina Takes Dramatic Step Towards Resuming Executions

Get ready, folks. We’ve got a bit of a controversial one today. Spartanburg, South Carolina takes center stage due to a decision from the South Carolina Supreme Court. Nearly eleven years after the state’s last execution, it appears the gears of justice are turning once again, and the spotlight is on a man named Richard Bernard Moore.

Moore, who hails from Spartanburg, was convicted for a 1999 convenience store shooting and has been earmarked for execution on the first day of November. If it goes through, this’ll be the state’s second execution in just five weeks. As startling as that might seem, it’s just the tip of the iceberg – a total of four more are expected in 2025, following the exhaustion of appeals for several death row inmates.

Climbing Back Up The Ladder

It’s clear execution has been on a hiatus for over a decade in South Carolina. But something shifted this summer. The state Supreme Court decided, for reasons only they can explain, to allow executions to proceed again. Now we’re expecting to see them happening with a five-week gap in-between.

The Spotlight is on Moore

Moore, I should mention, is Black. I bring up his race because, according to some sources, he’s the only person on South Carolina’s death row found guilty by a jury without any African American members. So, it’s no surprise that his case caught the attention of Justice 360, a Columbia-based nonprofit dedicated to ensuring justice is truly served.

Raising three potent claims: racial bias in jury selection, a disproportionately harsh death sentence, and a prosecution tainted by racial discrimination, Justice 360 knocked on the door of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) asking for an investigation. So, in 2023, the commission issued a resolution calling on the state to shelve Moore’s execution until a thorough investigation could be conducted.

Other Fates Hanging in The Balance

Moore’s story may be grabbing the headlines, but there are a handful of other souls on death row, who’ve also exhausted their appeals and are looking at the same fate in 2025. A sticky spot for sure.

Among these hopefuls is Marion Bowman, sentenced for the 2001 murder of KanDee Louise Martin, and Brad Sigmon, convicted of killing his girlfriend’s parents. Then we have Steven Bixby, the man who shot down a sheriff deputy and state constable during a dispute over highway expansion, and lastly, Mikal Mahdi, a Virginia resident responsible for an East Coast crime spree that claimed the lives of a store clerk and a South Carolina sheriff’s captain.

All factors considered, it looks as if South Carolina is revving up its execution protocol after a stagnant decade. The looming question is whether justice will be served or prejudice will stain the decision. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.