CHARLESTON COUNTY, SC (WCIV) — Despite thousands of signatures and calls for change, Governor Henry McMaster did not grant clemency to Richard Moore on Friday, allowing the state to proceed with his execution. This death row inmate is now the second person to be put to death since the reinstatement of the death penalty in South Carolina.

Community members gathered Friday evening for a prayer vigil held at the Cokesbury United Methodist Church to honor the life of Richard Moore. A single church bell tolled as the names of each of the people put to death in South Carolina since 1999 were called, adding Moore to the list.

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty says community vigils like these are meant to provide space for grief surrounding the death penalty.

Moore was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Friday at 6 p.m. for the 1999 shooting death of convenience store clerk James Mahoney. Moore is the second person to be put to death in South Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated after a 13-year hiatus. No other South Carolina death penalty case involves an unarmed defendant who says he defended himself when the victim threatened him with a gun after Moore tried to rob him.

During the ceremony, Senior Pastor Rev. Bryan Pigfod said: “At these vigils we like to try to fill in a little bit of Richard’s story and give us a fuller view of the human being than is Richard in relation to the two-dimensional vision that is so often present. focused on. »

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The reverend shared stories about Moore’s relationships with his children, his connections with other inmates and clergy, and his path to faith that played an integral role in his life.

Moore was the last black person in South Carolina to be sentenced to death row by an all-white jury, and his case was deeply politicized during the Spartanburg County district attorney’s primary campaign at the time. The clergy leading the vigil say it is important to continue fighting for change in our communities.

“It shows that even though the momentum is building slowly, it’s definitely building and we’ll see more and more people come out and say, please don’t kill in my name,” Rev. Pigford said to News 4.

The vigil, in partnership with South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, was one of several held across the state and comes after South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty handed in thousands of signatures to Governor McMaster calling on him to grant Moore clemency and reduce his sentence to life in prison.

McMaster ultimately showed Moore no mercy. The executive director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said vigils like the one held in North Charleston are a space for mourning, but also a place for change, serving as a catalyst for our communities to move forward by turning grief into action .

“It is also a call-to-action space through which we help connect people to our activism and work to abolish the death penalty and catalyze criminal justice reform in South Carolina.” , executive director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Rev. Hillary Taylor. said.

Leaders of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said Moore should never have been sentenced to death and believe that if his case had gone to trial today, his fate would have been different.