A murderer on death row in South Carolina who elected to face a firing squad has claimed he was given no choice as he launched an appeal against his death penalty.

Richard Bernard Moore, 57, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murder, assault with intent to kill, armed robbery and a firearms violation in 2001.

He said he was forced to choose between death by electrocution or firing squad due to a shortage of lethal injection chemicals, arguing that both methods are “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Drugs firms refuse to supply lethal ingredients

Recent US executions elsewhere have been carried out by lethal injection but South Carolina has been forced to abandon that method because drug manufacturers are refusing to supply the necessary ingredients.

As a result, Moore was forced to choose between the electric chair or a firing squad.

A firing squad has been used only three times in the United States since 1976 – all in the western state of Utah – when the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment.

In court records, Moore said he disagreed with even having to make the decision.

“I do not believe or concede that either the firing squad or electrocution is legal or constitutional,” he said.

“I do not believe the Department [of Corrections] should be allowed to certify that a statutorily prescribed method, such as lethal injection, is unavailable without demonstrating a good faith effort to make it available.

“However, I more strongly oppose death by electrocution. Because the department says I must choose between firing squad or electrocution or be executed by electrocution I will elect firing squad.

“I do not intend to waive any challenges to electrocution or firing squad by making an election,” he added.

If executed as scheduled on April 29, he would be the first person put to death in the state since 2011 and the fourth in the country to die by firing squad in nearly 50 years.

Electrocution has been used for seven of the 43 executions carried out in South Carolina since 1985. The last time was in 2008.

Cruel and unusual punishment

There have been three executions in the United States this year and there were 11 in 2021, down from 17 in 2020.

Moore’s attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to delay his death while another court determines if either available method is cruel and unusual punishment.

His lawyers are also asking the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so the US Supreme Court can review whether his death sentence was a disproportionate punishment compared with similar crimes. The state justices denied a similar appeal last week.

South Carolina’s corrections agency said last month that it finished developing protocols for firing squad executions and completed $53,600 (£41,000) in renovations on the death chamber in Columbia, installing a metal chair with restraints that faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15ft away.

In the case of a firing squad execution, three volunteer prison workers will train their rifles on the condemned prisoner’s heart.