On April 23, we emailed about South Carolinian Richard Moore's planned April 29 execution by firing squad: There was a temporary stay issued by the South Carolina Supreme Court that halted that execution, but the execution is still possible. We and our partners are still fighting to stop the execution entirely – we don't believe in inhumane state-sanctioned murder.
Advocates rallied at the State House on Saturday, April 23, against the execution and death penalty in our state.
On April 27 at the State House, we joined coalition partners, including the NAACP of South Carolina and South Carolinians Against the Death Penalty, for a press conference calling for Governor McMaster to intervene.
"The ACLU of South Carolina continues to fight against the death penalty in the United States and here in South Carolina," said ACLU of South Carolina Interim Executive Director Karen Culbreath. "This is a fight that we must all fight together."
"We do not believe that death has a place – that execution has a place – in our criminal justice system, in our state's government, in any kind of department of corrections," Interim convener of the South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Reverand Hillary Taylor said. "One in nine sentences has to be overturned. If we had airplanes where one in nine planes crashed, there would be a problem, and we would stop that. Within the executions we have done, there have been at least six cases of botched executions with the electric chair."
We need you to stay in this fight. Tell Governor McMaster to stop this execution.
Your voice matters.
In solidarity,
ACLU of South Carolina
