South Carolina Gov. McMaster says he will be fair in clemency decision for Spartanburg man

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has told the United States District Court that he will be fair when deciding Richard Moore's request for clemency.

According to district court fillings , McMaster declared in a sworn statement that he would be fair and impartial regarding clemency or petitions dealing with death row inmates, including Moore.

Moore's attorneys at the Columbia-based law firm Justice 360 filed a lawsuit questioning McMaster’s impartiality because of his former job as South Carolina Attorney General and his role in defending Moore’s death sentence. McMaster was the state's top attorney from 2002-2011.  On Oct. 15, District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis asked McMaster to swear impartialness.

Lewis said she would have a final decision on the case but did not set a date. Moore is scheduled for execution on Nov. 1.

In a document filed alongside the sworn statement, McMaster’s chief legal counsel, Thomas Limehouse Jr., said that the governor doesn’t want to make similar sworn statements in the future.

“By voluntarily providing this Declaration, however, Governor McMaster does not intend to submit any such affirmations in the future or open the door for courts to invite, request, or require the same or similar statements in the context of future clemency matters.”

McMaster’s legal team argued three reasons for not making similar statements in the future — there is no judicial authority that would require him to submit a declaration; also, requesting or requiring a similar sworn statement from the governor risks intruding upon his authority, and requesting affirmation from the governor creates burden-shifting and it's unnecessary when needing it to refute Justice 360's arguments.

More: Spartanburg man on South Carolina death row will be put to death on Nov. 1

Moore was sentenced to death on Oct. 22, 2001. A jury found him guilty of murder for shooting 42-year-old James Mahoney on Sept. 16, 1999, at Nikki's Speedy Mart in Spartanburg's Whitney Community. On Oct. 4, the state Supreme Court sent a notice to execute Moore.

Moore's execution would be the second in five weeks in South Carolina, which previously had not had an execution in more than a decade. Freddie Owens of Greenville was executed on Sept. 20.

On Friday, Moore elected lethal injection as the method of execution. Owens also was executed via lethal injection. South Carolina uses the drug pentobarbital for its lethal injections.

Lindsey Vann, lead attorney for Justice 360, did not respond to requests for comment.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina Gov. McMaster says he will be fair in clemency decision for Spartanburg man