A federal judge has rejected the request of a South Carolina man scheduled for execution next week to remove the governor's power to grant clemency and allow someone else to consider his case.

Gov. Henry McMaster can decide whether to grant clemency in the state’s upcoming execution, a federal judge decided. Ahead of Richard Moore’s execution, scheduled for Nov. 1, his attorneys argued that McMaster could not make a fair decision on whether to commute Moore’s sentence to life in prison — a last resort for

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has the authority to grant or deny condemned inmate Richard Moore's clemency application, a federal court judge has ruled.