Records obtained by the Guardian indicate shooters did not hit Mikal Mahdi according to protocol, which lawyers say caused prolonged suffering

A South Carolina firing squad botched the execution of Mikal Mahdi last month, with shooters missing the target area on the man’s heart, causing him to suffer a prolonged death, according to autopsy records and his attorneys.

Mahdi, 42, was shot dead by corrections employees last month in the second firing squad execution this year in South Carolina. The state has aggressively revived capital punishment over the last seven months and brought back the controversial firearm method that has rarely been used in the modern death penalty era.

Autopsy documents and a photo reviewed by the Guardian, along with analysis commissioned by Mahdi’s lawyers, suggest the execution did not occur according to protocol, and that Mahdi endured pain beyond the “10-to-15 second” window of consciousness that was expected.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
    14·
    3 days ago

    Mahdi’s lawyers said “a massive botch is exactly what happened”: “Mr Mahdi elected the firing squad, and this court sanctioned it, based on the assumption that SCDC could be entrusted to carry out its straightforward steps: locating the heart; placing a target over it; and hitting that target. That confidence was clearly misplaced.”

    “I don’t think any reasonable, objective observer can look at what happened and think we can keep setting execution dates,” David Weiss, Madhi’s lawyer who sat as a witness, said in an interview. “I heard Mikal’s cries of pain and agony, and I don’t want that to happen to somebody else.”