“Who is South Carolina inmate Mikal Mahdi?”
The historical past of firing squad executions within the US
Firing squad executions have an extended historical past and are receiving renewed consideration with latest inmates selecting firing squads as their execution methodology.
- Mikal Mahdi is scheduled to be executed by firing squad in South Carolina for the 2004 homicide of a police officer.
- Mahdi’s attorneys are searching for a reprieve, citing his troubled childhood, a scarcity of ample psychological well being care and a poor protection at trial.
- South Carolina is one in all 5 states that enable execution by firing squad and executed one other man with the strategy final month.
A South Carolina loss of life row inmate whose attorneys say had a tortured previous that included “thousands of hours” of solitary confinement is ready to turn into the second man executed by firing squad within the U.S. this 12 months.
South Carolina is ready to execute 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the 2004 killing of 56-year-old Capt. James Myers, an off-duty Orangeburg Public Security officer and beloved father, was ambushed, shot 9 instances and set on fireplace on the identical spot the place he had married his spouse.
If Mahdi’s execution strikes ahead, he’ll turn into the twelfth inmate executed within the U.S. this 12 months and the third in South Carolina.
Mahdi’s attorneys are arguing that he must be spared as a result of he by no means obtained the psychological well being care he “desperately needed” as a toddler who repeatedly threatened suicide and endured “extraordinary abuse and trauma.”
Throughout Mahdi’s trial, prosecutor David Pascoe informed jurors that Mahdi killed Myers partially as a result of he knew he was a police officer.
“His heart and mind are full of hate and malice,” Pascoe stated on the time, in line with an archived story in The Times and Democrat. “Mikal Mahdi’s actions over the last several years have made him the epitome of evil.”
As Mahdi’s execution nears, USA TODAY is who he’s, what he did and extra concerning the uncommon execution methodology.
Why is Michael Mahdi being executed?
On July 14, 2004, Mahdi − then simply 21 years outdated − started against the law spree that spanned 4 states and included two murders.
Mahdi stole a neighbor’s gun and station wagon in his house state of Virginia and headed to North Carolina, the place he fatally shot fuel station clerk Christopher Jason Boggs, who had requested him for identification when he tried to purchase a beer, courtroom data say.
Mahdi then went to South Carolina, carjacked a person in downtown Columbia and drove 35 minutes away to a Calhoun County fuel station, the place he spent no less than 45 minutes struggling to get fuel with a rejected bank card. A retailer clerk referred to as police, prompting Mahdi to flee and ditch the automotive.
Shortly after, Mahdi arrived on the farm of Capt. James Myers. Mahdi broke right into a shed, the place he discovered weapons and laid in anticipate Myers, who had been on the seaside that day celebrating the birthdays of his spouse, sister and daughter, courtroom data say.
When Myers arrived on the shed, Mahdi attacked, taking pictures him 9 instances, pouring diesel gasoline on his physique and setting him on fireplace earlier than stealing his police truck and a number of weapons, courtroom data say.
Mahdi initially escaped to Florida however was noticed driving Myers’ truck on July 21, 2004. Police arrested him after a brief chase, and Mahdi later pleaded responsible to the homicide.
Myers’ spouse, Amy Tripp Myers, was the one who discovered his physique. The location of the homicide was additionally the place the couple had gotten married, in line with her tearful testimony throughout Mahdi’s trial.
“I found the love of my life, my soulmate, the partner that my life revolved around, lifeless, lying in a pool of blood and his body burned by someone who didn’t even know him,” she stated by means of tears. “As I screamed those blood-curdling screams of pain and anguish, I instantly knew that the man with whom I had just spent the last six years of my life dreaming of a beautiful future was gone like a vapor. I died that night and haven’t been the same person since.”
In a letter written by Mahdi and shared by his attorneys, the inmate wrote: “I’m guilty as hell … What I’ve done is irredeemable.”
Extra concerning the firing squad methodology
5 states − South Carolina, Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho − have legalized firing squads as an execution methodology, most just lately Idaho in 2023. A new bill proposed in Florida might pave the best way for firing squad executions in that state, as nicely.
On March 7, South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon by firing squad, the primary execution within the U.S. utilizing the strategy since 2010 and solely the fourth since 1977.
Firing squad executes Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina
A firing squad in South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon for the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s dad and mom in 2001.
Among the many witnesses to Sigmon’s execution was his lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King.
“Brad’s death was horrifying and violent,” King stated in a press release on the time. “It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.”
David Weiss, Mahdi’s lawyer, stated his shopper selected the firing squad for Friday’s execution as a result of it was “the lesser of three evils,” saying he risked being “burned and mutilated” in an electrical chair or “suffering a lingering death” by deadly injection.
South Carolina has defended the constitutionality of all its execution strategies. The state’s Lawyer Normal’s Workplace doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.
Who’s Michael Mahdi?
As a toddler, Mahdi’s attorneys say he suffered years of bodily and emotional abuse and was suicidal by the age of 8. By 9, he was recognized with main depressive dysfunction, and when lecturers tried to get him specialised assist, his father pulled Mahdi out of the varsity system and “subjected him to several years of paranoid, survivalist ‘home schooling,'” they wrote in courtroom data.
When he was 14, Mahdi first entered the juvenile justice system after being convicted of theft, and from then on, “spent most of the rest of his childhood in custody, often kept isolated and alone,” they stated.
Between the ages of 14 and 17, he spent greater than 75 days in solitary confinement, and spent about eight extra months in solitary by the point he was 21, in addition to being on suicide watch, his attorneys stated.
“Mikal desperately needed mental health care,” his attorneys stated in a information launch. “Instead, he languished in juvenile prison, where he spent thousands of hours in solitary confinement. We now know that punitive isolation is deeply damaging to children.”
Mahdi’s attorneys argued to the South Carolina Supreme Courtroom that the decide who sentenced him to loss of life knew virtually nothing about Mahdi’s troubled previous, data that might have resulted in a lighter sentence.
They’ve additionally criticized what they are saying was a weak protection at trial, arguing that Mahdi’s attorneys on the time spent lower than half-hour arguing towards the loss of life penalty. It “didn’t even span the length of a ‘Law & Order’ episode and was just as superficial,” they stated.
The South Carolina Supreme Courtroom unanimously declined to spare Mahdi’s life on Monday, permitting his execution to maneuver ahead.
Mahdi’s final hopes for a reprieve lie with the U.S. Supreme Courtroom and Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
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