Firing squad mostly missed South Carolina inmate’s heart, causing him to ‘scream and groan,’ lawyers say
This photo provided by South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Mikal Mahdi. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
The April 11 firing squad execution of South Carolina inmate Mikal Mahdi was “a massive botch” because the bullets “largely missed his heart,” according to a report filed by his attorneys with the state supreme court.
The May 8 report cites autopsy results showing Mahdi apparently was shot with only two bullets, rather than three as required. Those bullets entered Mahdi’s body just above his abdomen, destroying his liver and pancreas. Bullet fragments perforated the right ventricle of his heart.
Mahdi remained conscious as his heart continued to pump blood from his wounds into the chest cavity, the report alleged.
Mahdi remained conscious for at least 15 seconds and possibly as long as 60 seconds, according to an analysis of the autopsy by forensic pathologist Jonathan Arden, who was hired by the lawyers.
The autopsy results explain why witnesses to the execution heard Mahdi “scream and groan both when he was shot and nearly a minute afterward,” the report says.
NBC, NPR, the Guardian and Fox News are among the publications that covered the report.
South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain told the Guardian that three bullets did hit Mahdi, but two of them entered through the same wound. She also said the bullets struck Mahdi’s heart before hitting other organs.
Arden had said it would be “extraordinarily uncommon” for two bullets to enter a single wound.
One of Mahdi’s lawyers, assistant federal public defender David Weiss, was a witness to the execution.
“The autopsy confirms what I saw and heard,” Weiss said in a statement. “Mikal suffered an excruciating death. We don’t know what went wrong, but nothing about his execution was humane. The implications are horrifying for anyone facing the same choice as Mikal. South Carolina’s refusal to acknowledge their failures with executions cannot continue.”
Mahdi had been sentenced to death for killing an off-duty police officer in 2004 in South Carolina, according to Fox News. He was also convicted in North Carolina for the murder of a convenience store clerk.
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