A murderer on death row who killed an off-duty police officer decades ago opted to be executed by firing squad on Friday.
Mikal Mahdi gave no final statement after making his decision, the second time the rare execution method has been used in South Carolina alone in the past five weeks. It has a long and violent association around the world, though, used historically to punish mutinies and desertion in armies.
But, just like murderer Brad Sigmon last month, Mahdi, 42, picked firing squad on Friday and three prison volunteers each shot one bullet at the man. He cried out as the shots hit him and, within four minutes of the impact, was declared dead by a medic.
During the execution in Columbia, South Carolina, Mahdi did not look to his right toward the nine witnesses in the room behind bulletproof glass and bars. He took loud gasps after the three bullets hit his chest area and, after the medic assessed him for little over one minute, the death was confirmed at 6.05pm.
Mahdi is the fifth inmate executed by South Carolina in less than eight months as the state makes its way through prisoners who ran out of appeals during an unintended 13-year pause on executions in the state.
When Sigmon was up last month, the killer became the first US firing squad death in 15 years and only the fourth since 1976. He insisted it was more humane than the electric chair and being “tortured by lethal injection”.
Mahdi, whose last meal was ribeye steak – cooked medium – mushroom risotto, broccoli, collard greens, cheesecake and sweet tea, agreed with Sigmon’s opinion and also opted for the rare method. His was the 12th execution in the US this year.
The man had killed off-duty police officer James Myers in 2004, shooting him at least eight times before burning his body. Myers’ wife found him in the couple’s shed, which had been the backdrop to their wedding just 15 months earlier.
Myers’ shed was a short distance through the woods from a gas station where Mahdi tried but failed to buy petrol with a stolen credit card and left behind a vehicle he had carjacked in Columbia. Mahdi, then aged 21, was later arrested in Florida while driving Myers’ unmarked police pickup truck.
Mahdi also admitted to the killing three days earlier of Christopher Boggs, a North Carolina convenience store clerk who was shot twice in the head as he checked Mahdi’s ID. Mahdi was sentenced to life in prison for that killing.
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