South Carolina Executes Another by Firing Squad

A firing squad on Friday executed a South Carolina man who killed an off-duty police officer, the second time the rare execution method has been used by the state in the past five weeks. Details, via the AP:

• Mikal Mahdi, 42, gave no final statement and did not look to his right toward the nine witnesses in the room behind bulletproof glass and bars once the curtain opened.
• He took a few deep breaths during the 45 seconds between when the hood was put over his head and when the shots rang out, fired by three volunteers who are prison employees at a distance of about 15 feet.

• Mahdi groaned two more times about 45 seconds after that. His breaths continued for about 80 seconds before he appeared to take one final gasp.
• A doctor checked him for a little over a minute, and he was declared dead at 6:05pm, less than four minutes after the shots were fired.
• Mahdi's execution came a little over a month after Brad Sigmon was put to death March 7, in the first US firing squad death in 15 years and the fourth since 1976. The others all occurred in Utah. Advocates see it as the quickest and most humane method, especially with the uncertainty in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
• Mahdi admitted killing Orangeburg Public Safety officer James Myers in 2004, shooting him at least eight times before burning his body. Myers' wife found him in the couple's Calhoun County shed, which had been the backdrop to their wedding 15 months earlier.
• Mahdi also admitted to the killing of Christopher Boggs, a Winston-Salem, 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.
• Mahdi's last meal was ribeye steak cooked medium, mushroom risotto, broccoli, collard greens, cheesecake, and sweet tea, prison officials said.

(More firing squad stories.)