COLUMBIA, SC – Mikal Mahdi, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in South Carolina, was executed by the firing squad last week, reports the Associated Press, which noted Mahdi’s execution was the second time “the rare execution method has been used by the state in the past five weeks.”
Describing Mahdi’s final moments, the Associated Press wrote, “Mikal Mahdi cried out as the shots hit him, and his arms flexed. He groaned two more times about 45 seconds after that. His breaths continued for about 80 seconds before he appeared to take one final gasp.”
The Associated Press reports that it was Mahdi’s own decision “to die by three bullets to the heart instead of lethal injection or the electric chair.”
Brad Sigmon was the first to be executed by firing squad on March 7, 2025. This was the first execution in over fifteen years, and only the fourth since 1976, notes the Associated Press.
The Associated Press wrote, “The firing squad is an execution method with a long and violent history around the world. It has been used to punish mutinies and desertion in armies, as frontier justice in America’s Old West and as a tool of terror and political repression in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.”
According to the Associated Press, “South Carolina lawmakers saw it as the quickest and most humane way” to execute someone, because of the ongoing uncertainty about “obtaining lethal injection drugs.”
The Associated Press also reports that Mahdi was executed by three volunteers.
“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,” reports the Associated Press.
