COLUMBIA, SC — The May 2025 firing squad execution of Mikal Deen Mahdi in South Carolina is drawing nationwide scrutiny after newly-released autopsy findings suggest the procedure was botched, resulting in a prolonged and painful death. Mahdi, who had selected execution by firing squad over other methods allowed by state law, was the second person executed this way in South Carolina since the method’s reinstatement in 2021.
“They largely missed our client’s heart,” said Mahdi’s attorney David Weiss, referencing the official state autopsy submitted to the South Carolina Supreme Court on May 8. According to the report, Mahdi sustained only two bullet wounds instead of the anticipated three. The bullets missed the intended target area above the heart, instead striking the liver and other internal organs, prolonging Mahdi’s death.
The autopsy findings stand in sharp contrast to the execution of Brad Keith Sigmon, South Carolina’s first firing squad executionee in March. NPR reported that Sigmon’s autopsy was extensively documented, including more than 20 photographs, X-rays, and a full analysis of clothing. In Mahdi’s case, however, only a single photograph of his torso was provided to his legal team. No X-rays or additional imagery were released.
Mahdi’s attorneys questioned whether all members of the firing squad discharged their weapons. “It’s not fully clear what happened,” said Weiss in comments to NPR. “Did one of the gunmen not fire? Did their gun get jammed? Did they miss? We just have no idea at this point.”
According to a second opinion provided by forensic pathologist Dr. Jonathan Arden, the two wounds observed were of similar size, casting doubt on the state’s explanation that two bullets entered through a single entry point. Arden concluded that Mahdi likely experienced 30 to 60 seconds of conscious pain and suffering.
“A massive botch is exactly what happened,” Mahdi’s lawyers argued in court documents. “That confidence was clearly misplaced.”
South Carolina law currently shields execution personnel from public disclosure. According to SCDC’s official protocol, “three firing squad members will be behind the wall … a small aim point will be placed over his heart… [and] after the warden reads the execution order, the team will fire.” But in Mahdi’s case, this protocol appears to have failed.
South Carolina reinstated the firing squad as an alternative execution method after years of difficulty procuring lethal injection drugs. The method’s constitutionality was previously upheld by the state’s Supreme Court on the condition that any pain would last no more than 10 to 15 seconds — “unless there is a massive botch of the execution in which each member of the firing squad simply misses the inmate’s heart.”
That scenario now appears to have occurred. According to NPR, witness accounts indicate Mahdi groaned for 45 seconds and continued breathing for over 80 seconds post-firing.
The incident has reignited national debate over execution methods. Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, warned, “South Carolina’s botched firing squad execution should remind death penalty opponents not to play the dangerous game of trying to figure out which method of execution can do the job required by our Constitution. None can.”
In an article for Slate, legal scholar Austin Sarat described the illusion of a “humane” execution as a persistent fantasy in American jurisprudence. “Last week, we learned another hard lesson about executions,” Sarat wrote. “The autopsy showed that the firing squad botched the execution … with shooters missing the target area of the man’s heart, causing him to suffer a prolonged death.”
Despite past academic and legal endorsements of the firing squad as a more humane option, the Mahdi case may mark a turning point. In 2015, Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited evidence suggesting that a properly conducted firing squad could be more reliable and less painful than lethal injection. But Sarat argues that the Mahdi execution demonstrates just the opposite: “There is no foolproof way of killing someone.”
Professor Deborah Denno of Fordham Law School, a leading expert on execution methods, previously called the firing squad “comparatively painless” and “relatively quick.” In Mahdi’s case, however, those assumptions fell apart. Mahdi believed the firing squad would be a safer, less torturous alternative. Instead, it became a grim case study in human error.
Under South Carolina’s 2021 law, condemned individuals must choose between electrocution, lethal injection, or firing squad. Mahdi selected the latter amid legal uncertainty and concerns over the reliability of the other methods.
The state’s Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the firing squad method in 2022, noting that if the shots were administered correctly, death would be near-instantaneous. “But that was always a best-case scenario,” said Sarat. “This case shows what happens when that best case does not materialize.”
The shield law passed in 2023, which protects the identities of execution personnel, has also drawn criticism. Advocates argue that the lack of transparency contributed to the mishandling of Mahdi’s execution and will make accountability nearly impossible.
As the legal team prepares a likely Eighth Amendment challenge, questions remain about whether any method of execution can meet the Constitution’s bar against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Over the past 125 years, the U.S. has rotated through execution methods including hanging, gas chambers, electric chairs, lethal injections, and now, again, firing squads. With each new method comes a renewed promise of humanity and dignity. And with each method, botched executions persist.
“From witness accounts, we already knew he groaned for roughly 45 seconds and continued to breathe for around 80 seconds,” Slate reported. “The autopsy suggested that the bullets that killed Mahdi had a ‘downward’ trajectory that mostly missed the heart.”
Legal experts and abolition advocates argue that the Mahdi case is yet another confirmation that state executions cannot be perfected.
“The death penalty in the United States is sustained by a fantasy and an illusion,” Sarat wrote. “What happened to Mahdi should remind death penalty opponents not to play the dangerous game of trying to figure out which method of execution can do the job required by our Constitution. None can.”
As states such as Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah continue to keep the firing squad on the books, South Carolina’s mishandling of Mahdi’s death stands as a chilling warning. For now, the only certainty is that Mikal Deen Mahdi died a slow, painful death at the hands of a system that claimed it would be quick and humane.
