Lawyers say that the person who was killed by a shooting squad in South Carolina’s second execution last month was aware and probably in a lot of pain for up to a minute after the bullets missed their target.
A forensic pathologist hired by Mikal Mahdi’s lawyers, Dr. Jonathan Arden, said that the execution on April 11 was a “massive botch” after looking at the autopsy results, according to a report that was sent to the state Supreme Court on Thursday along with a letter.
The case goes against the ruling in Owens v. Stirling, which said that firing squads can be humane if they are used correctly. It says that Mahdi’s execution was “cruel and unusual punishment” that violates the Eighth Amendment.
He was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer in Calhoun County, South Carolina, and a grocery store clerk in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 2004. Mahdi is 42 years old. To death for killing the police officer and life in jail for killing the clerk.
“The shooters missed their target, and the evidence shows that he was hit by only two bullets instead of the required three.” “As a result, the nature of the internal injuries from the gunshot wounds made the death process last longer,” Arden said.
Because Mahdi’s heart was only partially damaged, blood flow continued, which led Arden to believe that Mahdi was probably still aware for up to 60 seconds after being shot.
The AP says that people who were there heard Mahdi cry out as the shots were fired, groan again 45 seconds later, and let out one last low moan just before he seemed to take his last breath at 75 seconds.
Arden also said that the autopsy was flawed because it lacked important evidence like x-rays, a clothing check, and enough photos.
He said that Mahdi’s death did not meet the civil and medical standards for a humane death.
At the other end of the spectrum, Brad Sigmon, the first man to be killed by a shooting squad in South Carolina, had three clear bullet wounds and his heart had been blown out, according to Arden. He also said that the autopsy report for that case had X-rays, good shots, and a quick look at his clothes.
Prison officials have not said anything to suggest that Mahdi’s killing went wrong. A shield rule hides a lot of information, like how the firing squad was trained and what methods they used.
Pathologist Dr. Bradley Marcus wrote in the official autopsy report that there were only two wounds because one could have been caused by two shots hitting the body at the same time. A prison official who Marcus did not name told him that when the three volunteer shooting squad members practise, their targets sometimes only get one or two holes after three real rounds.
Arden said that had never happened in the 40 years he had been examining bodies and that Marcus had told him in a chat that the chance was very small.
Only one of Mahdi’s heart’s four chambers, the right ventricle, was damaged during the exam. As the bullets kept going down, they did a lot of damage to his liver and stomach.
“The entrance wounds were at the lowest area of the chest, just above the border with the abdomen, which is an area not largely overlying the heart,” Arden said.
He admitted to killing 56-year-old Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Capt. James Myers on his land on July 18, 2004, while he wasn’t on duty. Mahdi was given the death penalty in 2006.
When Myers’ wife found him in their shed, he had been shot at least eight times and was on fire. The shed was close to a petrol station where Mahdi tried to buy petrol with a stolen credit card. He drove off in a stolen car in Columbia and left it at the petrol station. He was later caught in Florida while driving Myers’ unmarked police truck.
Mahdi also said that he killed Christopher Boggs, a clerk at a convenience store, three days before he killed Myers. The AP says that Boggs was shot twice in the head while checking Mahdi’s ID.