Mikal Mahdi was executed by a shooting team of three employees in the Correctional Services department of South Carolina on April 11. An autopsy report shows that the bullets did not stop his heart and could have caused pain and suffering when he was still aware. Mahdi is seen here in 2023 at the Broad River Correctional Center in Columbia, SC
David Weiss
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David Weiss
A man from South Carolina executed last month by a shooting team may have suffered for a long time before dying because the shooters have largely missed his heart, an autopsy commanded by state shows.
Mikal Mahdi died on April 11 after being killed by a three -person shooting team. But an autopsy revealed two injuries on his chest, not three. None of the bullets have hit his heart directly, as it is supposed to occur during execution. Instead, injuries damaged his liver and other internal organs and allowed her heart to continue beating. Pathologists say that injuries probably caused the pain and suffering of prisoners when it was still aware.
“He is not going to die instantly from that,” said Dr. Carl Wirn, a medical examiner who examined autopsy documents for NPR. “I think it took him a little time to bleed.”
On May 8, Mahdi’s lawyers informed the Supreme Court of South Carolina that the execution was “sloppy”. They quoted the state autopsy and a medico-legal report that Mahdi’s lawyers ordered from another pathologist, Dr. Jonathan Arden.
“Mr. Mahdi has experienced atrocious pain and conscious suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds after being shot,” wrote Arden in his analysis of the state autopsy.
The constitution in South Carolina, such as the American Constitution, prohibits a cruel or unusual punishment. In 2021, the State adopted a law allowing prisoners to choose the shooting team as a method of execution, in addition to the electric chair and the lethal injection. The prisoners challenged the law before the court.
In 2024, the Supreme South Carolina Court ruled that the three methods were legal, writing that the shooting team was not cruel because a prisoner would not suffer more than 15 seconds.
“The evidence that is seized for us convinces us – although an inmate executed via the shooting is likely to feel pain, perhaps atrocious pain – that the pain will only last ten to fifteen seconds”, ” The judges wroteAdding that it would be true “… unless there is a huge boot of the execution in which each member of the shooting team simply lacks the heart of the prisoner.”
“A massive boot is exactly what happened to Mikal Mahdi,” Mahdi’s lawyers wrote in the May 8 file.
As to know why Mahdi’s body has shown two injuries of execution rather than three, a doctor noted in the section of comments on the autopsy commanded by the state that “two balls have been thought.
The two injuries on Mahdi’s body were described in the autopsy as being almost exactly the same size. The pathologists who examined the report expressed the doubt that two bullets were precisely the same little hole.
“I think the chances are quite tiny,” said Wiring.
This photo provided by the Correctional Services Department of Southern Carolina shows the COLUMBIA, SC, including a squad chair on the left of the electric chair.
Correctional Department of South / AP Carolina
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Correctional Department of South / AP Carolina
A month before Mahdi was killed, on March 7, another prisoner of the death of South Carolina, Brad Sigmon, became the first person to die by the state shooting team. His lawyer said Sigmon thought that the shooting platoon was a better option than lethal injection, a method tormented by problems in South Carolina and across the country.
Autopsy reports for two previous executions by lethal injection indicated that the two prisoners required several doses of sedative pentobarbital to die, and the process took more than 10 minutes. An NPR goodbye Of more than 200 autopsies of prisoners executed have found that the prisoners’ lungs are filled with liquid after being injected with drugs intended to stop their hearts, which, according to doctors, creates a sensation similar to drowning.
After Sigmon’s death, the state used the same company to lead the autopsy report as for Mahdi. NPR examined more than 20 photos taken as part of Sigmon’s autopsy. The images included several photographs of X -ray, photos of the clothes that Sigmon wore during its execution, photos of the internal organs of Sigmon and photos of bullet fragments recovered from his body. The photos clearly indicate that there were three ball wounds on Sigmon’s body, all close to his heart.
On the other hand, in the case of Mahdi, only one photo, showing two ball injuries in the bottom of Mahdi’s chest, was shared with his lawyers. There were no X -rays, internal organ photos or images of his clothes or bullet fragments.
“It would be one thing if the previous executions had similar documents, but they did not do it,” said David Weiss, one of Mahdi’s lawyers. “It is not entirely clear what happened. Didn’t one of the armed men draw this one? Was their weapon blocked? Did they miss? We have no idea at this stage.”
The Correctional Services Department of Southern Carolina has not responded to the request for NPR comments.
The demonstrators demonstrate outside the scheduled execution of the prisoner Brad Sigmon in Columbia, SC, on March 7.
Chris Carlson / AP
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Chris Carlson / AP
Weiss was present at the execution of Mahdi on April 11. He said that when the Curtain of the House of Death was withdrawn, Mahdi was seated and pushed against his constraints. Weiss remembers having thought that the target seemed to be placed low on Mahdi’s chest.
When the shots were fired, Mahdi shouted, then started to breathe strongly. He groaned several times before his body doesn’t care. Someone checked an impulse and then said MAHDI dead. Weiss said he hadn’t heard or seen a ricochet.
The account corresponds to the descriptions of other witnesses.
Jeffrey Collins, journalist of the Associated Press, observed Mahdi shouts after the blows. The target, which was white with a Red Bull eye, was pushed into the wound in his chest. Collins reported that Mahdi groaned about 45 seconds later, and continued to breathe for 80 seconds before seeming to take a final dress.
“Medical medical evidence and the observations of the eloving witness reported of the execution corroborate that Mr. Mahdi was alive and reacts longer than expected or expected,” concluded Arden in his report.
Weiss said Mahdi had given his legal team permission to share the autopsy with the public after his execution. His lawyers hope that the information could help prevent another execution like his.
“They largely missed our client’s heart,” said Weiss. “I hope we can find a way to make sure it shouldn’t happen to anyone else.”
Although there are no upcoming executions currently planned in South Carolina, Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho and Mississippi also authorize the executions by pulling the team. On May 1, the Supreme Court of Mississippi provided for the execution of its oldest death content for June 25 and did not specify the execution method.
