Man Executed By Firing Squad Was Conscious For Up To A Minute After Bullets Missed Target, Lawyers Say

[Death From A Distance]

Sounds like he died to me!


An inmate put to death last month in South Carolina's second firing squad execution was conscious and likely in extreme pain for up to a minute after the bullets missed their target and failed to quickly stop his heart, according to a pathologist hired by the inmate's attorneys.

An autopsy photo of Mikal Mahdi's torso showed only two distinct wounds from the three prison employees who volunteered for the firing squad and had live ammunition in the April 11 execution, according to the pathologist's report. It was filed Thursday with a letter to the state Supreme Court titled "notice of botched execution."

Prison workers suggested to the pathologist who performed the autopsy that two bullets entered his body at the same spot.

"The shooters missed the intended target area and the evidence indicates that he was struck by only two bullets, not the prescribed three. Consequently, the nature of the internal injuries from the gunshot wounds resulted in a more prolonged death process," said Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist hired by attorneys for condemned inmates.

Arden said that likely meant Mahdi took 30 to 60 seconds to lose consciousness — two to four times longer than the 15 seconds that experts including Arden and ones hired by the state predicted for a properly conducted firing squad execution.

Man executed by firing squad was conscious for up to a minute after bullets missed target, lawyers say

A pathologist hired by death row inmates' attorneys says a South Carolina man executed by firing squad was conscious and likely in extreme pain for up to a minute.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Hayden#69]

How do you fuck this up.....22LR between the eyes and point blank. CNS! Works on deer

Hayden.

 

[sloporsche]

".......a pathologist hired by attorneys for condemned inmates " = yawn

 

[oneshot86]

So... Actually, good. I hope it hurt

And when do people start understanding the difference between a terminal wound and a incapacitating wound.

He's an ambulance chaser

 

[oneshot86]

How do you fuck this up.....22LR between the eyes and point blank. CNS! Works on deer

Hayden.

He died, he be ded.
Nothing was fucked up

 

[ironpony52]

No Fucks Given, not sure what he was convicted of but I would say his victim(s) suffered or still are.

 

[ggmanning]

I mean really.....if you actually make it to get put to death in the USA today you deserve it and not nicely.

 

[sloporsche]

No Fucks Given, not sure what he was convicted of but I would say his victim(s) suffered or still are.

Do not give a left judge reason to ban the death penalty over a cruel and unusual punishment excuse .......and get better volunteers/bigger guns for christs sakes that can a X ring size target

 

[Maser]

A minute worth of pain sounds way better than 45 minutes of it from lethal injection.

 

[ironpony52]

Maybe in that minute he found GOD............

 

[canman]

Use three M240's with 5 rounds on the belt. Problem solved.

 

[ironpony52]

Use three M240's with 5 rounds on the belt. Problem solved.

Well being one missed complete and the other two were off target might just make things worse

 

[Maser]

Use three M240's with 5 rounds on the belt. Problem solved.

They managed to fuck up with bolt guns! The last thing they need is a belt-fed!

 

[Fx51LP308]

Sounds like he died to me!

Yes, he did. But, apparently, not fast enough... surely not fast enough to keep the anti-death penalty people at bay. If their expectation of "time to Loss of Consciousness" is only 15 seconds, anything greater than that would be "politicizable" as a "botched execution." They will stop an nothing to purport their mantra that all execution methods are bad/cruel and there should be no death penalty. What did they do when "Nitrogen Hypoxia" was introduced? They claimed that 23 minutes to death was "cruel and unusual." They claimed that the body "shuddering" was cruel and unusual.

Point being, if Capital Punishment is going to work, we have to ensure that the anti death penalty people can't criticize it whatsoever.. or, at least, we can successfully counter any criticism they proffer. In this particular case, was the target affixed to the condemned properly placed? Did the shooters have proper aim, all such that the heart was fatally damaged immediately? Was the condemned's anatomy evaluated to ensure proper placement of the target? All these things could be factors that lead to the result we got.

 

[748rpilot]

"Mikal Deen Mahdi[a] (March 20, 1983 – April 11, 2025) was an American convicted spree killer who was executed for the murder of a police officer in South Carolina. Over a period of three days in July 2004, Mahdi, then a resident of Virginia, went on a multistate crime spree, committing carjacking, firearm robbery, and three murders..."

Spare me the feigned outrage and hand-wringing.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Unless you disconnect the medulla… you are going to going to be conscious for long enough to know what is happening.

Even guillotine victims likely remained aware for up to 4 minutes before the brain shut down. Maybe longer.

Lethal injection where you are sedated and unconscious is about the only painless way to go.

And prisoner asked for firing squad. He got it. So WTF is the problem?

Oh I get it…. All this is about lefty activists trying to end death penalty and they will go Rhheeeeeeeee at any excuse to make their feelings better.

Sirhr

 

[Holliday]

NEVER criticize the State, when it kills.

 

[OkieMike]

I wouldn't have in issue with it... I would have time to get a dozen more drags off that cigarette they gave me.

Mike

 

[OkieMike]

Now that I think about it, I may have a solution that kills several birds with one stone...

Start juicing these guys up with a fatal dose of fentanyl... From Mexico... That we seized from drug mules crossing the border. One good seizure would provide us with years worth of executions...

The inmate dies riding the magic carpet and feeling no pain... And the left will break their fucking necks trying to secure the border to keep it from happening.

Mike

 

[lonegunman762x51]

Fuck that guy. Seriously. The fact he's dead proves it worked.

 

[Makinchips208]

 

[Baron23]

"Mikal Deen Mahdi[a] (March 20, 1983 – April 11, 2025) was an American convicted spree killer who was executed for the murder of a police officer in South Carolina. Over a period of three days in July 2004, Mahdi, then a resident of Virginia, went on a multistate crime spree, committing carjacking, firearm robbery, and three murders..."

Spare me the feigned outrage and hand-wringing.

Exactly. He got better than he gave the innocent people he killed. Fuck him....they should have shot him in the balls and let him bleed out while screaming his lungs out.

What Mahdi did

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Still wondering why nitrogen hypoxia is not used. Cheap, painless, quick.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

 

[TACC]

I missed it somewhere, how far away are they shooting?

 

[diggler1833]

Sounds like a successful execution to me. It certainly met the one and only criteria for an execution.

Since he shot another human 8 times and then burned the body... I'm even less sorry that he might have made it a whole minute.

Now they just need to start doing this in the middle of the prison yard during recess...

 

[gigamortis]

Let's go to a single .50BMG on a lead sled at 25 yards to keep the splatter from getting on the rifle. Line up the sights and verify with another person. Pull the trigger with a string. Flat blade shovel the reaming pieces and feed to the buzzards.

 

[Fx51LP308]

Still wondering why nitrogen hypoxia is not used. Cheap, painless, quick.

The "antis" are trying to claim that it's not all so "painless and quick," although it is probably Cheap. They had observers witness the first few of them. And what they saw gave them enough fuel to "politicize" and call it "cruel and unusual."

That, and it's probably also a matter of getting the state legislatures to act quickly enough to implement it. I believe, for some states, there has to be a law for it, and that takes time. I also think some states may be waiting a bit of time to see if there's any fallout from the other states that have implemented it already.

 

[diggler1833]

Let's go to a single .50BMG on a lead sled at 25 yards to keep the splatter from getting on the rifle. Line up the sights and verify with another person. Pull the trigger with a string. Flat blade shovel the reaming pieces and feed to the buzzards.

Better yet, let's do that idea, but test the terminal effects of certain rounds like API/APIT/Raufoss etc...

Might as well get some 'science' out of it.

 

[918v]

They need to step up to 12ga with OO buck.

 

[Fig]

Did he not choose that method himself?

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

I think cruel and unusual is one of the issues. Something may be cheap efficient and painless but it's not historically used it could be argued it's cruel and unusual. Unlike hanging, firing squad or electric chair which all sound cruel but are historically not unusual. Hence why they are still used when much more painless and quick methods exist.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

A) I'm glad he's dead. Mission accomplished, maybe next time it can be slower yet.

B) to all the nay-sayers who haven't got a damned clue about ANYTHING in life:
"Have A Nice Day".

If shooting from the front, through the chest, into the heart isn't "good enough" then have the convict seated, with the rifle(s) below them, shooting up through their ass. One way or another, the bullet path will get to the heart.

Massive wound channel trauma, and the convict will "get dead". In seconds, minutes, or hours. This is where bets can be laid....

 

[Fig]

I think cruel and unusual is one of the issues. Something may be cheap efficient and painless but it's not historically used it could be argued it's cruel and unusual. Unlike hanging, firing squad or electric chair which all sound cruel but are historically not unusual. Hence why they are still used when much more painless and quick methods exist.

Prexactly.

 

[918v]

I think cruel and unusual is one of the issues. Something may be cheap efficient and painless but it's not historically used it could be argued it's cruel and unusual. Unlike hanging, firing squad or electric chair which all sound cruel but are historically not unusual. Hence why they are still used when much more painless and quick methods exist.

Why are you pushing the painless aspect so hard? Who cares if it inflicts pain. At the time the constitution was ratified people were executed by hanging and firing squad. It is blatantly clear that firing squad is constitutional. It doesn’t matter that death isn’t quick or painless. It’s is constitutional.

 

[BCP]

"Mikal Deen Mahdi[a] (March 20, 1983 – April 11, 2025) was an American convicted spree killer who was executed for the murder of a police officer in South Carolina. Over a period of three days in July 2004, Mahdi, then a resident of Virginia, went on a multistate crime spree, committing carjacking, firearm robbery, and three murders..."

Spare me the feigned outrage and hand-wringing.

Cry their eyes out for murderers and have zero pity for the victims. Just more proof that bleeding heart liberals/“Christians” are the most evil ones.

 

[ironman56]

Should have got Karmelo Anthony to stab him in the heart , works on 17 yr old white boys .

 

[P-Squared]

How about going to a gallows with a wood chipper below the trap door?

Solves the problem of an autopsy revealing anything after the execution. If you were really 'Green' blow it into a feed trough at a pig farm and make some bacon. Everybody worth a shit loves bacon.

 

[Big Phish]

Well too bad, but this basturd didn't get a chance suffer long enough like he did the others so.

 

[jbuck88]

Demonstrated why scope offset matters up close?

 

[Im2bent]

I missed it somewhere, how far away are they shooting?

According to the intertubes range is 15 feet.

 

[Alphatreedog]

We handle this wrong . We should use people sentenced to death as crash test dummies . We would garner real time real world data from ;
Auto accidents
Acme Anvils
Acme Rockets
High speed motorized wheel chair
Drop tests
Wood chipper efficiency
Shark attacks
Snake bites
Bear attacks
Hippo attacks
Gator attacks
The affects of a ball peen hammer on a human skull as delivered by a palsic epileptic with turrets.

 

[mosin46]

9x18 Makarov back of the neck. primitive Russian efficiency.
yes,if he got death here,he def deserved it. who gives 2 shits about his suffering?
capital punishment should be cruel and unusual. maybe match it to the crime.
way too many delays because of bogus lib bed wetter "feelings"
lethal inj can be Fed up too. did that in FL. the pansies wailed about that.
think FL used incompetent IV starters and SoCar used incompetent shooters.
lethal inj is so easy,cheap and fast. doesn't provide enough retribution,however
i always felt that victims survivors should decide punishment. administer if they wished. but,forgiveness not allowed.
capital punishment is way too rare and reserved for way too few offenses.
long delays and long prison sentences for crimes that should be capital cost innocent society huge $.
what do you bet FL spent keeping Ted Bundy alive in prison for 10 years? not to mention all the bullshit lawyer $s.

 

[Fx51LP308]

I think cruel and unusual is one of the issues. Something may be cheap efficient and painless but it's not historically used it could be argued it's cruel and unusual. Unlike hanging, firing squad or electric chair which all sound cruel but are historically not unusual. Hence why they are still used when much more painless and quick methods exist.

Technically, so is the Cyanide Gas Chamber, although not used practically anymore. I think Arizona still the Chamber available. California does not.. although it could be revived. The chamber dome itself is still there. All they need do is re-install the seats... assuming the death penalty is ever re-instated there. Well, "enforced" shall we say (Newsome instituted a moratorium).

Frankly, I think Nitrogen Hypoxia is actually less cruel than Hydrogen Cyanide gas. And it takes just about the same time. You don't need a chamber for it, either. You can do it in the same setting/venue as Lethal Injection. One need only ensure the mask is sealed tight and can't come off.
Still, Lethal Injection is the safest and most humane method if done correctly (i.e. proper and patent IV lines established, etc.).

 

[DirtyHarris]

"Missed"..........

Uh huh

 

[DuneBoer]

Mil or MOA? Could explain some things.

 

[HPIguy]

So... Actually, good. I hope it hurt

And when do people start understanding the difference between a terminal wound and a incapacitating wound.

He's an ambulance chaser

This, gut shoot 'em and let 'em lay.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

I think cruel and unusual is one of the issues. Something may be cheap efficient and painless but it's not historically used it could be argued it's cruel and unusual. Unlike hanging, firing squad or electric chair which all sound cruel but are historically not unusual. Hence why they are still used when much more painless and quick methods exist.

The Definiition of Cruel and Unusual has 'never' included the firing squad, which was, for generations, considered the honorable method of execution among the military.

Cruel and Unusual was drawing and quartering (yanking apart by horses)... or things like dismeboweling, lighting the bowels on fire then cutting into pieces and having your head displayed on a pike... etc. Sick shit. The British loved it.

Firing squad was always considered an honorable way to be killed for crimes or failures (in a miliitary sense.) Much the same as Seppuku was considered an honorable way out for the Samurai class... though we would think of it as pretty gruesome.

The Firing Squad was brought back by Gary Gilmore in Utah in the 1980's. He asked for it.... he got it. He was a shitbag. So he set the prededent... not 'the citizens.'

Fuck them all. If it were up to me, I'd use the Bellowing Bull on all of them.

Sirhr

 

[Redlion]

".......a pathologist hired by attorneys for condemned inmates " = yawn