Why death row inmate has chosen gruesome execution method just weeks after it was used for first time in 15 years
A second death row inmate has chosen to die by a rarely used execution method - just weeks after it was used for the first time in 15 years.
Earlier this month, the state of South Carolina executed 67-year-old Brad Sigmon via firing squad for the 2001 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, making him the fourth prisoner to die by firing squad in US history and the first in the state.
Now, a second man has chosen to die with the same method, listing similar reasons to Sigmon for his decision to choose death by firing squad.
Convicted of killing a police officer in 2004, Mikal Mahdi is currently scheduled to be executed on 11 April.
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Also an inmate in South Carolina, the 41-year-old faces the same three execution options as Sigmon.
The electric chair is the state's default method, however, inmates can choose either the lethal injection or firing squad, which was brought back in 2021, should they wish so.
Explaining why Mahdi had opted to be killed by firing squad over the other methods, his lawyer David Weiss said he had chosen the 'lesser of the three evils'.
"Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils," Weiss said in a statement, as per AP.
"Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering a lingering death on the lethal injection gurney."
The inmate has been on death row since pleading guilty to murdering 56-year-old police officer James Myers shortly after he returned from a family birthday celebration in July 2004.
Myers' burned body would later be found by his wife, he had been shot eight times, including twice in the head.
Prior to the murder, Mikal had also killed Christopher Boggs in neighbouring North Carolina.
How is death by firing squad carried out?
According to those in attendance at the execution of Sigmon, the condemned prisoner is strapped into a chair with a target placed over their heart.
A final statement from the prisoner is then read out before a hood is placed over their head. The volunteers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections are then revealed, each person is armed with a rifle and stood behind a wall which has an opening at firing height.
"The firing squad is certainly faster - and more violent - than lethal injection. It’s a lot more tense, too," wrote Jeffrey Collins for the Associated Press, adding that there is no warning before the shots are fired.
As of March 2025, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah are the only US states which offer the firing squad as an execution method.
Brenna Cooper