South Carolina carried out the execution of Mikal Mahdi, 42, on Friday via firing squad after his appeals were rejected by state and U.S. Supreme Courts earlier this week. Mahdi was found guilty in the 2004 murders of an off-duty police officer in Calhoun County, South Carolina, and a convenience store clerk in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He received a death sentence for the officer’s murder and life imprisonment for the clerk’s murder.
Given the choice between lethal injection, the electric chair, or firing squad, Mahdi opted for the latter method. The execution took place with nine witnesses present, during which Mahdi did not provide a final statement. He was swiftly executed by three prison employees who volunteered for the task, wearing a hood over his head. Mahdi’s last meal request included ribeye steak, mushroom risotto, broccoli, collard greens, cheesecake, and sweet tea.
Mahdi’s case centered around the debate over appropriate punishment as he faced an execution by firing squad, described by his lawyer as “inhumane.” He was executed on April 11, 2025, for the brutal killing of Officer James Myers in 2004. Myers was shot multiple times and his body was found burned in a shed on his property. Mahdi was apprehended while driving Myers’ stolen police truck after carjacking a vehicle in Columbia and attempting to use a stolen credit card at a gas station.
Despite final appeals made to the courts arguing inadequate representation during the trial, citing his troubled past, Mahdi’s execution proceeded. Prosecutors portrayed Mahdi as a violent individual with a history of aggression, including incidents of violence towards prison staff and possessing escape tools while on death row. This execution marked the second time a South Carolina inmate was executed by firing squad in recent weeks and the fifth in the state over the past eight months.
The individual was found guilty of two distinct murders in 2004 and was put to death by a firing squad.
