
EXCLUSIVE Blood-chilling autopsy reveals how firing squad 'BOTCHED' execution of death row inmate
State marksmen missed the heart of a South Carolina cop killer who chose to die by firing squad last month, botching his execution and causing him to suffer an excruciating, prolonged end, his attorneys claim.
Mikal Mahdi, 42, was put to death on April 11 for murdering an off-duty police officer in 2004.
Mahdi's attorneys said he opted to be executed by firing squad over lethal injection or electrocution because he believed it would be the quickest and most painless method of the three options.
However, an independent autopsy has suggested Mahdi's execution did not go according to plan and that the convicted killer endured pain well beyond the '10-to-15 second' window that was expected.
In documents filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, Mahdi's attorneys claim that the state's three marksmen shot their client lower than expected, missing his heart and striking him just above the abdomen, piercing his liver and pancreas.
As the shots were fired, Mahdi cried out and his arms flexed, the AP reported. He was heard breathing and groaning for at least a minute after and wasn't officially pronounced dead for four minutes.
'The autopsy confirms what I saw and heard,' David Weiss, an attorney for Mikal Mahdi, told DailyMail.com in a written statement.
'Mikal suffered an excruciating death. We don't know what went wrong, but nothing about his execution was humane.
'The implications are horrifying for anyone facing the same choice as Mikal. South Carolina's refusal to acknowledge their failures with executions cannot continue.'
Mahdi, with a hood over his head, cried out as the three bullets to the heart hit him and his arms flexed. He groaned about 45 seconds afterward and his breaths continued for around 80 seconds before he took his final gasp
Mahdi's death marked the second time a death row inmate has been executed by firing squad this year in South Carolina.
The autopsy ordered by his attorneys found that Mahdi suffered only two distinct gunshot wounds to his torso, even though there were three gunmen, each possessing a live round.
His lawyers believe the execution was botched because either the volunteer prison employees missed or the target over Mahdi's chest to mark the location of his heart wasn't properly placed.
South Carolina's Corrections Department had earlier conducted its own autopsy on Mahdi, and suggested all three bullets had struck him, with two of them entering his body at the same spot and following the same path.
That has happened before during target practice, Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shane said to AP on Thursday.
Mahdi's legal team claimed the autopsy provided by the state was 'incredibly sparse, with far fewer details and photographs than normally issued.'
They also claim that there isn't enough evidence to support the Corrections Department's claim that two bullets entered 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,' said Dr. Jonathan Arden, the pathologist hired by Mahdi's team.
Arden said it likely took Mahdi 30-60 seconds to lose consciousness, two to four times longer than predicted by experts hired by the state.
During that time, Mahdi likely endured intense pain as his lungs attempted to expand against shattered ribs and a broken sternum, while also experiencing "air hunger" - a desperate, suffocating sensation - as his damaged lungs failed to draw in enough oxygen, according to Dr. Arden.
'Mr. Mahdi elected the firing squad, and this Court sanctioned it, based on the assumption that SCDC could be entrusted to carry out its straightforward steps: locating the heart; placing a target over it; and hitting that target,' Mahdi's attorneys wrote in a letter to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
'That confidence was clearly misplaced.'
In a report summarizing his findings, Arden said the state's official autopsy did not include X-rays, which would have allowed for the results to be independently verified.
Arden also said that only one photo was taken of Mahdi's body, and no close-ups of the wounds; and his clothing was not examined to determine where the target was placed and how it aligned with the damage the bullets caused to his shirt.
'I noticed where the target was placed on Mikal's torso, and I remember thinking to myself, 'I'm certainly not an expert in human anatomy, but it appears to me that target looks low,'' said Mahdi's attorney, David Weiss.
Dr. Arden said that in his 40-year career, he has never heard of two bullets entering the same spot on a human body before.
The autopsy found damage in only one of the four chambers of Mahdi's heart - the right ventricle.
There was, however, extensive damage to his liver and pancreas, suggesting the marksmen aimed too low.
In contrast, in the execution of Brad Sigmon, who was killed by firing squad in South Carolina in March - the first to be carried out in the US for 15 years - his autopsy showed three distinct bullet wounds and his heart was 'obliterated', Arden said.
Sigmon's autopsy also included X-rays, multiple photographs, and an examination of his clothing.
Without X-rays or other internal scans, the state's two-bullets-through-one-hole claim cannot be substantiated, Arden added.
Attorney Weiss said the alleged errors in Mahdi's execution pose a major problem.
'I think that raises incredibly difficult questions about the type of training and oversight that is going into this process,' Weiss told AP.
'It was obvious to me, as a lay person, upon reading his autopsy report, that something went wrong here.
'We should want to figure out what it was that went wrong when you've got state government carrying out the most serious, most grave possible type of function.'
Mahdi's body has since been cremated, preventing any further tests.
The 42-year-old admitted to killing Public Safety officer James Myers in 2004, shooting him at least eight times before burning his body.
Myers' charred remains were discovered by his wife in a shed in their backyard, which had been the backdrop to their wedding just over a year earlier.
Mahdi also pleaded guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk three days before he killed Myers.
He was arrested in Florida while driving Myers' unmarked police pickup truck.
His attorneys had sought clemency from Governor Henry McMaster, but South Carolina's Republican chief executive has never granted any previous clemency petitions.
'Mr. Mahdi's life is a tragic story of a child abandoned at every step,' his lawyers said in a statement.
When Mahdi was four years old, his mother fled her abusive husband, and the boy was raised by his volatile, mentally ill father, they said.
'Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement,' his lawyers said.
'Now 42, Mikal is deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry, and abused youth who committed the capital crimes.'
Mahdi's final appeal was rejected hours before his execution.
His sentence was carried out on the evening of April 11 at the death chamber at a Columbia prison with fewer than a dozen witnesses sitting behind bulletproof glass.
Mahdi was strapped to a chair, a hood put over his head, and a white square with a red bull's-eye was placed over his heart.
He made no final statement before his death and avoided eye contact with the gathered witnesses.
At his trial in 2004, prosecutor David Pascoe called Mahdi the 'epitome of evil.'
'His heart and mind are full of hate and malice,' Pascoe said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Country musician Conner Smith fatally hit pedestrian with truck. No charges now, but probe ongoing
Country musician Conner Smith fatally hit a pedestrian while driving his truck in Nashville over the weekend, and he currently faces no charges as an investigation continues, police said. Metro Nashville Police said Smith, 24, hit Dorothy Dobbins, 77, Sunday evening while she was crossing the road inside a marked crosswalk. Dobbins, a retired attorney, later died at a hospital. The Tennessee Bar Association posted on its website that Dobbins had been out walking her dog when she was hit. Police say Smith showed no signs of impairment. They believe the 'preliminary contributing factor' appears to be that Smith did not yield the right of way to the pedestrian. Smith's attorney, Worrick Robinson, said his client is cooperating with the investigation. 'His heart goes out to Ms. Dobbins' family during this incredibly difficult time," Robinson said in a statement. Dobbins was a leader in the city's legal aid and family law communities, where she practiced for over 40 years, according to posts by the Bar Association and the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. She played a 'foundational role in opening Nashville's first domestic violence shelter,' according to a Facebook post from the Legal Aid Society, and she wrote the state's first order of protection legislation. Smith was a 2024 new male artist of the year nominee at the Academy of Country Music Awards. He released his first full-length album, 'Smoky Mountains,' in 2024. The Nashville native has had gold-certified hits with 'Take it Slow' and 'Creek Will Rise,' according to his label, Big Machine. Smith had performed at Nashville's CMA Fest over the weekend.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Creepy moment Gilgo Beach suspect's wife goes into 'secret' room hidden in the basement for the first time
The wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect' is seen for the first time stepping inside a secret room in the basement of her Massapequa Park home- also known as the alleged 'kill room.' The new Peacock docuseries 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' takes viewers inside the hidden room located inside the gun vault where Heuermann stored nearly 280 firearms. Video shows Asa Ellerup entering the wood-paneled room where Heuermann's clothes hang and a safe is bolted to the wall with a 'warning' sticker. 'Explosives Inside. Do Not Attempt to Drill or Torch this Site.' 'He didn't want anyone to have access to (the secret room) so nobody would know not because he was hiding anything it was because he wanted to secure a safe in there,' she said. Asa's daughter Victoria Heuermann, 29, says 'that is the secret room everyone talks about. It is kind of a walk-in closet in the gun room that is actually underneath the stairs.' 'I actually didn't see what the inside actually looked like until after this happened. I wouldn't go in there myself,' she added. The 61-year-old married architect was arrested in July 2023 for the murder of three young woman. He was linked to four other murders bringing that number to seven. 'Alot of media are calling the vault the kill room that is where he stored all his guns,' Victoria reveals in the docuseries. 'As a kid he showed them to me and did teach me to use a gun when I was old enough but the vault was always locked,' she recalled. 'The only time I was in there was when he was in there.' In the clip, Ellerup shows where her ex-husband kept his guns along the wall which was now bare. 'The steel door has a combination lock. The lever here is an easy way out so no one can get locked in here,' she explained. David Jiminez, a longtime friend of Heuermann, who went to the gun range with him spoke about the time he went inside the basement and saw the 'the famous gun room.' 'I recalled vividly he (Rex) said in 30 years you are the fourth person to ever be in this room. I was like wow. That is when he showed me his collection,' he said. 'He started collecting rifles and all sorts of gun at 18. It was an amazing collection.' His vast collection of firearms were seized during one of the search warrants. And, the steel door that housed the gun vault that showed his initials 'RAH' - 'Rex Andrew Heuermann' was removed from the property in May. It is unclear what investigators found in the secret room that will not be disclosed until the trial begins. 'He didn't want anyone to have access to (the secret room) so nobody would know -not because he was hiding anything it was because he wanted to secure a safe in there,' she said Rex pictured with friends at the gun range Victoria talked about how much she admired her father growing up, and showed a wooden dollhouse he had built for her when she was a child. Several photos of a young Victoria are seen with her father during the episode. At one point, she speaks about her parents divorce that was finalized in April. 'They did this divorce to protect the assets. It is now legally her house. If we lost the house we would be homeless. It's our house but it doesn't mean we are not a family anymore,' she said. In the docuseries, Ellerup also talks about her first marriage and her son Christopher, she had before her marriage ended and before she met Heuermann. At the time, she was working at 7-Eleven, she said, and Heuermann was in college. 'I love tall, dark and handsome,' she confessed. 'I was madly in love with him.' Heuermann has lived in the home in Massapequa Park his whole life, with Ellerup moving in when the couple wed in 1995. Looking through old photo albums, she shows a much thinner and younger Heurmann. A smiling wedding photo. Pictures from their early years and when he was a young father. However, the recurring theme that comes up during the three- part docuseries is how his wife of 27 years could not have known. 'Rex was not seeing prostitutes. He was a family man,' Ellerup insists. 'He didn't do it.' 'I would need to hear if from Rex, face to face, that he killed these girls for me to believe it,' she said Ellerup along with her attorney Robert Macedonio have attended all of Heuermann's court hearings with Victoria attending, at times. In one clip, Asa is applying some makeup before she leaves her home and heads out to the courthouse. 'My husband never kept me out of anything that is why I am going to the courthouse that is why. I want to see it for myself. It is important for me to know what he is going through and I want to be a part of it.' One of the clips shows a smiling Asa in her attorney's office telling him that she 'really liked seeing him (Rex). It was comforting,' she said. 'I just don't see him that way. No. That is not the Rex I know,' she said in part. Rex Heuermann appears in Suffolk County criminal court Melissa Barthelemy (top left), Amber Costello (top right), Megan Waterman (bottom left), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right) became known as the 'Gilgo Four' Valerie Mack (left) disappeared in 2000 and parts of her body were discovered in Long Island that November. Jessica Taylor (right) vanished in 2003 with some of her remains being found in Manorville that year Sandra Costilla (left) was murdered in 1993, making her the earliest known victim. Karen Vergata's (right) remains were identified in 2023. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to her death He is now charged with the murders of seven women over a two-decade reign of horror running from 1993 to 2011. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished. Their bodies were then found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach as well as other remote spots on Long Island. Since Heuermann's arrest, prosecutors have unveiled a trove of evidence against him, including hairs belonging to him and his family members found on some of the victims, cellphone data placing him in contact with some victims, and a chilling 'planning document' where he allegedly intricately detailed his kills. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, when sex worker Shannan Gilbert, 24, vanished in bizarre circumstances one night. During a search for Gilbert in December 2010, officers came across the body of Melissa Barthelemy in the marshes by Gilgo Beach. Within days, three more women's bodies - Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman - had been found. The four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Four, had been dumped within a quarter mile of each other, some of them bound and wrapped in burlap. Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The sad reason customers have fled El Salvadoran restaurant that went viral for helping LA riot cops
Restaurant owner Elizabeth Mendoza didn't expect a brief video footage of her heroic employees helping deputies would go viral. On Monday, Elizabeth stood in front of her business, a Salvadoran restaurant called La Ceiba, just two days after the terrifying incident when a handful of LA County Sheriff's deputies overcome by tear gas burst into her small restaurant. Without missing a beat, Mendoza's cousin, Rosa, jumped in and splashed milk and water into the grateful deputies' eyes. 'They came in with a lot of coughing,' Elizabeth told 'That's when I knew they needed help.' Over the weekend, La Ceiba became the center of activity after protestors clashed with deputies in Compton, California. The protestors mobilized in the area on Saturday after Homeland Security agents detained several day laborers at the Home Depot less than a mile from the restaurant. During the skirmish with protestors, several deputies who were overcome by the chemicals sought refuge and piled into La Ceiba. Footage of the restaurant workers providing aid to the dazed deputies quickly went viral over the weekend. Rosa, who also works as a chef at the restaurant, said she was surprised at all the attention their little family establishment has received since the incident. She was one of the employees who was seen helping deputies to clear their eyes. 'I helped them because we are all humans,' Rosa told 'They needed our help and we are here to serve.' On Monday, however, Elizabeth sighed heavily as she looked at her empty restaurant. The beginning of the work week is usually busy at La Ceiba, a Salvadoran restaurant in Compton, just 20 minutes south of Downtown LA. 'All the people are scared,' Elizabeth said. 'Because of the ICE raids, they are staying away from the area. I don't think it's because we helped some of the officers. I think it's because of ICE and the situation in general.' Adriana Lemus, a La Ceiba employee, said business has been slow ever since the clash on Saturday. The restaurant also has a karaoke bar next door, which is usually filled with customers over the weekend. Barely a handful of patrons showed up on Sunday. On Monday, things were not better. 'On a daily basis it's usually busy in the morning,' Lemus said. 'People stop by for breakfast and come for lunch here. Since Saturday, it's been pretty slow, and we believe people are afraid to come here to expose themselves [to ICE].' Lemus said employees have been instructed to protect their patrons should ICE agents return to the area. 'We will close our doors to them and ask for a warrant because they are required to show that,' Lemus said. 'We protect our customers here and we want them to know they will be safe.' While there was more DoorDash orders coming in on Monday, seeing the empty seats in the normally busy restaurant is disheartening, owner Elizabeth Mendoza said. 'We hope it will pick up again once they [ICE] leave the area, but who knows,' she said. By Monday night, Elizabeth said she received dozens of calls at the restaurant asking how they could support her business. Strangers who saw the viral video said they were moved by Elizabeth and her employees' heroism in helping the deputies. One man from New York even sent Elizabeth $300. 'He said, "I want to support your restaurant and I want you to deliver that food to a nearby police station." And before that call, someone from the Compton Police called to say they want to recognize my business. She continued in tears: 'It's too much because we didn't really think about it when it was happening. We just wanted to help our fellow humans. It's what we all should do.'