logo
EXCLUSIVE Blood-chilling autopsy reveals how firing squad 'BOTCHED' execution of death row inmate

EXCLUSIVE Blood-chilling autopsy reveals how firing squad 'BOTCHED' execution of death row inmate

Daily Mail​09-05-2025

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.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Secret CIA file exposes agency's playbook for turning government protests into violent riots
Secret CIA file exposes agency's playbook for turning government protests into violent riots

Daily Mail​

time16 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Secret CIA file exposes agency's playbook for turning government protests into violent riots

A damning classified document has been uncovered that reveals how the CIA plans out and set off riots which destabilize governments. In a 92-page 'playbook' written in 1983, officials mapped out how they would pay criminals and other 'agitators' to ramp up anger among ethnic minorities and students with the goal of having them riot in the streets. This declassified document was recently brought to light on social media, amidst claims that protesters in Los Angeles were being paid thousands of dollars to riot against the Trump Administration. Several people on X have posted images of Craigslist ads promising to pay between $6,500 and $12,500 for 'tough bada--es' to enter the city during the protests. The CIA guide entitled 'Psychological Operations' served as a manual for starting antigovernment movements in other countries, although conspiracy theorists have claimed that those tactics are being used against the White House as well. However, no evidence has been revealed that directly connects CIA operatives with triggering violence during protests here in the US. Originally, the CIA used this strategy of teaching guerrilla fighters how to influence people's minds to take down the Nicaraguan government, which the US viewed as a communist ally of the Soviet Union and Cuba. The document specifically detailed how the agency would hire criminals and train professional protesters in order to make mass riots look like spontaneous uprisings against an allegedly unpopular government. In a 92-page 'playbook' written in 1983, CIA officials mapped out how they would pay criminals and other 'agitators' to ramp up anger among ethnic minorities and students The CIA document, declassified in 2023, explained how agents would take control and organize mass gatherings and steer them towards violence against governments believed to be acting against the interests of the US intelligence community. 'The control of mass meetings in support of guerrilla warfare is carried out internally through a covert commando element, bodyguards, messengers, shock troops (incident initiators), poster carriers (also used to give signals), and slogan shouters, all under the control of the external commando element,' CIA officials wrote. Intelligence officials broke down this plot into several steps, starting with a 'front organization.' Guerrillas infiltrate groups like labor unions or student organizations, secretly controlling them to push anti-government ideas. Next, guerrillas used 'armed propaganda,' acting friendly, helping communities, and showing that their weapons protect the people, not control them, in order to gain their trust. Slogans and speeches would then provide simple, emotional sayings to excite crowds and focus their anger on the government. The manual then suggested using small groups of trained agitators to stir up crowds at protests, making it look like a big, spontaneous movement. This could also involve paying criminals to march along with normal protesters. These instigators would provoke violence and create 'martyrs' in the crowd to turn people against the government the CIA was hoping to bring down. In the 1980s, the goal of this plot was to weaken the Nicaragua's Sandinista government by turning the public against it. By winning people's hearts and minds using these tactics, the CIA hoped to create chaos through protests that undermined government control. The guerrillas would then aim to overthrow the regime and replace it with a government friendly to US instead of the Russians. The CIA rioting manual was aimed at the general population, especially peasants, workers, and students, pushing them to rally them against the government while avoiding being seen as terrorists. However, the CIA's plans failed in Nicaragua. The CIA-backed Contra rebels were never able to achieve a decisive victory, despite significant funding from the US government. The agency tried to paint the Sandinista government as an oppressive and foreign-controlled regime, but the plan to set off riots and support the rebel movement never paid off. The Sandinista government was eventually voted out of office in 1990. The 1983 document was kept a secret for nearly 40 years, before it was eventually released into the CIA's archives. While the plan failed in Nicaragua, it gave the agency a guidebook for how to justify violent uprisings around the world for decades. 'When the cadres are placed in or recruited from organizations such as labor unions, youth groups, agricultural organizations or professional associations, they will begin to manipulate the groups' objectives,' the document detailed. 'The psychological apparatus of our movement, by means of these internal cadres, will prepare a mental attitude which, at the crucial moment, could become involved in a fury of justified violence,' the CIA stated. This wasn't the first uncovered CIA plot that used public violence to influence people around the world. Host of The Why Files, AJ Gentile, revealed during a May 27 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that US intelligence agents worked to frame the Soviet Union for a series of deadly car bomb attacks after World War II. The information, which Gentile said he feared to make public, was all part of a plot called Operation Gladio. Gladio is believed to have begun shortly after the end of the war in 1947 or 1948, but the operation allegedly kept going until at least 1990, when the Italian government revealed its existence to the world. According to Gentile, approximately 110 civilians throughout Italy were killed between the 1960s and 1980s in a scheme designed to create opposition against communist Russia in case they ever invaded Europe. As for civil unrest here in the US, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed on Monday that demonstrators in Los Angeles were being paid and that the ongoing riots were part of a professional operation. 'These are organized. These are people that are being paid to do this. You can follow how they behave, the signals they give to each other in these crowds and these protests to instigate violence,' Noem told Fox News. Noem claimed the Trump Administration now has evidence that the Los Angeles riots are an organized plot against the US government but did not reveal what they had found out.

Mike Johnson suggests Gavin Newsom should be ‘tarred and feathered'
Mike Johnson suggests Gavin Newsom should be ‘tarred and feathered'

The Guardian

time29 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Mike Johnson suggests Gavin Newsom should be ‘tarred and feathered'

Republican US House speaker Mike Johnson advocated for a brutal form of vigilante justice to be performed on the Democratic California governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday, saying he should be 'tarred and feathered' for his opposition to immigration agents' enforcement actions in the state. Newsom replied: 'Good to know we're skipping the arrest and going straight for the 1700's style forms of punishment. A fitting threat given the [Republicans] want to bring our country back to the 18th century,' when what is now the US was ruled by a monarch. The came after the Louisiana congressman declined to say if Newsom and other California officials should be arrested – as a Trump and his 'border czar', Tom Homan, have recently floated – for allegedly impeding federal deportations. Tarring and feathering, in which the recipient is stripped naked and wood tar applied to the skin followed by feathers, is first recorded as being used in 1189 in orders issued by Richard I of England during the Crusades. But it became a more common form of vigilante justice for tax evaders, customs officials and others in British colonies in North America and used by Continental forces against the British during the American revolutionary war. It is now most commonly used as a metaphor for the application of public humiliation. Johnson's comment follows days of verbal sparring between Trump, members of his administration and elected officials in California in response to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids on Los Angeles businesses, the protests that followed and the ordering of national guard troops and marines into the city. On Sunday, Homan refused to rule out arresting Newsom or the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, after issuing previous threats of arrest for anyone who obstructs immigration enforcement. 'I'll say it about anybody,' Homan said. 'You cross that line – it's a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It's a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.' But Homan did not directly accuse Newsom, Bass or any California politician of impeding Ice enforcement. Asked about the LA mayor, he said he did not believe 'she's crossed the line yet'. Newsom later pushed back against Homan, goading him to carry out an arrest, saying: 'Come after me – arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy. I don't give a damn.' A day later, Trump was asked if he supported Homan's suggestion he might arrest the California governor. 'I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great,' Trump said. 'I like Gavin Newsom. He's a nice guy. But he's grossly incompetent.' He added: 'Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.' Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Yet later both sides were looking to dial down the rhetoric. Homan told CBS News 'there's no intention to arrest' Newsom and said: 'That whole thing's been taken out of context. 'They haven't crossed a line yet … If you cross that line, I don't care who they are – the governor, the mayor, whatever – and when you commit a crime against Ice officers, we will seek prosecution.' In his comments on Tuesday, Johnson repeated his position that any decision to arrest Newsom was not his to make, but the governor was 'standing in the way of the administration of carrying out federal law'. 'He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys,' Johnson said. 'He is a participant, an accomplice.' He added: 'I'm not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested. But he ought to be tarred and feathered, I'll say that.'

BREAKING NEWS Macklemore's $2.1M house is broken into by burglars who 'bear sprayed the nanny while the kids were home'
BREAKING NEWS Macklemore's $2.1M house is broken into by burglars who 'bear sprayed the nanny while the kids were home'

Daily Mail​

time32 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

BREAKING NEWS Macklemore's $2.1M house is broken into by burglars who 'bear sprayed the nanny while the kids were home'

Macklemore's house was broken into by two masked burglars who are accused of stealing his belongings after bear spraying his children's nanny in a shock incident. The 41-year-old rapper's nanny - who was home with his three children at the time - told police that she caught sight of the two men using a patio door to get into the building Saturday night after she had put the children to bed. According to the police report, she said she was then hit with the bear spray - but added that immediately afterwards, one of the men looked 'fearful' and began 'for some unexplainable reason' to help her wipe her eyes. Per the report, the other man then demanded to know the location of the 'jewels' and she helped them find the valuables, whereupon they seized watches, shoes and jewelry, forcing the nanny to the ground and taking her phone. The nanny said that she managed to bite one of the intruders and flee the house, which is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, via the Seattle Times. A hair-raising doorbell video obtained by shows the nanny frantically pounding on a neighbor's door, trying the knob and begging: 'Help, please!' has contacted Macklemore's representative and the Seattle Police Department for comment. Macklemore's house was broken into by two masked burglars who are accused of stealing thousands of dollars' worth of his belongings; the rapper is pictured last week in Dublin Macklemore, real name Benjamin Haggerty, was presumably out of the country at the time, as he played a concert in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday. The police report states that after escaping the house, the nanny knocked on multiple neighbors' doors and one of them eventually admitted her, at which point she called 911. She informed the authorities that she did not see any guns in the possession of the two home invaders, whom she described as having worn masks, gloves and vests that appeared 'tactical in nature.' In an incident report about the home invasion, the Seattle Police Department said that the burglars seized 'Thousands of dollars of items.' Video footage shows the burglars leaving the property, and they managed to vacate the scene before the authorities arrived, according to TMZ. A police report refers to the owner of the house as a 'high-profile individual' while leaving his name redacted, but the home address listed on Macklemore's voting records reportedly matches that of the property that was targeted. Macklemore's children were apparently unhurt in the incident and were placed in the charge of their relatives in the wake of the robbery. Local police have confirmed that the nanny also emerged from the ordeal without sustaining any serious injuries, per the U.S. Sun. Although the authorities were unable to make it to the property before the thieves disappeared, they did discover some clothing and a can of bear spray nearby. The rapper has been married to his wife Tricia Davis since 2015 and they share two daughters, Sloane, 10, and Collette, seven, as well as a son called Hugo, three. Macklemore, who hails from the Seattle suburbs, reportedly bought his Capitol Hill house for $2.1 million in 2014, according to the local real estate website Urban Living.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store