Latest news with #S.C.DepartmentofCorrections
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Execution scheduled for SC inmate with 2 death sentences
Stephen Stanko is scheduled for execution June 13 at the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, shown with the firing squad chair and electric chair. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — A condemned inmate is scheduled for execution in one of his two death penalty cases, the state Supreme Court said in a Friday order. Stephen Stanko, 57, is set to be put to death at 6 p.m. June 13. His execution would be the sixth in the state since the process resumed in September following an unintended 13-year hiatus. Stanko was sentenced to death twice, in two separate cases for crimes committed within two days of each other in 2005. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal for a 2009 conviction earlier this month. Appeals are ongoing in his other death sentence, which a jury recommended as part of a 2006 conviction. By law, Stanko will have until May 30, two weeks before he's set to die, to choose his method of execution. The death warrant comes as attorneys raise questions about the state's protocols for execution by firing squad, an option added by legislators in 2021. Two inmates in the last two months chose to die that way. In the most recent execution, which took place April 11, marksmen mostly missed inmate Mikal Mahdi's heart, attorneys claimed. An autopsy photo showed two bullet holes in his chest where attorneys would have expected three, one from each gun shot at him, attorneys said in a filing to the state Supreme Court last week. Prison officials have said nothing went wrong. Fragments of bullets struck Mahdi's heart, and two bullets hit the same spot and took the same trajectory through his body, explaining the two wounds, said prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain. Stanko also has the option to die by lethal injection, which three of the five inmates executed in the last eight months chose, or electrocution, which no inmate in the state has selected since 2008. Stanko's crime spree started April 7, 2005, when he strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, to death at her home in Murrell's Inlet while beating and raping her 15-year-old daughter, according to court documents. Stanko slit the daughter's throat and left her for dead before stealing jewelry and credit cards and fleeing. He went to his friend's house in Conway. After having breakfast with his friend Henry Turner, Stanko shot the 74-year-old in the back while he shaved in the bathroom mirror, using a pillow as a silencer for his gun, according to court documents. Stanko then hit Turner in the head and fatally shot him in the chest. Driving Turner's truck, Stanko went to Columbia, where he spent an evening buying people drinks at bars before traveling to Augusta, Georgia. There, Stanko convinced a woman he was a businessman in town for the Masters golf tournament and went home with her, according to court records. Stanko stayed with the woman, including attending church with her, until April 12, when he left abruptly in the middle of the night. Soon after he left, the woman recognized his photo in the newspaper alongside a headline about Turner's death and called the police, who captured Stanko before he left the city, according to court records. During Stanko's trials, defense attorneys argued to no avail that he was insane at the time of the killings, with decreased brain functioning making him unable to understand right and wrong. A jury convicted Stanko in 2006 of killing Ling and beating and raping her daughter. A separate jury convicted him in 2009 of killing Turner. Both juries recommended death sentences, which multiple courts have affirmed. Turner's killing is the crime for which Stanko is set to be put to death in June.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
2 SC legislators call for independent investigation into latest execution
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — Two South Carolina legislators are calling for an investigation into last month's execution by firing squad, according to a letter sent to legislative leaders and the governor. Rep. Neal Collins, a Pickens County Republican, and Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Bamberg County Democrat, are trying to increase awareness of questions raised in a notice attorneys filed last week claiming bullets largely missed inmate Mikal Mahdi's heart during his April 11 execution. The second execution by firing squad in state history came one month after the first. SC executes second death row inmate by firing squad A letter sent Monday by the two representatives, who are also attorneys but unaffiliated with the specific case, called for a 'clear, transparent, and accountable protocol' before any future execution by firing squad. 'This request is not rooted in sympathy for Mikal Mahdi, nor is it made to undermine the horrible acts for which he was charged and convicted of and the impacts his crimes had on his victims,' their letter reads. 'This independent investigation is to preserve the integrity of South Carolina's justice system and public confidence in our state's administration of executions under the rule of law.' What, exactly, an investigation might look like would depend on the response the legislators get. That could include involving the state inspector general, the attorney general, the State Law Enforcement Division or a panel of legislators, the representatives said. 'I'm open to how it's handled, as long as it is done, because I do think it's important,' Collins, of Easley, told the Daily Gazette. If none of the letter's recipients — Gov. Henry McMaster, House Speaker Murrell Smith, Senate President Thomas Alexander and Joel Anderson, the acting corrections director, — spur an investigation, Bamberg said he would consider trying to address the issue through legislation. McMaster does not see the need for a state investigation, said spokesman Brandon Charochak. 'The governor has high confidence in the leadership of the Department of Corrections,' Charochak said in a statement. 'He believes the sentence of death for Mr. Mahdi was properly and lawfully carried out.' A spokesperson for Smith, R-Sumter, declined to comment. Alexander, R-Walhalla, didn't respond to a request for comment. Chrysti Shain, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, reiterated the department's position that nothing went wrong during the execution or autopsy. Bamberg suggested writing into state law an independent review board responsible for investigating every execution and making suggestions for how the next could go better. He and Collins also proposed adding legislators as witnesses to executions. Trying to remove the firing squad, which Bamberg and Collins voted against adding in 2021, would likely prove too controversial for any real traction, Bamberg told the Daily Gazette. Instead, Bamberg and Collins would rather focus on ensuring the execution process happens without any issues, Bamberg told the Gazette. 'How can we breed trust and a degree of accountability and transparency for something as final as taking a life?' he said. Legislators added the rarely used method as an option in 2021 in order to restart the execution process, which had been on hold as state officials struggled to get the drugs needed for lethal injections. That problem was resolved in September of 2023, thanks to another law legislators expanded to protect the source of the drugs. Two condemned inmates have chosen to die by firing squad since executions resumed last September. Another three opted to die by lethal injection. Bamberg had questions before attorneys for Mahdi submitted an analysis of his autopsy report to the state Supreme Court, but the filing submitted last Thursday solidified his concerns, he said. According to protocol for South Carolina's firing squad executions, three volunteer marksmen fire at a target placed over the inmate's heart from 15 feet away. The gunmen use .308 Winchester bullets, meant to expand and fragment on impact in order to kill the inmate as quickly as possible, prison officials have said previously. Bullet fragments partially hit Mahdi's heart, but they didn't destroy it completely as was the case in Brad Sigmon's March 7 execution by firing squad, according to a pathologist hired by death row lawyers to analyze the autopsy report. Instead, the bullets struck below Mahdi's heart, causing more damage to his liver and pancreas than the heart itself, the pathologist wrote. Members of the media who witnessed the execution reported that Mahdi let out low, loud moans for about a minute after the guns fired. If Mahdi remained alive and suffering, that could mean the state violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and usual punishment, Bamberg and Collins wrote. 'Regardless of the crime committed, the state bears a moral and constitutional obligation to ensure that executions are carried out humanely and in strict adherence to protocol,' their letter reads. The attorneys' filing raises questions Bamberg and Collins want answered, they wrote. Among them: Why did Mahdi's chest show only two bullet holes? Was the target on Mahdi's chest placed in a spot other than right over his heart? Why was Mahdi's clothing not analyzed or documented in the autopsy? Collins said he and Bamberg want to ensure that, in the future, all evidence is preserved so that if valid questions arise — as in Mahdi's case — 'we can settle this.' Mahdi's body was cremated at his request, said a spokesperson for his attorneys. That means officials can't exhume his body and conduct another autopsy. All three guns fired, and no bullet fragments were found in the death chamber following the execution, Shain said in an email. Two of the three bullets struck in the same spot and followed the same pathway through the body, explaining the two bullet wounds, Shain said. A medical professional used a stethoscope and a chest X-ray to place the target over Mahdi's heart. The autopsy was done by the same private firm that has done all execution autopsies for the agency, Shain said. The department 'did not provide any instructions or restrictions on the pathologist regarding photographs or X-rays in the same way SCDC provided no such instructions regarding the autopsies of the previous executions,' Shain said in a statement. Regardless of what happened, an independent review would be able to give impartial answers, Bamberg said. 'The fact that there are differing explanations is part of the problem, and that's what we're trying to address,' he said. 'There should not be a question as to what happened, because we're talking about the government taking a life.' Until an independent review is conducted, Bamberg and Collins told the Gazette they're calling for the firing squad to be taken off the table as an option for any upcoming execution. The state Supreme Court is expected to issue a death warrant this Friday. If execution by firing squad is no longer an option, inmates would have to choose between lethal injection, which attorneys have also questioned, and electric chair, which attorneys have said their clients want to avoid.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
Another inmate is eligible for execution in SC on the 2nd of his 2 death sentences
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — A sixth death row inmate who was twice sentenced to death by separate juries has run out of appeals for one of his killings and could be scheduled for execution in the coming weeks, according to the state Attorney General's Office. The U.S. Supreme Court denied inmate Stephen Stanko's appeal of his 2009 conviction for shooting his friend four years prior. Stanko was also sentenced to death in 2006 for killing his girlfriend and raping her then-15-year-old daughter and leaving her for dead. The appeals process continues on that conviction. But Monday's decision by the nation's high court clears the way for the state Supreme Court to issue a death warrant for the 57-year-old, an attorney for the Attorney General's Office wrote in a letter to state justices. The court usually issues death warrants on Fridays, giving inmates exactly four weeks before their execution dates under state law. The court will be closed this coming Friday in observance of Confederate Memorial Day, a state holiday. Whether the court might still issue a death notice for Stanko that day is unclear. Stanko would be the sixth inmate put to death in the state since executions resumed in September 2024, following an unintended 13-year hiatus. Legislators added firing squad as an option for executions in 2021, and two inmates chose that as their method of execution earlier this year. The other three died by lethal injection, which again became an option with the help of an expanded law keeping most information about executions, including the source of the drugs, secret. Stanko was tried for crimes in two different counties — Georgetown and Horry — and sentenced to death in both cases. On April 7, 2005, Stanko strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, to death while beating and raping her daughter at their home in Murrell's Inlet. Stanko slit the daughter's throat and left her for dead, stealing jewelry and a credit card from her and her mother. He withdrew money from Ling's bank account at a nearby ATM, then drove to Conway, according to court records. There, Stanko committed the crime for which he has exhausted his appeals. The next morning, April 8, 2005, Stanko brought his friend Henry Turner breakfast from McDonald's. As the 74-year-old shaved in front of his bathroom mirror, Stanko shot him in the back, using a pillow as a silencer for his gun. He then hit Turner in the head and shot him again in the chest, this time fatally, according to court records. Stanko stole Turner's truck and fled, driving from Conway to Columbia, then to Augusta, Georgia, the next day. There, he convinced a woman he was a businessman in town for the Masters golf tournament. Stanko spent several days staying in the woman's apartment and attending church with her. After Stanko left April 12, the woman recognized Stanko's picture in the newspaper alongside a headline about Turner's death. She called the police, who captured Stanko while he was still in Augusta. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for killing Ling and raping her daughter, then given another death sentence in 2009 for killing Turner. In both cases, Stanko's attorneys unsuccessfully claimed he was insane during the time of the killings, according to court records. SC executes second death row inmate by firing squad Stanko had been out of prison for nine months after serving over eight years for kidnapping and assaulting another woman, according to court records. He was also under investigation for running several scams in and around Myrtle Beach, including representing himself as a lawyer and investigator. At the time of the crimes, people who had paid him had begun to demand their money back and were threatening to report him to the police, prosecutors wrote in court filings. He is one of 26 inmates listed on death row in South Carolina, though one of them is held in California on a separate conviction.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Yahoo
U.S. Supreme Court declines to halt SC's second firing squad execution
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to two murders committed during a crime spree, is scheduled to become the second inmate in the state executed by firing squad at 6 p.m. Friday. The last remaining way for Mahdi, 42, to avoid the death chamber would be for Gov. Henry McMaster to grant him clemency, which no governor in modern history has done. The U.S. Supreme Court declined his final appeal Friday morning. Mahdi is one of 27 inmates remaining on death row. His execution is expected to be the last in a series of five executions that have taken place since September. Executions in the state resumed after an unintended 13-year hiatus, caused in part by the state's struggle to get the drugs it needed to carry out lethal injection executions. Legislators added firing squad as an option and made electrocution the default method in 2021, which condemned inmates unsuccessfully challenged in court. Lethal injection is again an option after legislators expanded a secrecy law in 2023, allowing the state Department of Corrections to restock its supply. Three of the five inmates executed since September chose to die by lethal injection. The first inmate in the state to die by firing squad was Brad Sigmon, whose execution took place March 7. Prior to that, no one had died by firing squad in the nation since the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah. Mahdi's execution would be the fifth carried out by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume nationwide in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. On July 14, 2004, Mahdi stole a pistol, a set of license plates and a station wagon in his hometown of Lawrenceville, Virginia. He would later tell investigators he was fleeing the state after killing a person in a drug deal gone awry, a crime for which he was never convicted, according to court documents. The next day, Mahdi stopped at an Exxon gas station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to buy a beer. While gas station clerk Christopher Boggs, 29, checked Mahdi's ID, Mahdi took out a gun and shot Boggs point-blank in the head, then reached over the counter to shoot him again where he lay on the floor. Mahdi tried and failed to open the store cash register before taking off again, headed to South Carolina. SC death row inmate's attorneys ask court to halt execution over traumatic childhood At around 3:30 a.m. on July 18, a driver stopped at the intersection of Bull Street and Washington Street in Columbia. The driver, Corey Pitts, looked down to find a CD in his car, then looked up to find a gun in his face, he later testified in court. Mahdi took Pitts' red Ford Expedition, replaced its license plates with the ones on the stolen station wagon and drove off. Not long after, Mahdi stopped at a Hess gas station in Calhoun County, where staff became suspicious as the gas pump rejected Mahdi's credit cards. The gas station workers called the police, and Mahdi fled on foot. He ran less than a mile before finding a shed, where he camped out for the rest of the day. At around 7 p.m., Capt. James Myers, 56, returned home and drove to his shed, where Mahdi was hiding. Mahdi shot Myers nine times with his own shotgun, then poured diesel fuel on his body and lit him on fire. Mahdi took Myers' police truck and fled. Police caught Mahdi in Satellite Beach, Florida, on July 21, 10 days after Myers first left Lawrenceville. Mahdi pleaded guilty to killing Myers in court two years later, right after jury selection for his trial had ended. He later pleaded guilty to killing Boggs as well, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. Usually, death sentences come from a jury's recommendation. In Mahdi's case, his death sentence was left entirely to Judge Clifton Newman. 'My challenge and my commitment throughout my judicial career have been to temper justice with mercy and to seek to find the humanity in every defendant that I sentence,' Newman said during Mahdi's trial. 'That sense of humanity seems not to exist in Mikal Deen Mahdi.' Mahdi had a chaotic childhood, his attorneys argued in a last-ditch attempt to pause his execution. Mahdi's mother left when he was 4 years old, and his father told him it was because she had abandoned Mahdi and later died. Four years later, Mahdi watched his father kidnap his mother and try to kill her, his attorneys claimed in court filings. Struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, Mahdi went to live with his aunt and uncle in Baltimore for several years before returning to Virginia at his father's request, according to court documents. 'My life would've turned out completely different if I would've stayed in Baltimore,' Mahdi said in a video provided by his attorneys. 'But that is a whole lot of could-a, would-a, should-a.' Mahdi's life was dotted with violent crimes to which prosecutors and judges have pointed in arguing he would not adapt well to prison life. Mahdi spent his teenage years, beginning at age 14, in juvenile detention centers for burglaries, vandalism and assault. When Mahdi was 15, he and his father staged a nine-hour standoff with police who were trying to bring Mahdi to court for a sentencing hearing. Several years later, when Mahdi was 18, he stabbed a maintenance worker in Richmond, Virginia, nearly to death. Mahdi spent three years in prison for that crime. About two months after his release, he embarked on the crime spree that would land him on death row, according to court documents. During Mahdi's trial, he smuggled a handmade key for his handcuffs into the courthouse in his mouth in an attempt to escape. In 2009, he and another inmate attacked a detention officer, who survived. His inmate record lists three attempted escapes since his 2006 sentence, along with a number of other infractions over the years. Family members and former teachers recalled Mahdi as being 'quiet, affectionate, thoughtful and creative,' his attorneys wrote in their appeal. 'I know there's good in him,' Mahdi's fifth grade teacher, Carol Wilson, said in a statement provided by his attorneys. 'I saw it when he was a boy. If Mikal is allowed to live, I truly believe he can and will become a better person.' In recent years, Mahdi has become an avid reader with a particular interest in learning about history, his attorneys said in a statement ahead of his execution. To honor his love of reading, anti-death penalty group South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is accepting donations of books to donate to prisons and recently incarcerated people. Two days before Myers was killed, he went to Edisto Beach for a joint birthday celebration. His wife, his sister and his daughter were all born in July, so they spent the weekend together on the beach, his wife later testified in court. When Myers and his wife, Amy Tripp Myers, returned home July 18, Myers went to visit his father. After Myers' mother died, Myers made a daily habit of driving to his father's house every morning to have coffee and chat, his father, Edward Myers, testified. 'I imagine he visited me a thousand times,' Edward Myers said. That night, Myers and his father ate boiled peanuts and talked. James Myers left the house with a big smile on his face, his father testified. His wife, Tripp Myers, realized several hours later when he hadn't returned to their home in Orangeburg that something must be wrong. He had been on call that evening for the Orangeburg Public Safety Department, where he had worked for nearly 20 years, so she paged him, wondering if he had been sent to respond to a crime, she testified. Tripp Myers often paged her husband of just over a year, she said. The two of them had developed a special code that she could send to mean, 'I love you,' and she often did throughout the day. This time, Myers didn't respond. She called his work and learned no one had contacted him. She drove to the couple's 37-acre farm in Calhoun County, looking for her husband. Tripp Myers found his body. She started screaming and couldn't stop, she testified during Mahdi's trial. SC Supreme Court declines to stop upcoming execution 'I knew that the man I loved was gone immediately and all of the dreams that we had would never be fulfilled,' Tripp Myers said at the time. The shed where Myers was killed was the same place where the couple was married. The pond where Mahdi threw Myers' fishing pole was the same pond where they camped out the night after buying the property. A few feet away from where Myers died, the couple had written their names in the concrete as it dried, she testified. 'I have yet to walk that once familiar ground between the pond and the shed without my heart tearing apart missing Jim and thinking about all of our unfulfilled dreams,' Tripp Myers testified. 'We didn't have enough time together.' Myers' daughter, Meredith Myers Firestone, was his 'best buddy,' Firestone testified. The two enjoyed being outside, and Myers taught Firestone how to grow a garden, how to fish and hunt, and how to start a fire, she said. The two of them would light fires in the fireplace at night and sit in silence, listening to the crackle of the fire and the ticking of the clock above the mantel, she said. 'We had some really special, special times when I was growing up,' Firestone testified. Myers died about two years after his first grandchild was born. As a married mother, Firestone was reshaping the relationship she had with her father as an adult. She would call him to confide in him, and the two of them were becoming closer friends than ever, she said. 'He had wisdom just beyond his years, and he was so willing to give it to me, and it just took me a while to figure that out,' Firestone said. 'And we were just getting ready to start a wonderful, wonderful relationship together as adults.' Myers died before he could meet his second granddaughter, but she looked just like him, Firestone testified.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Yahoo
Second SC death row inmate chooses to die by firing squad
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — Death row inmate Mikal Mahdi chose to die by firing squad, making him the second person in the state to do so since executions resumed, his attorneys said Friday. Mahdi, 41, was sentenced to death in 2006 for shooting and killing off-duty police officer James Myers with his own rifle as part of a multi-state crime spree. The only remaining man on death row with no remaining appeals, Mahdi is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. April 11. Brad Sigmon, executed March 7, was the first inmate in the state to die by firing squad, which legislators made an option in 2021. The three other inmates executed since September selected lethal injection. By law, death row inmates have until two weeks before their execution date to choose whether they will die by firing squad, lethal injection or electrocution, which legislators made the default method in 2021. Mahdi chose 'the lesser of three evils,' his attorney, David Weiss, said in a statement Friday. '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,' Weiss said. SC inmate executed by firing squad, a first nationwide since 2010 Legislators added firing squad as an option after years of struggling to get the drugs used for lethal injection. Inmates challenged the method, as well as electrocution, arguing it violated the constitutional right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment. The state Supreme Court ruled last year that firing squad and electrocution were constitutional methods of execution, allowing the process to resume after a 13-year hiatus. By that point, lethal injection was again an option, after Department of Corrections officials were able to restock their supply thanks to a law keeping everything about the drugs and the companies selling them a secret. Inmates have challenged that secrecy law, arguing inmates have a right to know more about the drugs that would kill them. But the state Supreme Court and a federal judge have both turned down those arguments, ruling officials have disclosed everything the law requires for an inmate to make his choice. Barring intervention from a court or the governor, Mahdi would become the fifth in the nation to be executed by firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Other than Sigmon, the remaining three took place in Utah, which last conducted a firing squad execution in 2010. Mahdi will be strapped to a chair, facing three rectangular openings 15 feet away. Three firing squad members will shoot through those openings, using .308 Winchester bullets, which expand and fragment on impact, causing a more instantaneous death, corrections officials have said previously. 'Before Mikal committed these tragic murders, he was a child in desperate need of care and support,' Weiss said in a statement. 'We will continue to fight for the child Mikal was and the man he is today. Executing Mikal on this record would ignore the many ways we failed him in favor of one final injustice.' On July 14, 2004, in his hometown of Lawrenceville, Virginia, Mahdi stole a car and a gun before fleeing south. Stopping in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mahdi shot gas station clerk Christopher Boggs point-blank in the head while Boggs was verifying his ID to buy a beer, according to court documents. Mahdi continued on to South Carolina, where he carjacked a man in Columbia and drove to Calhoun County. He stopped at a gas station, where a clerk seemed to grow suspicious after the gas pump declined his card. Mahdi fled on foot to a nearby farmhouse, where he hid out in Myers' workshop. When Myers, a captain for the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety, returned home at the end of the day, Mahdi shot him nine times with one of the rifles Myers kept there, according to court documents. Mahdi lit Myers' body on fire and stole his police truck, which he continued driving south. Police arrested Mahdi in Satellite Beach, Florida, on July 21, 2004, a week after he stole the first car. Mahdi pleaded guilty to the crimes in 2006, at which point Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him to death. SC death row inmate's attorneys ask court to halt execution over traumatic childhood Mahdi's attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to halt his execution, claiming a traumatic childhood influenced his development and led him to a life of crime. Mahdi's original defense attorneys hardly touched on his past, which could have convinced Newman to sentence him to life in prison instead of death, Mahdi's current attorneys argued in court filings. As a child, Mahdi struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, his attorneys claimed. He entered the juvenile justice system at age 14 for committing property crimes and spent most of his life in jails after that point, often in solitary confinement, his attorneys said. Mahdi had been out of jail for about two months when he committed the crimes that landed him on death row. 'When we think of Mikal choosing his method of execution, we're reminded of the tormented child who, at nine years old, told his teacher that he wanted to shoot himself. Or, on another occasion, to electrocute himself. Or, another time, to hang himself,' Weiss said in a statement Friday. But Mahdi's attorneys didn't show anything the court hasn't already considered and dismissed during the appeals process, the Attorney General's Office responded in a filing this week. Mahdi's difficult childhood and the impact it may have had on him have no legal bearing on his crime, the attorneys continued. The state Supreme Court has not yet given a decision on the arguments. The state's highest court, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, has yet to rule in favor of stopping a South Carolina inmate's execution in the past six months. Mahdi can also appeal to Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency, which no governor has granted in the modern era.
