Another death row inmate in South Carolina has opted for execution by firing squad.
Mikal Mahdi, aged 41, will face death on April 11 for his role in the murder of a police officer in 2004.
“Faced with brutal and inhumane options, Mikal Mahdi has chosen what he sees as the lesser of three evils,” stated David Weiss, one of his attorneys. “Mikal opted for the firing squad over the electric chair or lethal injection gurney.”
Brad Sigmon chose a similar fate and was executed by firing squad in South Carolina on March 7, marking the first such execution in the U.S. in 15 years. Sigmon was declared dead within three minutes of being shot three times.
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Mikal Mahdi, 41, is set to be executed on April 11 at 6 p.m. at a prison in Columbia. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
Only three other inmates in the U.S. have been executed by this method since 1976, all of them in Utah.
Mahdi committed a string of crimes in 2004, including stealing a gun and a car in Virginia and shooting a North Carolina store clerk the next day. He then carjacked an individual in Columbia, South Carolina a couple of days later.
On July 18, 2004, while evading the law, Mahdi ambushed and killed public safety officer James Myers in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
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This photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, S.C., including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections/AP)
Myers, aged 56, was shot multiple times, including two shots to the head. A pathologist revealed that at least seven of the shots would have been fatal.
Mahdi then set Myers’ body on fire and fled. Myers’ wife later found her husband’s charred remains in the shed where they exchanged vows.
Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
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Mahdi was apprehended in Florida on July 21, 2004.
Fox News’ Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
