Barbarism and Ineptitude
By 
An inmate put to death last month in South Carolina’s second firing squad execution was conscious and likely in extreme pain for up to a minute after the bullets missed their target and failed to quickly stop his heart, according to a pathologist hired by the inmate’s attorneys.
An autopsy photo of Mikal Mahdi’s torso showed only two distinct wounds from the three prison employees who volunteered for the firing squad and had live ammunition in the April 11 execution, according to the pathologist’s report. It was filed Thursday with a letter to the state Supreme Court titled “notice of botched execution.”
Prison workers suggested to the pathologist who performed the autopsy that two bullets entered his body at 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. Consequently, the nature of the internal injuries from the gunshot wounds resulted in a more prolonged death process,” said Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist hired by attorneys for condemned inmates.
Arden said that likely meant Mahdi took 30 to 60 seconds to lose consciousness — two to four times longer than the 15 seconds that experts including Arden and ones hired by the state predicted for a properly conducted firing squad execution.
All of the expertise and professionalism implied by “three prison employees that volunteered for the firing squad” gives me great confidence in South Carolina’s Machinery of Death. And that only one of the three (!) shooters missed the stationary target at short range tells me that the Palmetto State’s gun culture is alive and well! Fortunately, there are robust systems of transparency and self-examination that will prevent anything like this from happening again:
Prison officials have given no indication that there were problems with Mahdi’s execution. A shield law keeps many details private, including the training and methods used by the firing squad. A spokeswoman on Thursday said they were working to respond to the filing.
The official autopsy did not include X-rays to allow the results to be independently verified; 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, Arden said in a report summarizing his findings.
“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 David Weiss, an attorney for Mahdi who was also a witness at his death.
The extraordinary steps we’re willing to undertake and resources we’re willing to expend in order to torture to death a man who committed a murder twenty-years ago…