2 SC legislators call for independent investigation into latest execution

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.

Court filing

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.