A man who was put to death last month in South Carolina’s second firing squad execution was conscious and likely suffered in extreme pain for as long as a minute after the bullets, meant to quickly stop his heart, struck him lower than expected, according to a pathologist hired by his lawyers.
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The lawyers called it a botched execution because they think either the volunteer prison employees who all had live ammunition missed or the target was not placed properly.
An autopsy photo of Mikal Mahdi’s torso showed only two distinct wounds at the April 11 execution, according to the pathologist’s report, which was filed Thursday with a letter to the state Supreme Court.
Mahdi chose to be executed by firing squad over lethal injection or electrocution in the killing of an off-duty police officer in 2004.
All three guns fired simultaneously and prison officials believe all three bullets hit Mahdi with two of them entering his body at the same spot and following the same path, Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shane said Thursday. That has happened before when the firing squad team practices its job to fire at the inmate from 4.6 metres (15 feet) away.
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A pathologist hired by lawyers for condemned inmates said there was not enough independent evidence from the autopsy – where only one photo of the body was taken and Mahdi’s clothes were not examined – to make that conclusion.