The SC legislators ask for investigations of the alleged “botched” execution of the inmate of death

Columbia, SC (WIS) – Two state representatives in South Carolina ask for an investigation of a recently carried out execution, which was allegedly abused by the state.

The representatives Justin Bamberg (D-Bamberg) and Neal Collins (R-Pickens) sent a letter to governor Henry McMaster on Monday and to the leaders of State House Chambers and Joel Anderson, reigning director of South Carolina's Department.

The letter concerns the execution of 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi in April. Mahdi was sentenced to death after he was convicted of a crime of 2004 who led to the death of 29-year-old Christopher Bogg and 56-year-old James Myers, a captain of the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety.

After Mahdi's death in April, his legal team submitted a complaint to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which argued that his execution was abused. According to the complaint, this was because the shooters Mahdi's heart, the intended target area, had supposedly missed.

“In this execution, instead of being hit directly in his heart, Mikal Mahdi, instead of being hit directly in his heart, was shot twice over his stomach, with neither effect on his heart,” says Bamberg and Collins' request.

The two gunshot wounds also stand with the protocol of the department for corrections for the execution by discharging the squad, in which a firing squad consists of three people. Mahdi's lawyers argue that one of the guns of the shooters was missing incorrectly during the execution or had completely missed him.

The document also states that witnesses said when the execution, that Mahdi “groaned in a pain for about a minute” after the shot, and he was only declared dead about four minutes later.

Bamberg and Collins also commented on the autopsy after the death of Mahdi and said that it was “significantly less thorough than the latest autopsy by Brad K. Sigmon”, an inmate of the death line that was executed by the fir squad on March 7.

Legislators said that the Sigmon autopsy contained several photos, evidence of its clothing and X -rays of the gunshot wounds, while Mahdi's autopsy “only led to two photographs (one of his breast and one of a bottle with fragments)”, no X -rays and no evidence of his clothing.

The two legislators published a list of critical questions, of which they hope that a formal examination can answer:

• Why was there indications that only two balls of Mikal Mahdi bumped?
  
• Did a handle fail his gun wrong, missed or not fired?
  
• Has the destination been placed in imprecise on the chest of Mikal Mahdi?
  
• Why did the autopsy not meet the established forensic standards?
  
• Why was the clothing, an important piece of evidence, not analyzed or documented?
  

“It is the most drastic and most serious measurement that the state can take,” says Bamberg and Collins' request. “It is our responsibility to do this in accordance with the law and our values.”

You can read the full request from Bamberg and Collins below:

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