Mikal Mahdi to Be Executed by Firing Squad in South Carolina on Friday.
Mikal Mahdi is set to be executed by firing squad this Friday at 6 p.m., becoming one of the few inmates in modern U.S. history to face this rare method. The South Carolina Supreme Court denied his final appeal earlier this week, leaving little time and few options to stop the execution.
Mahdi, now 42, pleaded guilty in 2006 to a pair of brutal killings that were part of a violent, three-state crime spree. For nearly two decades, he’s remained on death row, while his attorneys fought to overturn his sentence. But on Monday, the state’s highest court delivered its final decision.
His legal team argued that the sentencing judge back in 2006 wasn’t given the full picture of Mahdi’s troubled past, including claims of childhood abuse and years spent in solitary confinement as a teenager. They believe that if the court had known more, Mahdi might have received a life sentence instead of death.
The justices, however, disagreed. In their 13-page opinion, they pointed to the extensive record of violence that Judge Clifton Newman had already considered at the time. That included a 2001 stabbing in Richmond, Virginia, in which Mahdi nearly killed a maintenance worker.
The court also referenced multiple escape attempts Mahdi made while in jail, including during the early days of his trial.
His 2004 crime spree began in Virginia and continued through North Carolina, where he shot a gas station clerk, Christopher Boggs, in the face at close range.
In South Carolina, he killed Officer James Myers in Calhoun County, shooting him with his own gun before setting the officer’s body on fire and fleeing in his patrol car. Mahdi was caught in Florida just days later.
With the state Supreme Court’s rejection, Mahdi’s only remaining avenues are a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or a clemency request to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. Neither option has worked for the last four inmates executed in the state over the past seven months.
Friday’s scheduled execution will also draw attention because of how it’s being carried out. South Carolina is one of the few states that currently allows death by firing squad. The method was reinstated after the state struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs, an issue that’s reignited debate over how executions are performed.
If the execution moves forward as planned, it will mark one of the rare instances in recent American history where a firing squad has been used. And unless there’s a late intervention, Mahdi’s case will add another chapter to South Carolina’s growing list of executions in 2025.
Related Facts About Executions in South Carolina
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South Carolina reinstated the firing squad in 2021 after officials said they could no longer obtain drugs for lethal injection. Inmates can now choose between electric chair and firing squad.
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The last execution in South Carolina took place in 2024, part of a renewed wave of capital punishment cases after nearly a decade-long pause.
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Only four people have been executed by firing squad in modern U.S. history, all in Utah. If carried out, Mikal Mahdi’s execution would be the first in South Carolina using this method.
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Death row inmates in South Carolina are housed at Broad River Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Columbia.
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Governor Henry McMaster has not granted clemency to any death row inmate since taking office in 2017.
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Capital punishment remains legal in 24 U.S. states, though the methods and frequency vary widely across the country.
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