Columbia, South Carolina - Two South Carolina lawmakers demanded an investigation into the state's sacking squad executions last month after inmates' attorneys said his autopsy showed the shootings almost missed his heart and caused him great pain.
Democratic and Republican representatives asked the governor, state legislative and Senate leaders for independent and comprehensive review of the implementation of Mikal Mahdi on April 11.
They also want to remove the shooting squad from the execution method that prisoners can choose until the investigation is completed. South Carolina condemned prisoners can also choose a lethal injection or electric chair.
represent. Justin Bamberg and Neal Collins wrote in the letter that the request did not reduce Mahdi's conviction, nor did it stem from sympathy for the 42-year-old prisoner. Mahdi was executed for shooting an off-duty policeman during a 2004 robbery.
“This independent investigation is intended to maintain the integrity of the South Carolina judicial system and public confidence in the execution of executions under the rule of law in our state,” they wrote.
Bamberg is a Democrat, and Republican Collins is a lecturer in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
Prison officials said they believed the execution was conducted correctly. House and Senate leaders did not respond. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said he doesn't think an investigation is needed.
"The governor has high confidence in the leadership of the Department of Corrections. He believes that Mr. Mahdi's death sentence was conducted correctly and legally," spokesman Brandon Charochak wrote in an email.
Even without an investigation, what happened to Mahdi's execution may soon be in court. Stephen Stanko may set a death date for two murders Friday, with two death sentences in Holly and Georgetown counties. He will have to decide in two weeks how he wants to die.
Mahdi admitted that he killed Orangeburg public safety official James Myers in 2004, shooting at least eight times before burning his body. Miles' wife found him in the couple's Calhoun County shed, the backdrop of the wedding 15 months ago.
The autopsy performed after Mahdi's execution raised several questions, and the legislators repeated some in the letter.
The only photo of Mahdi's autopsy shows two different wounds in his torso. A pathologist who reviewed Mahdi's lawyer's results said this showed one of three shots that three prison employee volunteers missed in the firing squad.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy concluded that the two bullets had a body before training after consultation with an unnamed prison official. Prison officials said all three guns were fired and no bullets or debris were found in the death chamber.
“Back and after clicking on the target through the same entrance, both of these bullets traveled against the laws of physics,” Bamberg and Collins wrote.
According to his autopsy report, three different wounds were found in his chest during the state's first shooting squad's execution on March 7, and his heart suffered severe damage.
These shots hardly hit one of Mahdi's four rooms in his heart and widely damaged his liver and lungs. Pathologist Dr. Jonathan Arden said that when directly hitting the heart, it may take 15 seconds to lose consciousness, while in extreme pain, he fell into 30 seconds of pain.
Witnesses said Mahdi shouted loudly when he was shot during the execution, groaned again about 45 seconds before taking his last breath when he seemed to be in 75 seconds.
Bamberg and Collins said Mahdi's autopsy itself was problematic.
The official autopsy did not include X-rays to allow independent verification of the results; only one photo took Mahdi's body without close-ups of the wound. And he was not checked to determine where the target was and how it was consistent with the damage the bullet caused to his shirt and body.
“I think Mikal Mahdi did an autopsy, which is really expanding the fact. I think most pathologists would say he did an "external examination" of the body,” said Jonathan Groner, an expert on lethal injections and other capital punishment.
Sigmon's autopsy includes an X-ray, several photos and a rough examination of his clothes
Chrysti Shain, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said prison officials used professional pathology services from the same company.
She said they did not provide any instructions or restrictions for the autopsy.
Pathologists who performed the autopsy declined to answer the Associated Press questions.
Bamberg and Collins also want the state to allow at least one legislator to participate in the execution as a witness.
State law targets who can be in the small witness room: prison staff, representatives of two inmates, three relatives of the victim, a law enforcement officer, prosecutors who committed the crime, and three media members.