Columbia, SC (AP) – A man who was killed last month in the second execution of the South Carolina squad was conscious and probably with exceptional pain as long as a minute after the bullets to stop his heart quickly, hit him more than expected, according to a pathologist hired by his lawyers.
A photo of Mikal Mahdi’s torso show showed only two different wounds from the three volunteer prison staff, which all had live ammunition in the execution on April 11, according to a pathologist’s report, which was filed on Thursday with a letter to the Supreme Court of the State entitled “Notice of execution.”
Prison workers suggested to the pathologist who made the autopsy that two bullets had entered his body in the same place.
“The shooters missed the intended target zone and the evidence shows that it was struck only by two bullets, not the prescribed three. Therefore, the nature of the internal injuries from the firearms led to a more prolonged death process,” says Dr. Jonatan Arden, a pathologist rented by lawyers.
Ardon said that Mahdi probably took 30 to 60 seconds to lose consciousness – two to four times longer than 15 seconds, which experts, including Arden, and those hired by the state, provided for a proper execution of a squad.
During this time, Mahdi would suffer painful pain as his lungs tried to expand and move into a broken sternum and ribs, as well as “hunger of air” as the damaged lungs fought and failed to bring the need for oxygen, Arden said.
Witnesses heard him shout when the fired shots were fired
Witnesses to the execution heard Mahdi shout when the shots were fired, popped up again about 45 seconds later, and released a last low moan, just before he appeared to take his last breath at 75 seconds.
The 42 -year -old Mahdi was executed after admitting that he had killed Orange Orange James Myers’ public safety officer in 2004, shot him at least eight times before burning his body. Myers’ wife found him in the shed of Calhun County, which was against their wedding 15 months earlier.
Prison staff did not indicate that there were problems with Mahdi’s execution. The Shield Act maintains many details private, including the training and methods used by the dismissal unit. A spokesman on Thursday said they were working to respond to the submission.
The official autopsy does not include X -rays to allow the results to be inspected; Only one photo was taken for Mahdi’s body and there are no close wound plans; And his clothing was not examined to determine where the purpose was set and how it was aligned with the damage that bullets cause on his shirt, Arden said in a report summarizing his findings.
“I noticed where the purpose of Mikal’s torso was set and I remember thinking,” I am certainly not an expert on human anatomy, but it seems to me that the goal seems low, “says David Weiss, a Mahdi lawyer, who also witnessed his death.
Official Autopsy Report posted in question
In the official autopsy report, the pathologist Dr. Bradley Marcus writes that the reason for having only two wounds is that one can be caused by two bullets entering the body in the same place. Marcus said he had talked to an unnamed prison employee who reported that when the three voluntary fired members of the units, sometimes their goals end up with only one or two holes from three live circles.
Arden called on this virtually unheard of in his 40s examination of dead bodies and said that Marcus told him in a conversation that the possibility was distant.
The autopsy found damage in only one of the four cameras on Mahdi’s heart – the right ventricle. There were major damage to his liver and pancreas as the bullets continued down.
“The entrance wounds were in the lowest breast area, just above the border with the abdomen, which is not largely above the heart,” Arden writes.
In his conversation, Marcus also said that the severe amount of liver damage is not expected and he “expects the entrance wounds to be higher on the chest,” Arden wrote in his report.
The autopsy of the first man killed by the shooting squad showed a deleted heart
In contrast, Brad Sigmon’s autopsy, the first person killed by a shooting squad in the state, showed three different wounds of bullets and his heart was deleted, Arden said. He added that the autopsy report in this case includes X -rays, adequate photos, and a fugless examination of his clothes.
Without X -rays or other internal scans, to follow the path of bullets through Mahdi’s body, no additional light can be shed on the request for two bulls, after a hole, Arden said.
Bradley refused to talk about his autopsy when they were reached by phone on Thursday morning.
Weiss said he was stunned that he was done so little at the autopsy even after the pathologist saw only two holes in his chest. The obvious mistakes in how the implementation was made are a major problem, he said.
“His heart was missed and only two out of three shots were fired,” Weiss said. “And I think this raises incredibly difficult questions about the type of training and supervision that come into this process.”
“It was obvious to me as a layman after reading his autopsy report that something went wrong here. We need to want to find out what went wrong when you have a state government to perform the most serious, most serious function type,” Weiss said.
Mahdi’s body was cremated, preventing a second autopsy, Weiss said.
South Carolina allows convicted prisoners to choose a method of death
South Carolina allows convicted prisoners to choose whether to die through a deadly injection, an electric chair or a detachment. Three last year have chosen a deadly injection, but the last two have chosen the shooting squad, saying that they are afraid of other methods – autopsies show that deadly injection causes a fluid in the lungs and burns found on the bodies after electricity.
Twenty -six people remain at the death of South Carolina. Stephen Stanko, who has two death sentences in Hurry County and Georgetown County, has exhausted the appeal and is likely to be scheduled to die in June.