Did a firing squad in South Carolina purposefully miss a man’s heart during an execution last month to prolong his death?
That is what attorneys for Stephen Stanko, the next prisoner scheduled to die, argue. Stanko initially chose firing squad as his method of execution, but switched to lethal injection after Mikal Mahdi was executed with a firing squad last month, according to the Associated Press.
According to court documents cited by the AP, an expert for Stanko, 57, suggested that the firing squad either aimed below the target or did not place the target on Mahdi’s heart to “cause great pain before his death.”
Mahdi’s attorneys filed a complaint in May, claiming that his execution was botched, WIS-10 reported. Mahdi was executed for the 2004 murder of James Myers, an Orangeburg Public Safety Officer.
Mahdi’s attorneys hired Dr. Johnathan L. Arden to conduct an examination, and Arden concluded that the firing squad largely missed Mahdi’s heart. Arden also claimed Mahdi had some circulation and was most likely conscious for 30 to 60 seconds after being shot, according to the station.
“The autopsy confirms what I saw and heard,” Mahdi’s attorney, David Weiss, told WIS-10. “Mikal died a painful death. We do not know what went wrong, but his execution was inhumane.
The consequences are terrifying for anyone facing the same decision as Mikal. “South Carolina’s refusal to acknowledge their failures through executions cannot continue.”
Although Stanko has switched to lethal injection, his attorneys are also challenging that method, claiming that previous executions left prisoners feeling as if they were drowning, according to the AP.
The attorneys have requested that Stanko’s execution be postponed. Stanko is scheduled to die in two days for the murder of his friend, 74-year-old Henry Turner, in 2006.
According to the Post and Courier, Stanko murdered his girlfriend, 43-year-old Laura Ling, and sexually assaulted her daughter during a 2005 crime spree in the Myrtle Beach area.
“So (perhaps) it is not the method that is the issue — instead, these inmates just do not want to have their sentences carried out and are willing to make any argument that they can,” wrote Grayson Lambert, a lawyer for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, according to the AP.
Also, South Carolina has denied that anything went wrong with Mahdi’s execution.
“Neither the SCDC nor the firing squad members have control over how bullets react after striking the body. According to the Associated Press, the fact that one condemned inmate dies faster than another does not necessarily imply that something went wrong during one execution.
