Inmate Executed by Firing Squad Died in ‘Excruciating’ Pain After Bullets Missed His Heart, Autopsy Report Suggests

A man recently executed by firing squad in South Carolina is said to have died in “excruciating” pain, suggests an autopsy report in a legal complaint filed by his attorneys nearly a month after the execution.

Mikal Mahdi — who was convicted of two 2004 murders, including the death of a police officer — was executed on April 11. Now, his legal team claims the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) “botched” it.

Mahdi, 42, opted for death by firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair “based on the assumption that SCDC could be entrusted to carry out its straightforward steps: locating the heart; placing a target over it; and hitting that target,” per Mahdi’s attorneys in the complaint, obtained and reviewed by The Guardian, that was submitted May 8 to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

However, according to Dr. Jonathan Arden, a forensic pathologist retained by Mahdi’s lawyers to review his autopsy, Mahdi may have experienced “excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds,” per the complaint.

PEOPLE reached out to an attorney for Mahdi on Saturday, May 10, but did not receive an immediate response. 

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.  

When the state supreme court confirmed the legality of execution by firing squad in 2024, it did so with the understanding that the inmate would not suffer more than “10-15 seconds.” Anything more than that would be deemed exceedingly cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional. 

A reporter for the Associated Press who was present during the execution also said that Mahdi appeared to struggle after being shot, stating that he “cried out” and “flexed” his arms after he was shot.

“He groaned two more times about 45 seconds after that. His breaths continued for about 80 seconds before he appeared to take one final gasp. A doctor checked him for a little over a minute, and he was declared dead … less than four minutes after the shots were fired,” the reporter wrote.

Mahdi’s legal team is now claiming that the execution was “botched,” per NBC News. Mahdi’s legal team also claims that the three-person firing squad tasked with shooting Mahdi in the heart largely missed their target, with Mahdi incurring more damage to other internal organs than should have been expected, leading to prolonged suffering.

“Mikal’s heart was left almost completely intact,” David Weiss, one of Mahdi’s attorneys, told NBC News.

Mahdi’s attorneys said they felt “obliged” to share the information with the state court in an effort to prevent this from happening to other death row inmates.

“The implications are horrifying for anyone facing the same choice,” Weiss said in a statement obtained to NBC News. “South Carolina’s refusal to acknowledge their failures with executions cannot continue.”

Chrysti Shain, director of communications for the SCDC, told PEOPLE via email that an autopsy conducted by the SCDC unequivocally showed that all bullets struck Mahdi in the heart and that all other statements regarding what occurred during the execution are merely “interpretations from paid consultants.” 

She further stated that a “medical professional used a stethoscope” to accurately place a clear target over Mahdi’s heart prior to the execution.

Mahdi was the second inmate to be executed in South Carolina via firing squad this year, the first being Brad Sigmon. Sigmon was executed on March 7 for the bludgeoning deaths of his girlfriend’s parents in 2001.