"Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils," one of his lawyers, David Weiss, said in a statement. "Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering a lingering death on the lethal injection gurney."
Mahdi stole a gun and a car in Virginia on July 14, 2004, when he was 21, arrest records show. The next day, he shot and killed a North Carolina store clerk as the clerk was checking his identification. A couple of days later, he carjacked someone at an intersection in Columbia, South Carolina.
On July 18, 2004, while on the run after those crimes, Mahdi hid in a farm shed belonging to Orangeburg, South Carolina, Public Safety Captain James Myers. Mahdi ambushed Meyers when the officer returned from a birthday celebration for his wife, sister and daughter, prosecutors said.
Myers, 56, was shot eight or nine times, including twice in the head after falling to the ground. A pathologist testified that at least seven of the shots would have been fatal.
Mahdi’s legal team has filed for a stay of execution.