(12 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbia, South Carolina – 11 April 2025
1. Exterior of corrections facility
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press:
"My name is Jeffrey Collins. I’m a reporter with the Associated Press in South Carolina. Today I witnessed the firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi. He’s a 42 year old man who was being put to death for shooting an off duty police officer here in South Carolina back in 2004. This is the second firing squad death that South Carolina has done in the past five weeks. It’s a very rare method. For firing – there’s only been three other firing squad deaths in the last 50 years outside of these two in South Carolina. This one was different than the first one I witnessed five weeks ago. Mahdi, actually, when he was shot, there was a groan, almost a cry or a yell, it’s like ‘aaaah’ like that, which I’ve never heard and this is my 12th execution. I’ve never heard an inmate make that kind of noise."
3. Sign at the entrance of the corrections facility
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press:
"About 45 seconds after that, the shots were fired. There was a second set of, like, a groan or a cry. And then a few seconds after that, there was a third very low moan, like a very guttural kind of moan. And then he took a very deep breath. And then I didn’t see him breathe anymore. This was maybe about a minute and twenty seconds after the shots were fired. At that point, a doctor came in with a stethoscope, did some examinations for about a minute and thirty seconds. At that point they – he made – the doctor made a motion towards prison officials who came out and declared Mahdi dead at 6:05 p.m."
5. Podium for the post execution press briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press:
"The way the process happens here in South Carolina is witnesses come into the room, we’re behind bulletproof glass and bars. There’s a curtain that’s blocking our view into the execution chamber. It opened a little bit right at 5:59pm, so about a minute before the execution was supposed to take place. At that point, Mahdi was strapped in a chair. He was in a black, shirt and pants. Typically, death row inmates wear green, but they put him in black for the firing squad. He was strapped down. His arms were strapped a little bit behind his side. His legs were strapped. There were straps over his shoulders and strap over his waist. They gave him the opportunity, his lawyer, an opportunity to read his final statement. He had no final statement. The warden then put a hood over his head and the warden then walked fifteen feet to where the shooters are. The warden walks over and he lifts a black pull shade, looks like one that’s in your house, and there’s a rectangular opening with – there’s partition three ways. That’s where the shooters are. You can’t see their guns. So from the point where the shade gets opened, it was thirty seconds before you heard a gunshot. I mean, there are three people shooting, but it sounded simultaneous. You saw the white target that was over Mahdi’s heart with a red bullseye. You saw it get pushed into a wound in his chest. He had several – he had those moans. Along with the moans, there were several shallow breaths that he had, you know, during that period of time before that last big final breath. But, the entire process, from the time the shots were fired to the time the doctor declared him dead, was less than four minutes."
7. Sign on the podium
STORYLINE:
AP video by Erik Verduzco
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