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A second South Carolina death row inmate has chosen execution by firing squad.
Mikal Mahdi, 41, will be put to death on April 11 after pleading guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004.
“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.”
Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death in South Carolina on March 7, becoming the first prisoner executed by firing squad in the U.S. in 15 years. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets struck him.
This photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, S.C., including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections/AP)
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 then set Myers’ body on fire and ran away. Myers’ wife discovered her husband’s dead body in the shed, which they had used for the backdrop of their wedding.
Brad Sigmon was convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County in 2001. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
On July 21, 2004, Mahdi was taken into custody in Florida.
Fox News’ Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.