South Carolina Supreme Court OKs Upcoming Execution For 2006 Murder

The South Carolina Supreme Court will not halt the execution of Mikal Mahdi by firing squad, scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, they ruled in 13-page order issued on Monday. Mahdi, 42, pleaded guilty in 2006 to killing two men during a multi-state crime spree two years prior. Mahdi could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution or ask Gov. Henry McMaster to change his sentence to life in prison. Neither option was successful for any of the four inmates executed in the state over the past seven months, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reports.

Mahdi’s attorneys argued Judge Clifton Newman, the sentencing judge in 2006, was unable to fully to consider Mahdi’s traumatic childhood because his original defense attorneys failed to give him enough information. If Newman had known more about Mahdi’s life, such as alleged abuse by his father and the thousands of hours Mahdi spent in solitary confinement as a teenager, the judge might have decided to instead hand down a lesser sentence, Mahdi’s current legal team argued. All five state Supreme Court justices disagreed in a 13-page order issued Monday. The justices pointed to a number of violent incidents Newman considered in sentencing Mahdi to death. Among them was a 2001 incident in Richmond, Virginia, when Mahdi stabbed a maintenance worker nearly to death. Justices also noted his multiple escape attempts while he was in jail, including as his trial began. The justices wrote that Mahdi’s previous defense teams put up an adequate defense, arguing his decisions were affected by age, mental illness and a turbulent childhood.