Lawsuit: Firing Squad 'Intended to Miss'

An inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection in South Carolina on Friday challenged the state's execution methods in a lawsuit, arguing that lethal injection, the electric chair, and the firing squad are all cruel and unusual punishments. Lawyers for Steven Stanko claimed that in the April firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi, evidence shows that the three-person firing squad "intended to miss the direct target and... avoid an instantaneous death to instead cause Mahdi's extreme suffering," the State reports. A pathologist hired by Mahdi's attorneys described the execution as "botched," saying the bullets missed their target and he likely took as long as a minute to die in excruciating pain from internal injuries.

In South Carolina's first firing squad execution, the three bullets completely destroyed Brad Sigmon's heart. With Mahdi, an autopsy found that two bullet paths hit his organs and damaged one of his heart's four chambers. In a report filed with the lawsuit, ballistics expert Chris Coleman said it would have been "nearly impossible" for the firing squad to miss at close range. "With three presumed proficient riflemen firing on the targeted heart from merely 15 feet (5 yards) away in a controlled environment, using powerful hunting rifles that are capable of killing a deer at 300 to 500 yards, it would be unlikely that the left ventricle would not be obliterated three times over," wrote Dr. Jonathan Groner, an expert in execution methods at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

"I am concerned that some element of those responsible for carrying out Mr. Mahdi's execution intended not to hit his target and to cause great pain before his death," Groner wrote. Attorneys for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called claims the execution was botched "both factually and legally wrong," the State reports. At a hearing Wednesday, federal judge Richard Gergel limited arguments to only lethal injection, the method Stanko chose over the firing squad and the electric chair, the AP reports. Within hours, he ruled that the execution of Stanko, who murdered his girlfriend and a friend in 2006, could proceed. (More firing squad stories.)