The state's execution protocols called for a hood to be pulled over Mahdi's head before three volunteer corrections staff shot him in the heart at the same time.

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed by the state of South Carolina on April 11 for the violent killing of off-duty Orangeburg Public Safety Officer James Myers in 2004.

It was the second time someone was executed by firing squad in S.C. in five weeks and only the fifth time in the U.S. since 1976.