South Carolina Murder Second-degree burglary Grand larceny North Carolina First-degree murder
Criminal penalty
South Carolina Death (murder) 15 years' imprisonment (second-degree burglary) Ten years' imprisonment (grand larceny) North Carolina Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (first-degree murder)
Details
Victims
Murdered Christopher Jason Boggs, 29 James Myers, 56 Alive Nathen Sasser Several other robbery and carjacking victims
Mikal Deen Mahdi[a] (born March 20, 1983) is an American convicted killer on death row for the murder of a police officer in South Carolina. Over a period of three days in July 2004, Mahdi, then a resident of Virginia, went on a multi-state crime spree, which included carjacking, firearm robbery and two murders. Mahdi had first robbed and killed a 29-year-old convenience store clerk Christopher Jason Boggs in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on July 15, 2004. Two days after the murder of Boggs, Mahdi carjacked a man and stole his car in Columbia, South Carolina, before he fled to a local farm in Calhoun County and murdered 56-year-old off-duty police officer James Myers, whose body was later doused in diesel and burnt by Mahdi.[1]
After murdering Myers, Mahdi went on the run for about four days before he was arrested in Florida on July 21, 2004, and extradited back to South Carolina to be charged with the fatal shooting of Myers. Mahdi was convicted of the murder and other charges in South Carolina and sentenced to death in 2006, and also sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Boggs in 2011 after his extradition to North Carolina for trial.[2][3]
Mahdi, who had since lost his appeals against the death penalty, is currently on death row awaiting his execution at Broad River Correctional Institution, with his execution date yet to be scheduled.
According to court documents, Mahdi had a troubled and "chaotic" childhood. Prior to Mahdi's birth, Mahdi's father Shareef, who converted to Islam and changed his name at one point in his life, came from a dysfunctional family background (which had a history of alcoholism) and did not complete high school, and he joined the Marines, from which he had an honorable discharge at the end of his service.[b] Shareef, at age 27, had an arranged marriage with a 16-year-old woman from Richmond and had two sons, including Mahdi. The marriage, however, did not end well, and Mahdi's mother left the family in 1986. Mahdi's father himself did not pay much attention to his sons, and he often got into trouble with the authorities over altercations with law enforcement officers. Although Mahdi's father tried to work odd jobs to take care of his family, it all failed.[4][5]
In 1991, Mahdi's father sent both Mahdi and his brother to live with relatives. While Mahdi's older brother Saleem went to live with his aunt in Texas, Mahdi went to live with his paternal uncle and aunt in Maryland at the age of eight, and also completed both second and third grade in Scotts Branch Elementary School in Baltimore. While Mahdi was an active student of sorts, he faced disciplinary issues like respect for authority and teachers, and his reading and writing skills were below grade level. School reports revealed that Mahdi had poor self-esteem and often has difficulty with relationships with others. He eventually dropped out at the third grade. By the age of 21, Mahdi had completed both his GED and community college.[4][5]
On August 23, 1992, Mahdi was involuntarily admitted in a psychiatric facility due to a suicide threat, and was discharged on October 19, 1992, from the Walter P Carter Center. Mahdi would eventually return to live with his father and brother in Virginia, where he first committed breaking and entering in December 1997. Mahdi was convicted of two counts of grand larceny and two counts of breaking and entering, and detained at a juvenile's facility. After his release, Mahdi returned to live with his mother in Richmond.[4]
In 2001, Mahdi was convicted of attacking a police officer in Virginia, and therefore sentenced to 93 months in prison. Mahdi, who was also given 15 years of probation, was released in May 2004, but two months later, he would commit a spree of two murders in two different states outside of Virginia.[4]
2004 crime spree and murders
Between July 14 and July 17, 2004, Mikal Mahdi committed various crimes across three to four different states, including two murders – one in North Carolina and another in South Carolina.[6]
Murder of Christopher Boggs
On July 14, 2004, Mikal Mahdi, then 21 years old, stole a .380 caliber pistol from his neighbor, as well as a station wagon and a set of Virginia license plates. After doing so, Mahdi drove the stolen car out of Virginia and headed to North Carolina, where he would commit his first murder.[4][7]
The next day, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mahdi entered a local gas station's convenience store, and took out a can of beer. When the store's clerk, 26-year-old Christopher Jason Boggs, asked for Mahdi's identification card and checked it, Mahdi fired the gun point-blank and fatally shot Boggs in the face. As Boggs collapsed on the floor, Mahdi once again fired another shot at Boggs's body.[4][8]
After murdering Boggs, Mahdi attempted to open the cash register to steal some money, but after failing to do so, Mahdi left the store with the canned beer he bought and fled to South Carolina.[4][8]
Murder of James Myers
On July 17, 2004, two days after reaching South Carolina, Mahdi murdered 56-year-old off-duty policeman James Myers.[c][9]
Prior to the murder itself, Mahdi armed himself with a gun and carjacked a driver named Corey Pitts while in downtown Columbia. He stole Pitts's car and replaced the car's license plates with the stolen license plates from Virginia, and later headed southeast. After driving for 35 minutes, Mahdi reached a gas station and attempted to buy gas with a credit card, which the pump rejected. Mahdi fruitlessly spent 45 minutes to an hour to get the pump to work, but this led to the suspicion of the gas station workers, who called the police, and Mahdi was forced to flee on foot.[4][8]
On the same day, Mahdi arrived at Calhoun County and went into hiding to a local farm, where he spent the day watching TV and examining the gun collection stored inside the farm's workshop. The farm belonged to 56-year-old Captain James Myers of the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office. Myers, who had served at least three decades as a firefighter and policeman, was then outside the farm and celebrating the birthday of his daughter, sister and wife at a beach.[4][8]
After the celebration, Myers went back to his farm, and Mahdi, who spotted Myers, grabbed onto Myers's .22 caliber rifle and held Myers on gunpoint before shooting Myers nine times. Myers consequently died from the shooting, and Mahdi proceeded to pour diesel on Myers's body, before setting the corpse on fire. After this, Mahdi additionally stole the .22 caliber rifle, Myers's police-issued assault rifle and personal shotgun, and escaped from the farm on Myers's police-issued truck.[4][8]
Later that evening, Myers' wife Amy Myers, who was also a law enforcement officer, noticed that her husband did not return home and became worried. Amy drove to the farm and discovered Myers's burned body lying in a pool of blood at the workshop, and thus reported the matter to the police.[4]
Dr. Janice Ross of Newberry Pathologists Associates conducted a post-mortem examination on Myers's corpse, and she found that Myers had sustained a total of nine gunshot wounds, including three to his head. According to Dr. Ross's report, two of these shots went from the top of Myers's head down to the base of his skull, suggesting he was either down or slumping when they were fired, and since all the head wounds reached his brain, it led to immediate unconsciousness and subsequently, caused Myers's death. One of the shots to Myers's chest had struck both his lung and heart.[5]
Manhunt and arrest
After the murder of James Myers, Mikal Mahdi stole the truck of Myers and fled to Florida.[4]
Through their investigations, the police were able to link Mahdi to the murder of Myers and conducted a manhunt for Mahdi. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dispatched its agents to search for the whereabouts of Mahdi.[10] Similarly, the police in North Carolina issued a warrant of arrest for Mahdi after he was captured on CCTV to be the killer that robbed and shot Christopher Boggs.[11]
On July 21, 2004, Mahdi was spotted driving Myers's truck in Florida by the local police, and he was cornered by the police at Satellite Beach. Although Mahdi abandoned the truck, fled on foot and even carried the stolen rifle of Myers with him, he eventually dropped the rifle and surrendered to the police.[4][12]
After the arrest of Mahdi, the local authorities of Florida extradited Mahdi back to South Carolina for investigations into the murder of Myers, for which he was charged in court.[13][14] State prosecutors in South Carolina reportedly sought the death penalty in preliminary charge sheets filed against Mahdi, at the request of Myers's family and the Orangeburg police.[15][16]
Murder trials (2004 – 2011)
South Carolina
On August 23, 2004, a Calhoun County grand jury indicted Mikal Mahdi on one count of murder, second-degree burglary, and grand larceny.[17] On September 3, 2004, Calhoun County Solicitor Robby Robbins announced his intent to seek the death penalty against Mahdi, who purportedly remained expressionless when the prosecution filed the seek notice in court. Under South Carolina state law, an offence of murder carries either the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[18]
Originally, Mahdi was scheduled to stand trial on January 23, 2006,[19] but it was postponed through his lawyers' application.[20] After this, Mahdi's trial eventually took place in November 2006. The first three days of trial was spent on jury selection.[21][22] At one point, Mahdi was discovered to have a homemade handcuff key in his pocket during a routine court search before his trial, and he brought it from his prison cell to the courtroom. As a result, tighter security measures were undertaken to monitor Mahdi throughout the rest of the proceedings.[23]
On November 28, 2006, the fourth day of his trial, right before the jury was set for its first day of case hearing, Mahdi expressed his intent to plead guilty to all charges, and as a result of his plea of guilt, Mahdi was thereby convicted and his sentencing was left up to the discretion of the judge.[24][25]
Despite this plea of guilt, the prosecution, led by David Pascoe, continued to argue for the death penalty for Mahdi, citing there was "hate and malice" in Mahdi's heart and his abhorrent actions of murdering a police officer and burning the corpse thereafter, and his prior criminal history and other aggravating factors of the crime, which demonstrated Mahdi's disregard for human life and his status as an epitome of evil.[26] Furthermore, it was revealed in court that at one point in 1998, Mahdi – who was then 15 – pledged to kill a police officer when he was arrested at the end of a nine-hour standoff, which was seemingly fulfilled with the death of Myers. Myers's widow, then 38 years old, also testified that her heart had died the moment her husband was murdered and she was not the same person since, and it happened so that her husband was killed at the very same shed which served as a backdrop of the couple's wedding in 2003, which deepened her heartbreak.[27][28]
On the other hand, the defence sought a life sentence for Mahdi, stating that their client had a troubled childhood and was raised without a mother and his father neglected both Mahdi and his older brother as they grew up, and he himself was the victim of circumstances that led to him going astray and shaped him to be a criminal. The defence thus submitted that the mitigating circumstances of Mahdi's case should warrant judicial mercy on humanitarian grounds.[29]
On December 8, 2006, Justice Clifton Newman sentenced 23-year-old Mikal Deen Mahdi to death for murdering Myers, after he cited that Mahdi lacked any remorse for the murder and pointed out that he only pled guilty after a homemade handcuff key was discovered in his pocket before the trial, as well as his other misbehaviors (including threatening law enforcement officers) which proved that he would not adapt or conform to prison life.[30][31] During sentencing, Justice Newman quoted:
"In extinguishing the life, hope and dreams of Captain Myers in such a wicked, depraved and consciousless manner, the defendant Mikal Deen Mahdi also extinguished any justifiable claim to receive the mercy he seeks from this Court."[4]
In addition to the death sentence, Mahdi also received consecutive jail terms of 15 years and ten years for second-degree burglary and grand larceny respectively.[4] Mahdi was reportedly the youngest person to be sentenced to death in South Carolina at age 23.[32] This case was one of Newman's most notable cases as a judge. Newman would comment on the case of Mahdi in later years, admitting that it was a difficult decision for him to sentence Mahdi to death, because he himself was an opponent of capital punishment.[33]
North Carolina
Apart from his criminal charges in South Carolina, Mahdi was also charged by the state authorities of North Carolina for the murder of Christopher Boggs.[34][d]
Seven years after he was condemned to death row for Myers's murder in South Carolina, in December 2011, Mahdi, who was extradited back to North Carolina to stand trial, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder with respect to the shooting death of Boggs. After submitting his plea of guilt, Mahdi was sentenced to life without parole by Judge Richard Stone. Boggs's mother was reportedly present in court to witness the sentencing of her son's killer, and she wanted Mahdi to face justice for killing her son.[35]
Given that Mahdi was already on death row in South Carolina for the killing of Myers, he was sent back to South Carolina to continue serving his sentence for the crimes committed there.[36]
Stabbing incident in prison
On the morning of December 2, 2009, the third year of his incarceration on death row, Mikal Mahdi and condemned serial killer Quincy Allen plotted to attack and kill a correctional officer while in the Lieber Correctional Institution.[37]
As part of their plan, Mahdi and Allen removed metal strips from air ducts and made some makeshift knives. Afterwards, they approached a prison officer named Nathan Sasser, asking him if they could go visit the basketball court. After Sasser escorted the pair to the basketball court, Mahdi and Allen attacked Sasser, stabbing him multiple times before they attempted to escape by climbing through the fence. The escape attempt failed, after the other prison staff subdued the pair by firing tear gas and rubber bullets.[38][39]
Sasser managed to survive the stabbing after he was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) for treatment,[40] but he developed PTSD and had begun suffering from anxiety attacks, which later led to him being dismissed from his job. Both Allen and Mahdi, who were both stripped of their privileges (including outside recreation, visitation, phone use, and canteen items), were subsequently charged with assault for the stabbing incident, but since both men were already sentenced to death, the prosecution eventually dropped the charges against Mahdi and Allen.[39]
In the aftermath, Allen continued to appeal against his death sentence, and eventually, in 2022, Allen's death sentence was overturned by a federal appellate court and on July 23, 2024, Allen was re-sentenced to life imprisonment after he reached a plea deal with the prosecution and agreed to waive his right to further appeals.[41]
Appeal process
State appeals
On June 15, 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Mikal Mahdi's direct appeal against his death sentence. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Costa M. Pleicones, the court rejected Mahdi's arguments that he had been punitively given the death penalty due to him changing his mind and pleading guilty right after exercising his right to a jury trial, and the judges agreed that Mahdi was fairly sentenced to death in view of the aggravating circumstances surrounding his case.[42]
In a concurring opinion penned by then Chief Justice Jean H. Toal, she stated that the case of Mahdi was among the most deserving of the death penalty she has seen during her two decades of service as a judge.[43] She quoted in her own words:
"I recite these facts to emphasize the egregious nature of (Mahdi)'s crimes. In my time on this Court, I have seen few cases where the extraordinary penalty of death was so deserved."[44]
Federal appeals
On February 20, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mahdi's appeal against his death sentence.[45]
In 2023, Mahdi was one of the several death row inmates who filed a lawsuit against the state of South Carolina over the introduction of firing squad and electric chair as alternative execution methods in the state. The inmates argued that the use of the electric chair and firing squad were unconstitutional, as they could cause unnecessary pain and suffering to the condemned, and amounted to cruel and unusual punishments.[48] The state, however, responded that both the electric chair and firing squad were in line with the present legal protocols and there was no law that decreed that death had to be instantaneous or painless for individuals facing the death penalty.[49][50]
At that point in time, there was an unofficial moratorium on executions in South Carolina after the state's last execution in 2011 due to the absence of lethal injection drugs, which arose from the expiration of the state's existing drug supplies and the refusal of many drug companies to sell their drugs to the state for executions.[51] As a result of the state's inability to conduct further lethal injection executions, the lawmakers in South Carolina passed new laws to re-introduce the electric chair and legalize firing squad executions as the alternative execution methods for future cases where the option of lethal injection was unavailable.[52] Eventually, the state successfully procured new drugs in Septmeber 2023 to restart executions by lethal injection.[53]
On July 31, 2024, the five-judge South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit and affirmed the constitutionality of both the electric chair and firing squad, with a majority of the judges expressing support to the two methods: three for firing squad and four for the electric chair. This decision gave rise to the possibility of resuming executions in South Carolina for all the 32 inmates on the state's death row, including Mahdi.[54][55][56] At the time of this ruling, five condemned inmates – consisting of Mahdi, Freddie Eugene Owens, Richard Bernard Moore, Brad Sigmon and Marion Bowman Jr. – had exhausted all avenues of appeal and hence in line for imminent execution on whichever dates to be determined.[8][57]
Eventually, the 13-year moratorium in South Carolina ended on September 20, 2024, after one of the five inmates, Freddie Owens, was put to death for the murder of a convenience store clerk in 1997.[58] Richard Moore later became the second condemned inmate to die on November 1, 2024.[59]
Scheduled execution
After the loss of his legal motion in 2024, Mikal Mahdi remains on death row for murdering James Myers as of 2024.
On August 28, 2024, a court order was issued to allow the state to carry out a total of six executions over the following year,[60] with each execution set to take place for every 35 days (equivalent to five weeks) apart of each other.[61]
Mahdi was one of these six condemned prisoners on the list. The other five inmates named on the list were Freddie Eugene Owens, Richard Bernard Moore, Marion Bowman Jr., Steven Bixby, and Brad Sigmon.[62] Both Owens and Moore – who were sentenced to death in 1999 and 2001 respectively – were the first two out of the six to be put to death on September 20 and November 1, 2024, respectively.[63][64] After the executions of these two men, Bowman, who was convicted and sentenced in May 2002 for the 2001 arson-murder of a woman, was supposed to receive his execution date on November 8, 2024, which would be tentatively December 6, 2024.[65]
However, Bowman's death warrant did not come as scheduled, because prior to this, Bowman and the remaining three condemned prisoners – which included Mahdi – on the execution schedule list had appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court, asking for their executions to not take place until the end of the winter holiday period, specifically after Christmas and New Year's Day. Although the state responded to the motion by substantiating that it was not unusual for the state to carry out executions during winter holidays, including five between December 4, 1998, and January 8, 1999,[66] the lawyers representing the four death row inmates submitted a statement in court, "Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on all involved, particularly during a time of year that is so important to families."[67]
On November 14, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court granted the inmates a temporary respite, and agreed to not sign any new death warrants until at least January 3, 2025.[68][69] This court outcome allowed Mahdi and the other three inmates facing imminent execution to have their execution orders pushed back to 2025. Given that Mahdi's death sentence was meted out in 2006, Mahdi would likely be the second-last condemned prisoner on the list to receive his execution date.[e][70][71]
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References
Notes
↑ Some sources spelt his full name as "Mikal Dean Mahdi".
↑ Court sources, however, stated that there were unspecified circumstances revolving around the discharge, which would have questioned whether the discharge was honorable or not.
↑ Although it was reported widely that James Myers was killed on July 17, 2004, it was also reported differently in some sources that Myers's murder occurred on July 18, 2004, instead of July 17.
↑ Under the state law of North Carolina, the offence of first-degree murder likewise carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.
↑ Based on court sources, Bowman was sentenced to death in May 2002, while Sigmon's sentencing took place in July 2002 (two months after Bowman's sentencing), and Bixby received his death sentence in 2007.
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