Firing Squad Execution FAIL! Three Shooters MISS the Mark from 5 Yards Away

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mikal Mahdi was just 21-years-old when he began a crime spree that spanned four states and included two murders. One of the victims was James Myers, a 56-year-old Police Captain with the Orangeburg Public Safety Department in South Carolina. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack discuss the crime spree and the murders that landed Mahdi a date with the executioners and how the firing squad, that seemed like such a good idea compared to other methods of death, didn't work out as planned. Did three shooters ALL miss the mark on Mikal Mahdi or was the "mark" missplaced?

Transcript Highlights
00:02.40 Introduction

01:13.17 A botched execution

05:18.91 Mikal Mahdi killed South Carolina Public Safety Officer James Myers in 2004

10:08.71 Mikal Mahdi ended writhing in pain while strapped to a chair

14:40.64 French Guillotine - used as a deterrent

19:55.79 Electrocution of Ted Bundy

25:05.72 Prison Employees volunteer to carry out execution

30:15.15 Three shooters, two bullet holes, not one heart hit

35:10.71 Static Target from 5 yards away

39:48.66 Was this a "botched execution"?

45:02.64 Was the "marker" misplaced?

47:02.47 Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an IHeart podcast.
0:06.5	Bodybacks with Joseph Scott Moore.
0:11.4	If given the task, could we do it?
0:16.6	There's so many people out there that say that they would do it.
0:30.6	But yet there's a very small, and I mean, very small percentage of people that have actually ever done it. What I'm talking about is, let's see, what are some of the euphemistic terms?
0:36.6	Pull in switch. Let's see, what are some of the euphemistic terms?
0:49.3	Pulling the switch, pressing the button, or in our case today, pulling the trigger.
0:58.0	Today we're going to talk about an execution that recently took place in the state of South Carolina. Now, Brother Dave and I have talked about executions in the past, but this one is of particular interest to me.
1:07.0	So let's explore what happens and what failed to happen and what some are calling a botched execution.
1:18.9	I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is Bodybags.
1:25.5	15 feet, Dave.
1:27.4	That's all that separates the end of a muzzle from a static target,
1:33.8	strapped to a chair.
1:36.4	15 feet, let's see, that's five yards.
1:41.3	Being an old high school football player, I always measure things in yards because I can visualize that from being on a playing field.
1:49.1	So it's weird, I think,
1:51.3	for many people,
1:52.7	particularly those that deal in the metric system on a regular basis.
1:57.0	But that's a conversation for another day.
1:59.6	But for me,
2:00.6	you know, I'm thinking five yards away, that's, it's not very far.
2:07.4	And to be handed a weapon and be told that at the other end, only a five-yard shot with a long-barreled weapon that is rifled
	...

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