COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for a South Carolina inmate set to be put to death next month want to stop his execution, saying his defense's plea for his life at his original trial “didn’t even span the length of a Law & Order episode, and was just as superficial.”
Mikal Mahdi is scheduled to die April 11 for the 2004 killing of an off-duty police officer after ambushing him in the officer's work shed in Calhoun County and setting his body on fire after shooting him at least eight times.
Mahdi, 41, chose to plead guilty to murder, so a judge, and not a jury, decided whether he got life in prison or the death penalty.
Mahdi's current lawyers said in an appeal Tuesday to the state Supreme Court that it appears the defense's case to spare Mahdi's life lasted only about 30 minutes.
After Mahdi's family was uncooperative, they did not seek out elementary school teachers or people in the community who could have addressed Mahdi's chaotic childhood that left him with some of the most severe trauma of depression and anger one psychologist said he had ever seen, according to the appeal.
Mahdi was the second son of a woman wed at age 16 in an arranged marriage. His family described a chaotic childhood with a father who abused his mother until she left without her children.
Mahdi's father pulled him out of school in fifth grade and put him through paramilitary training after a school psychologist suggested he needed help with his emotions and academics after he threatened to kill himself, his lawyers said.
Mahdi spent most of his life from age 14 to 21 in prison and spent months in solitary confinement, which only made his depression and anger worse — testimony his attorneys said was not presented at his trial.
Prosecutors called 28 witnesses for Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman to hear as he weighed whether Mahdi lived or died at his trial. The defense called two.
“In essence, Mahdi’s entire life — in this proceeding to determine whether he should live or die — was boiled down to a few short bullet points and less than a half hour of testimony,” Mahdi's lawyers wrote.
In an earlier appeal, a state court judge rejected Mahdi's argument his trial lawyers were ineffective. A federal court refused to take up the matter, leaving Mahdi facing execution in less than a month.
"At the very least, a basic sense of justice and fairness calls for this new information to be fully heard before Mr. Mahdi is put to death," his lawyers wrote.
Attorneys for the state have not responded to Mahdi's latest appeal.
Mahdi has until March 28 to decide if he wants to die by firing squad, in the electric chair or by lethal injection. He would be the fifth inmate South Carolina has executed in less than seven months.
Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death on March 7, while lethal injection was selected by Freddie Owens on Sept. 20; Richard Moore on Nov. 1; and Marion Bowman Jr. on Jan. 31.
Mahdi shot and killed Orangeburg public safety officer James Myers in July 2004 in the middle of a stretch of crimes that stretched across four states. It started when Mahdi stole a gun and a car in Virginia. Mahdi admitted he shot and killed a store clerk in North Carolina and aimed a gun at the officer in Florida who arrested him after Myers' death.
As he sentenced Mahdi to death, Newman said his challenge through his judicial career was to find the humanity in every defendant and temper justice with mercy.
“That sense of humanity seems not to exist in Mikal Deen Mahdi," Newman said as he handed down the death sentence.
Mahdi's lawyers said that was the fault of his trial attorneys, and he shouldn't have to die because of it.
“We now know that Judge Newman simply did not have access to the information needed to reach a reliable sentencing decision,” they wrote.
Vivian Lovingood protests the scheduled execution of South Carolina inmate Brad Sigmon, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Columbia, S.C. For the first time in 15 years a death row inmate in the U.S. will be executed by a firing squad. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
This photo provided by South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Mikal Mahdi. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet has approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to fire the head of the country’s Shin Bet internal security service.
The late-night decision to sack Ronen Bar deepens a power struggle focused largely over who bears responsibility for the Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
It also could set the stage for a crisis over the country’s division of powers. Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis to dismiss Bar.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to local health officials. Hours later, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties, in the first such attack since Israel broke their ceasefire.
Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January. Israeli bombardments in the past three days have killed at least 592 people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the records department at the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said it was again enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City. Palestinians were not being ordered to leave northern Gaza but can no longer enter, the military said, and are only allowed to move south on foot using the coastal road. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to what remains of their homes in the north during the ceasefire.
Israeli ground forces are also pushing into Gaza near the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah, the military said Thursday. The operations come a day after Israel moved to split Gaza in two by retaking the strategic Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza's north from south.
The military ordered Palestinians to evacuate an area in central Gaza near the city of Khan Younis, saying it would operate there in response to Thursday’s rocket fire from Hamas. The Palestinian militant group said it targeted Tel Aviv. One rocket was intercepted and two fell in open areas, according to the army.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels also launched two missiles at Israel, one early Thursday morning and another in the evening, the military said. Both were intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, according to the army, and no injuries were reported. Air raid sirens rang out and exploding interceptor rockets were heard in Jerusalem. There have been three such attacks since the United States began a new campaign of airstrikes against the Houthis earlier this week.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 85 people, mostly women and children. The ministry's records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Indonesian Hospital said it received 19 bodies after strikes in Beit Lahiya, near Gaza's northern border, which was heavily destroyed and largely depopulated earlier in the war.
“It was a bloody night for the people of Beit Lahiya,” said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s emergency service in northern Gaza, adding that rescuers were still searching the rubble. “The situation is catastrophic.”
Israel’s military said Thursday its airstrikes in Gaza had killed the head of Hamas’ internal security apparatus and two other militant commanders. Israel has said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. A United Nations-backed group of human rights experts accused Israel last week of “disproportionate violence against women and children” during the war in Gaza.
One of the strikes early Thursday hit the Abu Daqa family’s home in Abasan al-Kabira, a village outside Khan Younis near the border with Israel. It was in an area the Israeli military ordered evacuated earlier this week, encompassing most of eastern Gaza.
The strike killed at least 16 people, mostly women and children, according to the nearby European Hospital, which received the dead. Those killed included a father and his seven children, as well as the parents and brother of a month-old baby who survived along with her grandparents.
“Another tough night,” said Hani Awad, who was helping rescuers search for more survivors in the rubble. “The house collapsed over the people’s heads.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration reiterated its support for Israel, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay.”
Israel, which cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians, has vowed to intensify its operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas says it's willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
The breakdown of the ceasefire has been met with anger in Israel, where many support the plight of the hostage families to free their loved ones.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered Thursday outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem to protest his handling of the hostage crisis and his plan to fire the country’s head of internal security. Netanyahu’s Cabinet met late Thursday to vote on the firing, a move that many view as undermining the balance of powers in Israel.
“Instead of firing the head of the Shin Bet, just to avoid an investigation, I think that the prime minister should be involved in rescuing the last hostages there are left in Gaza to die,” said Michal Halperin, a protester.
Police used a water canon to disperse the crowd after protesters tried to break through police barricades.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel's retaliatory offensive, among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war at its height displaced around 90% of Gaza's population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Buildings destroyed during the Israeli attack are seen in the Gaza Strip during the sunset as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Buildings destroyed during the Israeli attack are seen in the Gaza Strip from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings, move away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Beit Lahia, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings, move away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Beit Lahia, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Ella Osama Abu Dagga, 25 days old, is held by her great-aunt Suad Abu Dagga, after she was pulled from the rubble earlier following an Israeli army airstrike that killed her parents and brother, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana )
The bodies of victims of an Israeli army airstrike are prepared for burial at Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings, move away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Beit Lahia, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
People walking surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Neighbours watch as volunteers and rescue workers search for survivors among the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)
People walking surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Volunteers and rescue workers use a bulldozer as to remove the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli army airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings traveling from Beit Hanoun to Jabaliya, a day after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings traveling from Beit Hanoun to Jabaliya, a day after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings traveling from Beit Hanoun to Jabaliya, a day after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
An Israeli tank maneuvers on the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli tank takes position on the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings traveling from Beit Hanoun to Jabaliya, a day after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
