A CONVICTED cop killer was executed by a firing squad in South Carolina as officials ramp up their return to the death penalty.

Mikal Mahdi, aged 42, was fatally shot within Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia at 6:05 p.m. on Friday, marking the state’s second unusual execution in just over a month.

Mahdi had received the death penalty for the 2004 killing of off-duty public safety officer Captain James Myers. Myers was shot nine times and then set on fire in a shed, a location where he had wed his wife merely 15 months prior.

Mahdi had also killed a North Carolina convenience store clerk three days before gunning down Myers.

Opting for the seldom-used method, Mahdi declined the electric chair or lethal injection due to fears of being “burned and mutilated” or enduring “a lingering death,” according to his lawyer.

Strapped to a metal chair beneath a hood and with a red bullseye target placed over his heart, Mahdi offered no final words and refused to look at the nine witnesses behind the bulletproof glass.

He cried out and flexed his arms as three prison staff fired rounds into his chest, then groaned twice more before taking a final breath 80 seconds later.

A doctor pronounced him dead four minutes after the shots were fired.

Mahdi’s execution was the fifth in the state in less than eight months, and the 12th in the US so far this year.

During his trial, Assistant Solicitor David Pascoe called him “the epitome of evil” and said: “His heart and mind are full of hate and malice.”

Myers’ wife, Amy Tripp Myers, gave heartbreaking testimony after finding her husband’s body: “I found the love of my life, my soulmate, the partner that my life revolved around, lifeless, lying in a pool of blood and his body burned by someone who didn’t even know him.”

In a letter written before his death, Mahdi admitted: “I’m guilty as hell… What I’ve done is irredeemable.”

Despite a final push by his legal team and childhood teachers calling for clemency, Republican Governor Henry McMaster denied a last-minute appeal.

The US Supreme Court also rejected his final petition.

Mahdi spent his final hours eating a last meal of ribeye steak, mushroom risotto, broccoli, collard greens, cheesecake and sweet tea.

South Carolina currently has 26 inmates left on death row.

Mahdi’s death followed last month’s execution of 67-year-old Brad Sigmon – South Carolina’s first firing squad death since resuming executions after a 13-year pause.

The double murderer died after three special bullets were shot at his heart by three volunteer riflemen at the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia.

His last words were four Bible quotes he believed showed that “nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man”.

Sigmon said: “I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.

“An eye for an eye was used as justification to the jury for seeking the death penalty. At that time, I was too ignorant to know how wrong that was.”

It comes as 2024 marked the world’s deadliest year for executions in a decade, with Iran and China crowned the worst globally.

Various methods of execution used in countries – including the US – include beheading, hanging, lethal injection, shooting and nitrogen gas asphyxiation.

Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq made up a whopping 91 per cent of recorded executions, therefore making them responsible for the rocket increase in the years data, Amnesty International reports.

But Iran topped the Middle Eastern counties, with Ali Khamenei’s nation putting at least 972 people to death, up from 853 the year prior.

Alongside the surging numbers of executions, Iranian prisoners are subject to other medieval-style punishments such as public flogging, limb-removal and eye-gouging.

Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq made up a whopping 91 per cent of recorded executions, therefore making them responsible for the rocket increase in the years data, Amnesty International reports.

But Iran topped the Middle Eastern counties, with Ali Khamenei’s nation putting at least 972 people to death, up from 853 the year prior.

Alongside the surging numbers of executions, Iranian prisoners are subject to other medieval-style punishments such as public flogging, limb-removal and eye-gouging.

And in Iraq, the number of death penalties quadrupled compared to 2023 and was used 63 times.

But the final statistics may actually just be the minimum recorded, as China is thought to have carried out more executions globally by a mile.