Mahdi had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. Mahdi is the first inmate to be executed in the state since Brad Sigmon chose to die by bullets on March 7. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after the shots were fired.

A second death row inmate in South Carolina has chosen execution by firing squad. It comes just weeks after the first execution by that method was carried out in the state.

South Carolina death row inmate has asked to die by firing squad just five weeks after the state carried out its first execution by bullets.