I prosecuted Mikal Mahdi in South Carolina. This is why I sought the death penalty | Opinion

Editor’s note: South Carolina is scheduled to execute death row inmate Mikal Mahdi on April 11. This is a partial transcript of prosecutor Pascoe’s closing argument seeking the death penalty in 2006.

I’m not going to stand before the court today and jump up and down and say that sentencing the defendant, Mikal Mahdi, to death is an easy decision. I think that’s disingenuous.

I mean, it should never be an easy decision to sentence someone to the death penalty, even someone as evil as that man right there, Mikal Mahdi. It should never be an easy decision.

But, Your Honor, the one thing we learn early on in life is that the right decision isn’t always an easy decision. And the right decision in this case is to sentence this defendant to our ultimate penalty, the death penalty. It’s the right decision because this is a man who has absolutely no respect for human life. It’s the right decision because this is a man who has shown he cannot adapt to prison life. And it’s the right decision because this is a man who will always be a serious threat to kill someone as long as he lives.

And what I want to do right now is I want to start by very briefly addressing the statutory aggravating circumstances in this case. I’m going to be very brief because while the state alleges four aggravating circumstances, as the court knows, the defendant has already admitted to two of them, the larceny and the burglary during the murder and basically has also admitted to the third one, committing a robbery with a deadly weapon. And we only need to have one aggravating circumstance to prove — to have the defendant given the death penalty.

Again, his guilty plea is proof not just beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond any doubt that he committed the larceny, the burglary and, I submit, the robbery during the commission of the murder.

So what I want to talk about is the final, the fourth, aggravating circumstance, which addresses that Capt. (James) Myers may have been killed because of the performance of his duties, because he was a police officer. And quite frankly, as I alluded to in my opening the other day, I’m not sure if the fact that Capt. Myers was a police officer really mattered to the defendant that day. I’m not sure that it really mattered that he was taking the life of a police officer that day.

The real reason he killed Capt. Myers, without a doubt, is because human life means absolutely nothing to Mikal Mahdi. All you have to do to know about that is look at the video that we showed in this courtroom the other day just to see firsthand how little value he places on human life. He killed (store clerk) Christopher Jason Boggs over a beer. He stuck a bullet in his eye over a beer. There’s no wonder that he would kill Capt. James Myers for a truck and some guns.

He has absolutely no respect for human life.

But let me tell you what’s not a coincidence with regards to killing Capt. Myers, a law enforcement officer. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that on June the 30th, 1998 in a standoff with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff (James) Woodley came to testify on Monday, that 15-year-old Mikal Mahdi stated, “I’m going to kill a cop some day before I die,” 15 years old.

And you know what else isn’t a coincidence? That when the defendant was (hiding) in that shed (on Myers’ property), Your Honor, and I’m now showing the court state’s Exhibit 7, it’s not a coincidence that those (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) SLED files were taken out of place and opened up, I submit, for the defendant to look through. He knew when he was going through those SLED files … that a law enforcement officer owned that shed.

What else isn’t a coincidence, Your Honor? State’s Exhibit 51…. Right before he pulled the trigger of that .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle on Capt. Jimmy Myers, when he was robbing him at gunpoint, Capt. Myers’ items, his comb, his pocket knife, his change, his keys, all laid out on that chair, his pager, which he kept in his pocket is on the floor. Where is his badge? The testimony is he usually kept his badge in his pocket. Where is his badge?

That man took his badge as a souvenir….

Whether the defendant killed Jimmy Myers solely because he was a police officer or just because his life meant absolutely nothing to him, the fact of the matter is aggravating circumstances exist to sentence that man to the death penalty. And, Your Honor, it’s the right decision.

It’s the right decision when you look at this man’s character, when you look at this man’s risk of future danger and his failure to adapt to prison life. And it’s the right decision when you look at the impact that this man’s cold-blooded acts have had on the family and friends of Capt. Jimmy Myers.

And what I want to do right now is I want to talk about the defendant’s character. To start with, to understand this man’s character, all you really have to do is look at what he did to Capt. Myers … and … the malicious way that he killed Capt. James Myers. He didn’t have to kill him over a truck and over some guns. Your Honor, he shot him nine gunshot wounds, many of them to the front as he’s looking him in the eye, looking him in the eye, blasting him away just like he did Christopher Jason Boggs.

And then he took — when Capt. Myers is on the floor dying, probably begging for his life — that man takes that .22 caliber weapon and puts three more shots in his head, one while his head is flat on the ground. How much more malicious can you get than that, killing another human being over a vehicle, stealing guns? Unbelievable.

And is he done, Your Honor? No. His criminal mind, which I’m going to talk about in a little bit, and as you saw, he’s always thinking of ways how to escape, how to get away with things, how to cover evidence, what does he do that night?

He then takes diesel fuel, pours it over the victim’s body and lights it on fire, the matches are still on the victim’s body for you to see in those pictures, lights it on fire to destroy that body, to destroy that shed, to destroy evidence and get away with this crime.

Malice? You can’t get any more reckless and more malicious than that. If the defendant had never done anything else wrong in his life, he deserves the death penalty for what he did to James Myers, but he’s done a whole lot in his life.

You heard from Sgt. Darren Frost, Your Honor. He arrested the defendant in Satellite Beach (Florida) with the defendant in possession of state’s Exhibit 77, the semiautomatic rifle that belonged to the victim, Capt. Jimmy Myers, his city-issued rifle.

And in what I think is a very unusual moment, Sgt. Frost, a law enforcement officer, actually thanked that man for letting him go home to his family because in Sgt. Frost’s opinion, this (man) would have killed him. He actually thanked that man.

And what was the defendant’s reaction? Did he put his head down and nod? Did he say, you’re welcome? Did he say, I never would have done that? No. He said what was in his heart, which is, “That gun was on a three shot burst and I didn’t think I could get you, the other guy and that f’ing dog.”

It should never be an easy decision to give somebody the death penalty, but he’s making it easy....

The defendant has spent most of his life, Your Honor, since the age of 14, incarcerated. And he’s shown absolutely no signs of adaptability whatsoever. And now that he knows that he can never get out, he has absolutely nothing to lose.

Look at what he’s done with nothing to lose in our Department of Corrections in South Carolina. He’s made hatchets with state’s Exhibit 108. He’s woven 30 feet of rope. He’s made shanks and he’s threatened to kill employees.

All this and more is why he’s the worst of the worst....

The Department of Corrections has a very appropriate setting for this man and it’s called death row. That’s where he needs to go.

Your Honor, the defendant’s character, his lack of adaptability, his future dangerousness cry out for the death penalty. The impact that this defendant’s cold-blooded acts have had on the family and friends of Capt. Jimmy Myers cries out for justice.

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "I prosecuted Mikal Mahdi in South Carolina. This is why I sought the death penalty | Opinion."