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)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.
The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Barrow reported from Atlanta.
People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
