Rome, April 12 (LaPresse) – A firing squad has executed a man from South Carolina who killed an off-duty police officer decades ago. This is the second time this rare method of execution has been used by the state in the last five weeks. On Friday, three volunteers shot 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi in the heart, killing him at a prison in Columbia. Mahdi had been sentenced to death 20 years ago. He is the fifth inmate to be executed in South Carolina in less than eight months, as the state seeks to reduce the number of death row inmates following a 13-year involuntary pause in executions. Mahdi chose the firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair.