A last-ditch effort from attorneys of a death row inmate argue that his beliefs about being a "sovereign citizen" could be considered insanity and should spare him from execution.

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.

Mikal Mahdi, who killed a South Carolina police officer during a multi-state crime spree, has chosen to die by firing squad. He is only the second person in the state to choose to die this way since it was added as a method of execution by the state legislature in 2021.