South Carolina executes a man serving death sentences in 2 separate
murders
[June 14, 2025]
By JEFFREY COLLINS
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man sent to death row twice for
separate murders was put to death Friday by lethal injection in the
state’s sixth execution in nine months.
Stephen Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m.
He was executed for shooting a friend and then cleaning out his bank
account in Horry County in 2005.
Stanko also was serving a death sentence for killing his live-in
girlfriend in her Georgetown County home hours earlier, strangling her
as he raped her teenage daughter. Stanko slit the teen’s throat, but she
survived.
The execution began after a 3 1/2 minute final statement where Stanko
apologized to his victims and asked not to be judged by the worst day of
his life. Witnesses could hear prison officials asking for the first
dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital which was different from
previous executions.
Stanko appeared to be saying words, turned toward the families of the
victims and then let out several quick breaths as his lips quivered.
Stanko appeared to stop breathing after a minute. His ruddy complexion
quickly disappeared and the color drained from his face and hands. A
prison employee asked for a second dose of pentobarbital about 13
minutes later. He was announced dead about 28 minutes after the
execution started.
Three family members of his victims stared at Stanko and didn't look
away until well after he stopped breathing. Stanko's brother and his
lawyer also watched. Attorney Lindsey Vann, who watched her second
inmate client die in seven months rubbed rosary beads in her hands.
Stanko was leaning toward dying by South Carolina’s new firing squad,
like the past two inmates before him. But after autopsy results from the
last inmate killed by that method showed the bullets from the three
volunteers nearly missed his heart, Stanko went with lethal injection.
Stanko was the last of four executions scheduled around the country this
week. Florida and Alabama each put an inmate to death on Tuesday. On
Wednesday, Oklahoma executed a man transferred from federal to state
custody to allow his death.
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The federal courts rejected Stanko’s last-ditch effort to spare his
life as his lawyers argued the state isn’t carrying out lethal
injection properly after autopsy results found fluid in the lungs of
other inmates killed that way.
Also South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster refused clemency in a phone
call to prison officials minutes before the execution began.
A governor has not spared a death row inmate’s life in the previous
48 executions since South Carolina reinstated the death penalty
about 50 years ago.
Stanko is the sixth inmate executed in South Carolina in nine months
after the state went 13 years without putting an inmate to death
because it could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The South
Carolina General Assembly approved a firing squad and passed a
shield law bill which allowed the suppliers of the drugs to stay
secret.
In his final statement, Stanko talked about how he was an honor
student and athlete and a volunteers and asked several times not to
be judged by the night he killed two people.
“I have live for approximately 20,973 days, but I am judged solely
for one,” Stanko said in his final statement read by his lawyer.
Stanko apologized several times to his victims and their families.
“Once I am gone, I hope that Christina, Laura's family and Henry's
family can all forgive me. The execution may help them. Forgiveness
will heal them.”
Stanko ate his last meal on Wednesday as prison officials give
inmates a chance to enjoy their special food before their execution
day. He ate fried fish, fried shrimp, crab cakes, a baked potato,
carrots, fried okra, cherry pie, banana pudding and sweet tea.
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