South Carolina Execution: Man Put to Death for Murders
South Carolina Carries Out Execution of Stephen Stanko
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Stephen Stanko, 57, was executed Friday by lethal injection at 6:34 p.m., marking South CarolinaS sixth execution in nine months. Stanko had been twice sentenced to death row for separate murder convictions.
Stanko’s execution stemmed from the 2005 murder of a friend in Horry County, where he shot the victim and subsequently emptied the victim’s bank account. He also received a death sentence for the earlier strangulation of his live-in girlfriend in Georgetown County. During that crime, he also raped her teenage daughter and slit the teen’s throat; the daughter survived.
Before the lethal injection, Stanko offered a 3 1/2-minute final statement, apologizing to his victims and asking not to be judged by the worst act of his life. After the first dose of pentobarbital, Stanko appeared to mouth words toward the victims’ families, then took several short breaths as his lips quivered. He appeared to stop breathing within a minute, prompting a second dose of the sedative about 13 minutes later. He was pronounced dead approximately 28 minutes after the execution began.
Stanko initially considered South Carolina’s firing squad, like two inmates before him. Though, after an autopsy revealed that bullets narrowly missed the heart of the previous inmate executed by firing squad, Stanko opted for lethal injection. His lawyers made a last-ditch effort to halt the execution, arguing that the state’s lethal injection protocol was flawed, citing autopsy results showing fluid in the lungs of other inmates.Federal courts rejected the appeal.
Gov. Henry McMaster denied clemency in a phone call to prison officials shortly before the execution. Stanko’s execution was the last of four scheduled across the country this week, with Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma also carrying out executions.
What’s next
Debate surrounding capital punishment and lethal injection protocols is expected to continue in South Carolina and across the nation.