S.C. court rejects condemned man’s request for firing squad details

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request for more information on the firing squad from an inmate set to die next month for a case that has an Augusta connection.

The justices unanimously ruled that attorneys for Stephen Stanko did not prove the previous execution was botched even though lawyers argued the firing squad nearly missed the inmate’s heart and prolonged his death. They also said all three bulleted fired may not have hit the prisoner’s body.

Stanko, 57, is scheduled to die June 13. He has been sentenced to death twice in the state for two separate murders — one a friend and one his girlfriend as he raped her daughter.

Stanko has until Friday to decide if he wants to die by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair.

He’s set to be executed June 13 for the Horry County shooting death of a friend. Stanko is also on death row for killing a woman he was living with in Georgetown County and raping her teenage daughter.

Stanko is the first person whose death has been scheduled in South Carolina’s since leaving him in agonizing pain beyond what’s expected

Stanko will get to decide if he dies by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. The deadline for his decision is May 30.

Stanko, 57, is being executed for killing his 74-year-old friend Henry Turner. Stanko went to Turner’s home in April 2006 after lying about his father dying and then shot Turner twice while using a pillow as a silencer, authorities said.

Stanko stole Turner’s truck, cleaned out his bank and then spent the next few days in Augusta, where he told people in town for the Masters golf tournament that he owned several Hooters restaurants.

He stayed with a woman who took him to church.

She then called police once she saw his photo and that he was wanted for murder, police said.

Hours before killing Turner, Stanko beat and strangled his girlfriend in her home and raped her daughter before slashing the teen’s throat. The daughter survived and testified against him at one of his trials.

LOCAL CONNECTION

Death row: Aiken County offender is a condemned man

• Donnie Council is among the men on South Carolina’s death row. He was sent to prison in 1996, convicted of tying up a 72-year-old widow, sexually assaulting her, forcing her to drink cleaning solution and suffocating her.

The only photo of Mahdi taken at his autopsy shows two apparent chest wounds. Officials said all three bullets fired by the three volunteer prison employees hit Mahdi, with two going through the same hole.

During the state’s first firing squad death, the autopsy found that Brad Sigmon’s heart had been destroyed. Just one of the four chambers of Mahdi’s heart was perforated, which likely meant he didn’t die in the 15 seconds experts predicted he would have if the squad’s aim was true, according to his lawyers.

Witnesses said Mahdi, who had a hood over his head, groaned 45 seconds after he was shot.

Lawyers for Stanko said Mahdi’s autopsy lacked X-rays, an examination of his clothing or other testing typically done to allow the results — like where a bullet tracked — to be independently verified.

South Carolina Supreme Court responds

But the state Supreme Court rejected the request for any reports the prison agency produces to review executions, the description of the training the firing squad conducts and the steps taken when an X-ray is done before the shooting to locate the heart.

The justices also refused to require prison officials to say if the same of the firing squad and target placement team used for Mahdi would work on Stanko’s execution.

“Appellant has made no showing that Mahdi’s execution was ‘botched’ or that protocols were not followed such that Appellant needs further information to make an informed election of the method of his execution,” the justices wrote.

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