S.C. inmate chooses to die by lethal injection amid concerns about firing squad
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The next South Carolina death row inmate set to be executed – a killer in a case with ties to Augusta – has selected lethal injection as the method after his lawyers said he was troubled by the last execution by firing squad.
Stephen Stanko, who was twice sentenced to die for killing two people nearly two decades ago, is set to die on June 13.
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his request for more information on execution by firing squad. The justices unanimously ruled that his attorneys 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.
S.C. prosecutor defends execution, calling killer ‘the epitome of evil’
First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe released a response to calls from state lawmakers urging the state government to investigate the execution of a death row inmate.
They also said all three bullets fired may not have hit the prisoner’s body.
Stanko, 57, is scheduled to die 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, 57, killed his 74-year-old friend Henry Turner, stole his 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.
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- 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.
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.
Stanko had a choice among firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. His lawyers said in previous court filings he didn’t want to suffer what he thought was cooking from thousands of volts of electricity. He chose lethal injection over concerns that his lawyers said involved what appeared to be a lingering death of the last person in the state who was killed by a firing squad.
They said he was leaning toward the firing squad before questions surfaced about whether Mikal Mahdi suffered agonizing pain for three times longer than expected — at his April 11 execution by firing squad.
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