Stephen Stanko鈥檚 last moments alive resembled a medical procedure, an IV protruding from his arm as he peacefully drifted out of consciousness.
It was an easier death than Stanko granted his two victims in 2005.
As Laura Ling laid dying on her bedroom floor 鈥 bound, beaten and strangled 鈥 the last thing she likely saw was Stanko raping her 15-year-old daughter. After slitting the daughter鈥檚 throat, Stanko fled to his friend Henry Turner鈥檚 house in Conway, shot him while he shaved, stole his truck and skipped town.
Two decades later, Stanko, 57, was executed by the state of South Carolina at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia on Friday, June 13.
He was brought to a nondescript brick building on the sprawling S.C. Department of Corrections prison campus and strapped to a gurney. An IV needle was placed into a vein on his left arm. One wall of the small room was draped in a large, maroon and white curtain.
At 6 p.m., the curtain was drawn and Stanko looked through a barred window toward spectators to his death, looking directly at three family members of the people he killed in April 2005. The family members were addressed by prison officials as Mr. Turner, Mr. Turner and Ms. Ling.
A lawyer for Stanko read his last statement, which was lengthy and apologized to the families of Henry Turner and Laura Ling. He also mentioned that he volunteered at an orphanage, was in the honor society in school and tutored inmates while in prison. His full final statement can be seen at the end of this story.
鈥淲e execute people in this country for moments in their life. For over 20 years, people have only seen these moments and judged us for those alone,鈥 a portion of his statement read. 鈥淚 have lived approximately 20,973 days, but I am judged solely for one鈥f I spent another 20,973 days apologizing, it would not be enough for that day, but that was not my only day.鈥
At 6:06, a female voice could be heard through a microphone announcing that the first dose of Pentobarbital was being administered. Stanko took a couple deep breaths and then let out a large exhale where his lips fluttered audibly. His body became completely still a little after 6:07 p.m. At 6:33, a doctor came from behind a curtain, placed a stethoscope on his chest, checked both sides of his neck for a pulse and nodded toward a prison official.
He was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m.
Stanko faced two trials after the crimes took place 鈥 one for the murder and rape in Georgetown County and another for the murder of Turner in Horry County. He was sentenced to death at both trials.
The death sentence carried out Friday was for the murder of Turner, as his appeals for that crime ran out before his appeals for Ling鈥檚 murder and the rape of her daughter, who survived her throat being slit by Stanko.
The murders happened a day apart in April 2005, sparking a nationwide manhunt and rattling the Grand Strand community. Early in the morning after Stanko committed his crimes in Murrells Inlet, he went to Conway to visit 74-year-old Turner, a man he had developed a friendship with. Turner welcomed Stanko into his home and consoled him after he told Turner that one of his parents had just died.
Stanko鈥檚 father had not died.
It was another Stanko lie, a habit well-documented by those who crossed paths with him as he committed fraud and tricks from city to city in his adult life.
Roger Turner, Henry Turner鈥檚 son, said he thinks Stanko killed his father because he didn鈥檛 want him to discover the truth about what he had just done and who he really was. Stanko had been masquerading as an attorney during his months-long friendship with Turner.
鈥淲hy did he have to kill dad? The reason why is he didn鈥檛 want dad knowing the truth that he was a liar, a cheat and a thief and a conman and a murderer and a rapist and a sociopath and all those bad things,鈥 Roger said in an interview with MyHorry黑料社入口 ahead of Stanko鈥檚 execution. 鈥淗e looked at my dad as a really good friend and as a father figure.鈥
He said as much when he addressed the jury at his death sentencing trial in 2009.
鈥淎t a time when my dad and I were at terrible odds, Henry was there,鈥 Stanko said to the jury. 鈥淗e treated me like a son.鈥
Those condemned to death are given the courtesy of choosing a last preferred meal, typically served a couple days before the execution. Stanko鈥檚 chosen meal on Wednesday was fried fish, fried shrimp, crab cake, baked potato, carrots, fried okra, cherry pie, banana pudding and sweet tea.
Turner鈥檚 last meal was hotcakes and bacon from McDonald鈥檚. After letting Stanko crash on his couch, the 74-year-old went out and got breakfast for the both of them. Stanko thanked him by shooting him in the back while he was shaving, using a pillow as a makeshift suppressor.
鈥淎s he looks up in the mirror, [Turner] sees himself, but he also sees his friend, Stephen Stanko, come up behind him with a pillow, placed a 357 magnum against that pillow and fired,鈥 Greg Hembree described to the jury in 2009. 鈥淐an you imagine the confusion, the shock that went through his mind?鈥
Turner spun around to face Stanko, and Stanko hit him in the head and shot him again in the chest. He stole Turner鈥檚 truck and fled to Augusta, Georgia, where he was turned into authorities.
State law dictates that prisoners be given a choice of execution method. There are currently three options for the condemned to choose from: electrocution, lethal injection or firing squad. Executions were paused from 2012 through 2023 as the state struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs.
In 2021, firing squad was approved by the legislature as another form of capital punishment, and the passage of a 鈥渟hield law鈥 鈥 which keeps various details about executions confidential including the identities of companies selling the drugs 鈥 in 2023 made it easier for the South Carolina Department of Corrections to replace its stock of expired drugs. And in the fall of 2024, after a 13-year pause, executions resumed in South Carolina.
Stanko was the sixth death row inmate put to death since September. Twenty-five men now remain on death row in South Carolina, including two from Horry County.
Outside of Broad River Correctional Institution on Friday, about a dozen protesters lined the road to stand up against the death penalty.
Ron Kaz, who has attended death penalty protests since 1985, said while he appreciates those who protest because of religious reasons, he comes from a political stance.
鈥淚 don't think governments have business killing anyone,鈥 Kaz said. 鈥淭hey're committing murder.
鈥淢y motivation is more political 鈥 this is an overreach,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 deeply resent it.鈥
Kaz said the alternative he would prefer to the death penalty would be life in prison.
Protester Vivian Lovingood said she has come to protest since the state resumed executions last year. She said she is always praying for the death row inmates and believes the death penalty doesn't solve anything.
鈥淚 hope that he's at peace,鈥 she said ahead of Stanko's execution. 鈥淭his is not how it should happen.鈥
Stanko appealed his death sentence to the end, filing a 500-plus page motion a week before his execution date claiming that the state鈥檚 capital punishment methods are unconstitutional. And the same day that the S.C. Supreme Court sent out its execution order in May, setting a date for Stanko鈥檚 death, his lawyers filed a motion requesting more information on execution protocols to make an educated decision on what method he would choose for his execution. The judges didn鈥檛 go for either attempt to delay Stanko鈥檚 execution and ordered that Stanko was not entitled to more information about executions than was already public. U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel wrote in an order dated two days before the execution that he would not rule on the constitutionality of execution methods that Stanko did not choose and that lethal injection was not cruel or unusual punishment.
鈥淲hile there may have been some isolated examples of 鈥渂otched鈥 lethal injections in other states, there is simply no evidence of any difficulties in South Carolina that would suggest cruel and unusual punishment,鈥 Gergel wrote in his order denying Stanko鈥檚 request to stay the execution. He also added that the timeliness of Stanko鈥檚 motion was a 鈥渢ransparent effort鈥 to present a claim 鈥渨ith voluminous attachments鈥 days before the execution to delay the execution date.
鈥淣othing prevented Plaintiff from filing his Section 1983 action immediately following the denial of certiorari by the United States Supreme Court on May 5, 2025 or upon notice of the execution date entered on May 16, 2025. Instead, Plaintiff held this filing, totaling more than 500 pages, until literally seven days before execution,鈥 Gergel wrote in his order.
Henry Turner poses with fish he and his son Roger caught while on a fishing trip in Valdosta, Georgia.
It is not common for the death penalty to be sought.
Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said he only considers seeking the death penalty in his jurisdiction for 鈥渢he worst of the worst.鈥
Hembree, who was solicitor before Richardson, said he would only seek the death penalty when there is 鈥渋ronclad evidence鈥 of guilt and what he describes as the 鈥淴 factor.鈥
鈥淭here had to be something about it that was so horrible that you go, 鈥榯he jury should be given the opportunity to consider death for this defendant,鈥欌 he said.
There is also the legal requirement that there be a 鈥渟tatutory aggravating circumstance鈥 which can include the characteristics of the victim (i.e. a first responder, child under 12, witness in a criminal proceeding) or whether other crimes were performed in conjunction with the murder. In Stanko鈥檚 case, stealing Turner鈥檚 truck was what made him legally eligible for the death penalty, but that鈥檚 not why Hembree chose to seek the death penalty against Stanko, who had already been sentenced to death before for Ling鈥檚 murder.
鈥淒efendant Stephen Stanko is just plain evil,鈥 Hembree said in his closing arguments of the Turner case. 鈥淗e has in his core down deep inside something that makes him evil. He鈥檚 a bad man. He knows it, and he likes it.鈥
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, Stanko鈥檚 last hope for life, did not spare the twice-convicted murderer. No South Carolina governor has issued clemency for an execution since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1974.
Stanko鈥檚 execution was the first time in 23 years that someone was put to death for a crime in Horry County. Michael Passaro was also executed on Friday the 13th, in September 2002, for burning his two-year-old daughter to death while strapped in a car seat in a minivan in 1998.
Two more Horry County convicted men remain on death row: Louis Winkler and Jerome Jenkins Jr.
From Little River, Winkler was sentenced to death for the murder of his estranged wife, Rebecca Grainger Winkler, in 2006. Winkler, who was out on bail for kidnapping Grainger months before, hid in the woods for two weeks before he was found and arrested.
Jenkins Jr. was sentenced to death for the 2015 killing of Bala Paruchuri during a robbery of a Sunhouse gas station on S.C. 905 between Conway and Longs. Paruchuri was shot nine times.
The execution dates of Winkler and Jenkins Jr. are yet to be set and both have pending appeals.
###
Stephen Stanko鈥檚 last statement in its entirety:
鈥淲hat must be said first and foremost is to Christina and the rest of Laura鈥檚 family and all of Henry鈥檚 family. I am truly sorry for the pain and loss that I caused in this horrible situation. Sorry is NEVER enough but that does not mean it should not be said. Not a single day鈥擭OT ONE SINGLE DAY鈥 has gone by that Christina, Laura and Henry have not been in my thoughts and prayers.
If my execution helps with closure and/or the grieving process, may they all move forward with that being completed.
I have been a death row inmate for over 20 years now, and in that period of time, I have been the product of the worst day of my life. That is what happens. We live every day with the knowledge and understanding and responsibility of what happened. For my victims and their families and for my own family, I have done everything possible to honor them over this time. I am sorry to my family for all the pain that I have caused them.
What I hope and pray that is known and understood about me鈥攁nd every death row inmate and inmate in the world is that we are not the sum of one moment in time.
In my youth, I was an honor student and athlete. I was a member of clubs like the Honor Society and Beta Club, the Junior Engineering Technical Society and Mu Alpha Theta math team, the president of some including the Spanish Club. I do NOT say this to brag. I say it because I was not what people see me as now鈥攊n this moment.
In my early adulthood, I volunteered at the orphanage, I saved a drowning child in Augusta, I coached youth baseball. I was not what people see me as now鈥 in this moment.
On death row, I have tutored inmates, some are now in general population. Some will possibly be released. I have written books. I have lectured to college students via telephone across the United States. My years have shown me the good that exists in others.
NONE of this is meant to brag. It is only meant to show that I am NOT ONLY what people see me as now鈥攊n this moment.
In my life as a free person, I was raised Catholic, spent years in catechism and Sunday school, and learned the Bible from cover to cover, chapter and verse. I have always believed in God.
In prison鈥攐n death row鈥擨 saw faith in volunteers who came in and showed us God鈥檚 love. I experienced faith in looking at myself with my past and present and later in eternity. In here, I have seen, felt, and now have a relationship with God. I am not what people see me as now鈥攊n this moment.
We execute people in this country for moments in their life. For over 20 years, people have only seen these moments and judged us for those alone. I have lived approximately twenty thousand nine hundred and seventy-three days (20973) but I am judged solely for one (1).
I am NOT trying to lessen what has happened. There is no way for me to EVER make up for what happened. That has been my life for over 20 years.
If I spent another 20973 days apologizing, it would not be enough for that day, but that was NOT my only day.
If my death helps anyone, that is one thing, but once I am gone, I hope that Christina, Laura鈥檚 family and Henry鈥檚 family can all forgive me. The execution may help them. Forgiveness will heal them.
To Lindsey and the Joes, to Charles and Emily, to Jill and Cierra and Rosalind, Ali, Briana AND EVERYBODY who fought, I could not have been able to have ever known better people. You became family.
Jeff. I love you. No man or woman has had a better brother. Charles. The same. No man or woman could have found a better brother.鈥
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.