A South Carolina man who had received two separate death sentences for two brutal killings was executed by lethal injection on Friday, marking the state’s sixth execution in just nine months.
He was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of a friend in Horry County, whom he fatally shot before draining the victim’s bank account. He was also serving a separate death sentence for the earlier murder of his girlfriend in Georgetown County that same day—an attack in which he raped her teenage daughter, strangled the woman, and slit the daughter’s throat. The daughter survived the ordeal and testified against him.
Stanko’s execution began after he gave a final statement lasting three and a half minutes. In it, he apologized to his victims’ families and urged those watching not to define him by what he described as the worst day of his life. He recounted his background as an honor student, athlete, and community volunteer, adding, “I have lived approximately 20,973 days, but I am judged solely for one.”
As he finished speaking, prison officials administered the first dose of the sedative pentobarbital—a departure from drugs used in previous executions. Witnesses observed Stanko mouth words, glance toward the victims’ families, and take a few sharp breaths before becoming still. His lips trembled, and within a minute, he appeared to stop breathing.
Roughly 13 minutes later, staff called for a second dose of the sedative to ensure the procedure was complete. In total, it took about 28 minutes from the start of the execution until he was officially declared dead.
Family members of the victims sat silently through the process, staring directly at Stanko until long after he stopped breathing. His brother and attorney, Lindsey Vann, were also present. Vann, who has now witnessed the deaths of two clients within the last seven months, was seen holding and rubbing rosary beads during the execution.
Initially, Stanko had expressed a preference for South Carolina’s newly approved method of execution—the firing squad—just as the last two inmates before him had chosen. However, following concerns raised by the autopsy of the most recent firing squad execution, which showed that the bullets narrowly missed the inmate’s heart, Stanko opted instead for lethal injection.
Stanko’s execution was the last of four carried out across the United States this week.
In a last-minute attempt to avoid execution, Stanko’s legal team filed an emergency appeal, arguing that South Carolina’s method of lethal injection caused excessive suffering based on autopsy results that showed fluid in the lungs of previously executed inmates. Federal courts rejected the appeal.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster also declined to intervene, denying clemency in a phone call with prison officials just minutes before the execution. The state has not granted clemency to a death row inmate in the last 48 executions since the death penalty was reinstated nearly 50 years ago.
Stanko’s execution marks a notable moment for South Carolina, which had gone 13 years without carrying out a death sentence due to challenges in acquiring lethal injection drugs. In response, lawmakers passed legislation to allow the use of the firing squad and enacted a “shield law” that keeps the identity of drug suppliers confidential—measures that helped resume executions in the state.
In his final statement, read aloud by his attorney, Stanko acknowledged his crimes but asked for compassion: “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.”
His final meal, served on Wednesday, included fried fish, fried shrimp, crab cakes, a baked potato, carrots, fried okra, cherry pie, banana pudding, and sweet tea—a Southern-style spread that marked the final indulgence of his life.
Stanko’s case remains one of South Carolina’s most chilling examples of violence committed over the course of a single day, involving two murders, a sexual assault, and a surviving victim.