South Carolina carries out execution of man sentenced to death for two murder convictions.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Stephen Stanko, a South Carolina man who had been sentenced to death twice for separate murders, was executed by lethal injection on Friday. This event marked the state’s sixth execution in just nine months. Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m.

Stanko’s execution stemmed from a 2005 incident where he shot a friend and subsequently emptied his bank account. The process began after Stanko delivered a brief final statement lasting three and a half minutes during which he expressed remorse for his actions and appealed to not be judged solely on the worst day of his life.

As prison officials administered the first dose of the sedative pentobarbital, he seemed to speak momentarily, then turned towards the victims’ families before experiencing rapid breaths and trembling lips. Approximately one minute into the execution, Stanko appeared to cease breathing. A prison staff member requested a second dose of pentobarbital roughly 13 minutes later, and he was declared dead about 28 minutes after the execution commenced. In addition to this conviction, Stanko was serving a death sentence for the murder of his live-in girlfriend, whom he killed hours before the aforementioned shooting.

He was also responsible for a violent attack on her teenage daughter, who survived despite sustaining serious injuries. Initially, Stanko considered opting for execution by firing squad, similar to the previous two inmates executed in this manner. However, he ultimately chose lethal injection after concerns arose from an autopsy that revealed bullets had narrowly missed vital organs in the last inmate executed by the firing squad. Stanko’s execution was part of a broader pattern, as Florida and Alabama executed inmates earlier that week and Oklahoma executed a transferred inmate.

Stanko’s last-ditch legal efforts were rejected by federal courts, while South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster denied clemency minutes before the execution. In fact, no governor has spared a death row inmate’s life in the last 48 executions.