Convicted double murderer Stephen Stanko asks federal court to block execution days ahead of scheduled death

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WBTW) — Convicted double murderer Stephen Stanko wants a federal judge to pause his scheduled Friday execution over perceived civil rights violations.
Stanko's legal team will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Gergel at 11 a.m. on Wednesday in Charleston.
Stanko, 57, has been sentenced to death twice in the state for two separate murders — the killing of a friend and the killing of his girlfriend as he raped her daughter.
He's being executed for killing his 74-year-old friend Henry Turner in Conway. Stanko went to Turner's home in April 2006 after lying about his father dying, and shot Turner twice while using a pillow as a silencer, authorities said.
Stanko stole Turner's truck, cleaned out his bank account and spent the next few days in Augusta, Georgia, 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 called police once after seeing his photo and learning that he was wanted, police said.
Hours before killing Turner, Stanko beat and strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, in her home in Murrells Inlet and raped her daughter before slashing the teen's throat. The daughter survived and testified against him at one of his trials.
South Carolina restarted executions in September after obtaining pentobarbital used in lethal injections thanks to a new secrecy law. The state didn't execute a prisoner from 2011 to 2024 after its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and pharmacies refused to sell them more unless their identities could be kept secret.
Stanko, who set to die June 13, 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.
They said he was leaning toward the firing squad before questions surfaced about whether Mikal Mahdi suffered agonizing pain for about 45 seconds — three times longer than expected — at his April 11 execution after the firing squad nearly missed his heart.
State law sets the electric chair as a default execution method but lets inmates choose between firing squad or lethal injection if either option is available.
Stanko's attorney Charles Grose Jr. said that clause leaves his client in an impossible position.
'The scheme's provision of ostensible choice creates a constitutional Catch 22: One either submits to electrocution with the prayer to the courts to intercede with a stay to permit a constitutional challenge in order to avoid a tortuous killing by atavistic means, or one chooses between the lesser of two inhumane and, in the hands of the defendants, unconstitutional methods that, in the very election of one of the methods, precludes its constitutional challenges,' Grose said in his filing.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
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