Latest news with #DepartmentofCorrections'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jackley targets $525 million for prison spending
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota's top law enforcement officer, who sits on a task force examining where to recommend putting a new men's prison, is sharing the kind of price tag he wants to see: a cost that's notably different from a previous guaranteed maximum price as well as a fraction of what a recent consultant report recommends. Oglala Sioux Tribe sends measles alert after case in border county In February, South Dakota lawmakers voted down House Bill 1025, which would have appropriated money to build a new 1,512 men's prison in Lincoln County with a guaranteed maximum price of $825 million. The failure paved the way for Project Prison Reset and the consultant report which includes a recommendation to build a 1,728-bed replacement for the current penitentiary. The report also recommends building an additional prison or prisons and adding beds to the Sioux Falls Minimum Center. Per the report, this could all cost up to $2.1 billion. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who sits on the task force, is targeting a price that's notably lower. 'I think there are several proposals out there,' Jackley said Tuesday. 'The ones that I'm more interested in fall in that $525 million range, 'cause again, for me this is about protecting not just the public, but the taxpayers.' That cost, Jackley says, would still pay for 1,500 beds. At the task force's most recent meeting, the group unanimously voiced approval to replace the current penitentiary. Still on Gov. Larry Rhoden's to-do list for the group is figuring out how big this facility should be and where it should go. 'We've got two meetings left before a special session,' Minnehaha County State's Attorney Daniel Haggar said Tuesday. 'I think it's important for us to address those questions that the governor has tasked us with. There's going to be a lot of conversation, and we've seen things can move slowly. They can also move quickly.' Haggar is also on the task force. As of Tuesday, he hasn't landed on a specific location. 'I'm not quite there yet,' Haggar said. 'I haven't ruled anything out.' As for Jackley, he says locations already within the Department of Corrections' orbit are possible. 'It could be utilizing existing facilities, and when I say utilizing existing facilities, that's Jameson, that's the Hill, that's Springfield,' Jackley said. 'It's areas that already exist so you don't have some of the community pushback.' The task force's next meeting is June 3 in Pierre. Eventually, the plan is for a special session of the state legislature to learn on July 22 about the group's recommendations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Execution scheduled for SC inmate with 2 death sentences
Stephen Stanko is scheduled for execution June 13 at the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, shown with the firing squad chair and electric chair. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — A condemned inmate is scheduled for execution in one of his two death penalty cases, the state Supreme Court said in a Friday order. Stephen Stanko, 57, is set to be put to death at 6 p.m. June 13. His execution would be the sixth in the state since the process resumed in September following an unintended 13-year hiatus. Stanko was sentenced to death twice, in two separate cases for crimes committed within two days of each other in 2005. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his final appeal for a 2009 conviction earlier this month. Appeals are ongoing in his other death sentence, which a jury recommended as part of a 2006 conviction. By law, Stanko will have until May 30, two weeks before he's set to die, to choose his method of execution. The death warrant comes as attorneys raise questions about the state's protocols for execution by firing squad, an option added by legislators in 2021. Two inmates in the last two months chose to die that way. In the most recent execution, which took place April 11, marksmen mostly missed inmate Mikal Mahdi's heart, attorneys claimed. An autopsy photo showed two bullet holes in his chest where attorneys would have expected three, one from each gun shot at him, attorneys said in a filing to the state Supreme Court last week. Prison officials have said nothing went wrong. Fragments of bullets struck Mahdi's heart, and two bullets hit the same spot and took the same trajectory through his body, explaining the two wounds, said prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain. Stanko also has the option to die by lethal injection, which three of the five inmates executed in the last eight months chose, or electrocution, which no inmate in the state has selected since 2008. Stanko's crime spree started April 7, 2005, when he strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, to death at her home in Murrell's Inlet while beating and raping her 15-year-old daughter, according to court documents. Stanko slit the daughter's throat and left her for dead before stealing jewelry and credit cards and fleeing. He went to his friend's house in Conway. After having breakfast with his friend Henry Turner, Stanko shot the 74-year-old in the back while he shaved in the bathroom mirror, using a pillow as a silencer for his gun, according to court documents. Stanko then hit Turner in the head and fatally shot him in the chest. Driving Turner's truck, Stanko went to Columbia, where he spent an evening buying people drinks at bars before traveling to Augusta, Georgia. There, Stanko convinced a woman he was a businessman in town for the Masters golf tournament and went home with her, according to court records. Stanko stayed with the woman, including attending church with her, until April 12, when he left abruptly in the middle of the night. Soon after he left, the woman recognized his photo in the newspaper alongside a headline about Turner's death and called the police, who captured Stanko before he left the city, according to court records. During Stanko's trials, defense attorneys argued to no avail that he was insane at the time of the killings, with decreased brain functioning making him unable to understand right and wrong. A jury convicted Stanko in 2006 of killing Ling and beating and raping her daughter. A separate jury convicted him in 2009 of killing Turner. Both juries recommended death sentences, which multiple courts have affirmed. Turner's killing is the crime for which Stanko is set to be put to death in June.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
2 SC legislators call for independent investigation into latest execution
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — Two South Carolina legislators are calling for an investigation into last month's execution by firing squad, according to a letter sent to legislative leaders and the governor. Rep. Neal Collins, a Pickens County Republican, and Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Bamberg County Democrat, are trying to increase awareness of questions raised in a notice attorneys filed last week claiming bullets largely missed inmate Mikal Mahdi's heart during his April 11 execution. The second execution by firing squad in state history came one month after the first. SC executes second death row inmate by firing squad A letter sent Monday by the two representatives, who are also attorneys but unaffiliated with the specific case, called for a 'clear, transparent, and accountable protocol' before any future execution by firing squad. 'This request is not rooted in sympathy for Mikal Mahdi, nor is it made to undermine the horrible acts for which he was charged and convicted of and the impacts his crimes had on his victims,' their letter reads. 'This independent investigation is to preserve the integrity of South Carolina's justice system and public confidence in our state's administration of executions under the rule of law.' What, exactly, an investigation might look like would depend on the response the legislators get. That could include involving the state inspector general, the attorney general, the State Law Enforcement Division or a panel of legislators, the representatives said. 'I'm open to how it's handled, as long as it is done, because I do think it's important,' Collins, of Easley, told the Daily Gazette. If none of the letter's recipients — Gov. Henry McMaster, House Speaker Murrell Smith, Senate President Thomas Alexander and Joel Anderson, the acting corrections director, — spur an investigation, Bamberg said he would consider trying to address the issue through legislation. McMaster does not see the need for a state investigation, said spokesman Brandon Charochak. 'The governor has high confidence in the leadership of the Department of Corrections,' Charochak said in a statement. 'He believes the sentence of death for Mr. Mahdi was properly and lawfully carried out.' A spokesperson for Smith, R-Sumter, declined to comment. Alexander, R-Walhalla, didn't respond to a request for comment. Chrysti Shain, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, reiterated the department's position that nothing went wrong during the execution or autopsy. Bamberg suggested writing into state law an independent review board responsible for investigating every execution and making suggestions for how the next could go better. He and Collins also proposed adding legislators as witnesses to executions. Trying to remove the firing squad, which Bamberg and Collins voted against adding in 2021, would likely prove too controversial for any real traction, Bamberg told the Daily Gazette. Instead, Bamberg and Collins would rather focus on ensuring the execution process happens without any issues, Bamberg told the Gazette. 'How can we breed trust and a degree of accountability and transparency for something as final as taking a life?' he said. Legislators added the rarely used method as an option in 2021 in order to restart the execution process, which had been on hold as state officials struggled to get the drugs needed for lethal injections. That problem was resolved in September of 2023, thanks to another law legislators expanded to protect the source of the drugs. Two condemned inmates have chosen to die by firing squad since executions resumed last September. Another three opted to die by lethal injection. Bamberg had questions before attorneys for Mahdi submitted an analysis of his autopsy report to the state Supreme Court, but the filing submitted last Thursday solidified his concerns, he said. According to protocol for South Carolina's firing squad executions, three volunteer marksmen fire at a target placed over the inmate's heart from 15 feet away. The gunmen use .308 Winchester bullets, meant to expand and fragment on impact in order to kill the inmate as quickly as possible, prison officials have said previously. Bullet fragments partially hit Mahdi's heart, but they didn't destroy it completely as was the case in Brad Sigmon's March 7 execution by firing squad, according to a pathologist hired by death row lawyers to analyze the autopsy report. Instead, the bullets struck below Mahdi's heart, causing more damage to his liver and pancreas than the heart itself, the pathologist wrote. Members of the media who witnessed the execution reported that Mahdi let out low, loud moans for about a minute after the guns fired. If Mahdi remained alive and suffering, that could mean the state violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and usual punishment, Bamberg and Collins wrote. 'Regardless of the crime committed, the state bears a moral and constitutional obligation to ensure that executions are carried out humanely and in strict adherence to protocol,' their letter reads. The attorneys' filing raises questions Bamberg and Collins want answered, they wrote. Among them: Why did Mahdi's chest show only two bullet holes? Was the target on Mahdi's chest placed in a spot other than right over his heart? Why was Mahdi's clothing not analyzed or documented in the autopsy? Collins said he and Bamberg want to ensure that, in the future, all evidence is preserved so that if valid questions arise — as in Mahdi's case — 'we can settle this.' Mahdi's body was cremated at his request, said a spokesperson for his attorneys. That means officials can't exhume his body and conduct another autopsy. All three guns fired, and no bullet fragments were found in the death chamber following the execution, Shain said in an email. Two of the three bullets struck in the same spot and followed the same pathway through the body, explaining the two bullet wounds, Shain said. A medical professional used a stethoscope and a chest X-ray to place the target over Mahdi's heart. The autopsy was done by the same private firm that has done all execution autopsies for the agency, Shain said. The department 'did not provide any instructions or restrictions on the pathologist regarding photographs or X-rays in the same way SCDC provided no such instructions regarding the autopsies of the previous executions,' Shain said in a statement. Regardless of what happened, an independent review would be able to give impartial answers, Bamberg said. 'The fact that there are differing explanations is part of the problem, and that's what we're trying to address,' he said. 'There should not be a question as to what happened, because we're talking about the government taking a life.' Until an independent review is conducted, Bamberg and Collins told the Gazette they're calling for the firing squad to be taken off the table as an option for any upcoming execution. The state Supreme Court is expected to issue a death warrant this Friday. If execution by firing squad is no longer an option, inmates would have to choose between lethal injection, which attorneys have also questioned, and electric chair, which attorneys have said their clients want to avoid.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
Another inmate is eligible for execution in SC on the 2nd of his 2 death sentences
The above shows the execution chamber in the Department of Corrections' Columbia prisons complex, as seen from the witness room. The firing squad chair (left) was added following a 2021 state law that made death by firing squad an option. The electric chair is under the cover. (Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections) COLUMBIA — A sixth death row inmate who was twice sentenced to death by separate juries has run out of appeals for one of his killings and could be scheduled for execution in the coming weeks, according to the state Attorney General's Office. The U.S. Supreme Court denied inmate Stephen Stanko's appeal of his 2009 conviction for shooting his friend four years prior. Stanko was also sentenced to death in 2006 for killing his girlfriend and raping her then-15-year-old daughter and leaving her for dead. The appeals process continues on that conviction. But Monday's decision by the nation's high court clears the way for the state Supreme Court to issue a death warrant for the 57-year-old, an attorney for the Attorney General's Office wrote in a letter to state justices. The court usually issues death warrants on Fridays, giving inmates exactly four weeks before their execution dates under state law. The court will be closed this coming Friday in observance of Confederate Memorial Day, a state holiday. Whether the court might still issue a death notice for Stanko that day is unclear. Stanko would be the sixth inmate put to death in the state since executions resumed in September 2024, following an unintended 13-year hiatus. Legislators added firing squad as an option for executions in 2021, and two inmates chose that as their method of execution earlier this year. The other three died by lethal injection, which again became an option with the help of an expanded law keeping most information about executions, including the source of the drugs, secret. Stanko was tried for crimes in two different counties — Georgetown and Horry — and sentenced to death in both cases. On April 7, 2005, Stanko strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, to death while beating and raping her daughter at their home in Murrell's Inlet. Stanko slit the daughter's throat and left her for dead, stealing jewelry and a credit card from her and her mother. He withdrew money from Ling's bank account at a nearby ATM, then drove to Conway, according to court records. There, Stanko committed the crime for which he has exhausted his appeals. The next morning, April 8, 2005, Stanko brought his friend Henry Turner breakfast from McDonald's. As the 74-year-old shaved in front of his bathroom mirror, Stanko shot him in the back, using a pillow as a silencer for his gun. He then hit Turner in the head and shot him again in the chest, this time fatally, according to court records. Stanko stole Turner's truck and fled, driving from Conway to Columbia, then to Augusta, Georgia, the next day. There, he convinced a woman he was a businessman in town for the Masters golf tournament. Stanko spent several days staying in the woman's apartment and attending church with her. After Stanko left April 12, the woman recognized Stanko's picture in the newspaper alongside a headline about Turner's death. She called the police, who captured Stanko while he was still in Augusta. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for killing Ling and raping her daughter, then given another death sentence in 2009 for killing Turner. In both cases, Stanko's attorneys unsuccessfully claimed he was insane during the time of the killings, according to court records. SC executes second death row inmate by firing squad Stanko had been out of prison for nine months after serving over eight years for kidnapping and assaulting another woman, according to court records. He was also under investigation for running several scams in and around Myrtle Beach, including representing himself as a lawyer and investigator. At the time of the crimes, people who had paid him had begun to demand their money back and were threatening to report him to the police, prosecutors wrote in court filings. He is one of 26 inmates listed on death row in South Carolina, though one of them is held in California on a separate conviction.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Dakota corrections work group formally backs need for new prison. But where?
SPRINGFIELD — South Dakota needs a new prison. How large it ought to be or where are open questions, but a work group appointed to 'reset' discussions on a new men's prison agreed on that much Tuesday during the second of its four planned meetings. State Attorney General Marty Jackley sat silent through more than four hours of testimony and public comment before asking his fellow members of 'Project Prison Reset' to support a replacement for the penitentiary, the 144-year-old quartzite monolith in Sioux Falls known as 'The Hill.' By then, group members had reviewed a dozen potential sites for a new prison, submitted by landowners through a request for information. They'd also sat through presentations on mental health and occupational programming at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield, heard from city residents on the medium security facility's value to the Bon Homme County city of 1,900, and had reassured those residents that it would remain a part of the Department of Corrections' long-term facility plans regardless of what happens with the penitentiary. With The Hill, Jackley said, the path forward is clear. It's overcrowded, outdated and unsafe, he said, citing the case of a correctional officer killed by two inmates in 2011 as evidence of the dangers presented by the status quo. 'We can't do nothing,' Jackley said. 'We have to do something.' The unanimous vote in favor of Jackley's motion answers the first of three questions posed in the executive order from Gov. Larry Rhoden that created the group. At a special session in July, the group is meant to deliver recommendations on how large a prison is needed and where to put it, using the results of a consultant's report on the state's existing facilities as a guide. Rhoden backed a plan to build an $825 million, 1,500-bed men's facility on a controversial Lincoln County site during this year's legislative session. The governor has called the penitentiary 'gothic,' and said the site south of Sioux Falls that inspired an ongoing legal battle from neighbors was a 'gift from God,' but was unable to sway lawmakers skeptical about the size, site and price tag. Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen was appointed to lead Project Prison Reset after the legislative rebuffing. On Tuesday before the vote, Venhuizen said he agrees with Jackley on the need, but pointed out that the group's schedule envisioned a review of the consultant's report before answering any of the questions posed to it. But 'if you feel that we already know enough to answer the first question,' he said, 'I think that is also very defensible.' Just one work group member suggested otherwise. Dell Rapids Republican Speaker of the House Jon Hansen, who announced a 2026 run for governor last week, tried unsuccessfully to convince the group to hold off on supporting a replacement. Hansen and his announced running mate, Canton Republican Rep. Karla Lems, were vocal opponents of the 1,500-bed plan that failed during the legislative session. Hansen pointed to a presentation on Springfield's Governor's House program from earlier in the afternoon. Inmates who build those affordable housing units are less likely to return to prison, the group learned. Why not explore options for reducing repeat offenses through programming before committing to new facilities, he asked? 'From everything that I've studied, we're an outlier, and it's really high,' Hansen said. 'Before we go jumping into whether we need a new prison, I really think we should pause. Maybe it's part of that report – I would presume it is – what are other states doing?' But Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, said the needs are immediate. Even if the state were to keep The Hill, he said, 'we've got 365 more people than we're supposed to' in the building. 'Even if you disagree with a few of these members on the panel and say 'I still think The Hill's still viable,' etcetera, we've still got to find room for 365 more people,' Karr said. The penitentiary has some supporters. A former inmate who testified Tuesday said he spent time there and at the Federal Correctional Institution of Leavenworth in Kansas, a prison of similar vintage. 'The Hill is functional,' said Paul Cooper, who's employed as a cook in Sioux Falls. 'It's clean, productive. I completely disagree with the fact that it needs to be rebuilt.' Doug Weber, a former penitentiary warden who lobbied lawmakers to vote down the 1,500-bed proposal, told South Dakota Searchlight that The Hill is functional if maintained. Darin Young, the now-former warden who took the job upon Weber's retirement, called the building 'beautiful' in a recent interview with The Scouting Report podcast. Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead offered a different take on Tuesday. 'I don't need a consultant to tell me that place is a pit,' Milstead said. 'I would not want my son or daughter working there.' Hansen and Lems ultimately joined every other member of the task force in supporting Jackley's motion. Milstead spoke up in favor of consultation with neighbors during the earlier discussions on possible sites. The state got 12 pitches from landowners for possible sites through its request for information. Four were outside of Sioux Falls, in Huron, Grant County (northeast of Watertown), Aberdeen and Mitchell. Another eight were in the Sioux Falls area, including near the Lincoln County cities of Canton and Worthing and in the Sioux Falls development park that's home to the city's Amazon distribution center. The former Citibank campus just north of the current penitentiary was also offered up as an option, and multiple work group members toured that site recently. Ryan Brunner, a policy adviser for Rhoden, presented the proposals on a spreadsheet and noted that some arrived as recently as Monday evening. The goal, he said, is to fill in the spreadsheet with details on each site's cost, serviceability for utilities and other factors in the coming weeks. 'Is there some way you can put in there what the neighbors think?' Milstead said. 'Some of these are in places where homes are going in nearby.' Brunner said that will be a consideration for any site, as would issues like proximity to 100-year floodplains or interstates and workforce availability. The consultant hired to study the state's needs can fully study three sites once the group narrows its options. As far as public comments, Venhuizen said he doubts neighbors will be silent. Opposition from those who live near the initially proposed Lincoln County site – which is still on the table as an option for the work group – spoke up quickly. 'We put this list out yesterday,' Venhuizen said. 'I'm sure we'll know what the neighbors think in pretty short order.' The locations submitted to Project Prison Reset: Submission 1 – Huron Submission 2 – Aberdeen Submission 3 – Mitchell Submission 4 – Grant County Submission 5a – Citibank Campus Submission 5b – Citibank Campus Submission 5c – Citibank Campus Submission 6 – I-29 Ag and Industrial Park Submission 7 – Moen Parcel Submission 8 – Newman Land Submission 9 – Assam Companies Submission 10 – Kappenman Trust Submission 11 – Canton Parcel Submission 12 – Wayne Township This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota corrections work group formally backs need for new prison
