Stephen Christopher Stanko, 57, was executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 13, 2025, after spending more than two decades on death row for two separate murders committed in 2005. Stanko’s appeals were exhausted by mid‑2025, clearing the way for the state to carry out his sentence under South Carolina law.
Stanko’s crimes began on April 8, 2005, when he attacked his live‑in girlfriend, 43‑year‑old Laura Ling, in their home in Murrells Inlet. Prosecutors said he bound, beat, and strangled Ling to death while also assaulting and sexually attacking her 15‑year‑old daughter, whom he slit in the throat in a failed attempt to murder her; she survived and later made a 911 call for help.
After killing Ling, Stanko drove to the home of 74‑year‑old Henry Lee Turner, a friend he had misled about his personal circumstances. There, authorities say he shot Turner dead, stole his truck and fled, triggering a nationwide manhunt that ended with his arrest in Augusta, Georgia, days later.
Stanko was first convicted and sentenced to death in Georgetown County in 2006 for Ling’s murder and related crimes, including kidnapping, armed robbery, and sexual assault against her daughter. He received a second death sentence in 2009 in Horry County for Turner’s murder.
In the months leading up to his execution, Stanko sought information about execution methods and challenged South Carolina’s protocols in court, including objections tied to lethal injection and the option of a firing squad. Those efforts were rejected by state and federal courts.
Stanko’s final meal, served the evening before his execution, included fried fish, fried shrimp, crab cakes, baked potato, carrots, fried okra, cherry pie, banana pudding and sweet tea. His attorney read a lengthy final statement in which Stanko apologized to the families of his victims and reflected on his life, saying that while he had committed heinous acts, he hoped his execution might offer some measure of closure for those affected.
South Carolina’s execution of Stanko was the sixth in the state since capital punishment resumed in late 2024, after a long pause due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. His case remains one of the more complex and closely watched death penalty cases in recent state history, involving multiple trials, a nationwide search, violent crimes against multiple victims, and extensive legal debate over execution procedures.
