South Carolina executes man serving two death sentences

SC officials describe firing squad execution

Officials in South Carolina gave remarks to the media on the firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi, who was convicted of killing three people and numerous other "spree" crimes in 2004.

A South Carolina man was executed by lethal injection Friday for two separate murders in 2005. 

Stephen Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. It was South Carolina’s sixth execution in nine months.

What did Stephen Stanko do? 

The backstory:

Stanko was sentenced to death for shooting a friend and then cleaning out his bank account in Horry County in 2005.

Stanko also was serving a death sentence for killing his live-in girlfriend in her Georgetown County home hours earlier, strangling her as he raped her teenage daughter. Stanko slit the teen’s throat, but she survived.

Stephen Stanko’s execution

The other side:

Stanko apologized to his victims before he was killed, asking not to be judged by the worst day of his life. 

In his final statement, Stanko talked about how he was an honor student and athlete and a volunteers and asked several times not to be judged by the night he killed two people.

"I have live for approximately 20,973 days, but I am judged solely for one," Stanko said in his final statement read by his lawyer.

Stanko apologized several times to his victims and their families.

FILE - South Carolina's electric chair sits in the death chamber at Broad River Correctional Facility. The viewing room to the right is where media, lawyers and family witnesses sit. (Eric Seals/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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"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."

Stanko ate his last meal on Wednesday as prison officials give inmates a chance to enjoy their special food before their execution day. He ate fried fish, fried shrimp, crab cakes, a baked potato, carrots, fried okra, cherry pie, banana pudding and sweet tea.

RELATED: South Carolina inmate loses bid to delay execution over firing squad, injection concerns

At his execution, witnesses could hear prison officials asking for the first dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital which was different from previous executions. He was announced dead about 28 minutes after the execution started.

Three family members of his victims stared at Stanko and didn't look away until well after he stopped breathing. Stanko's brother and his lawyer also watched. Attorney Lindsey Vann, who watched her second inmate client die in seven months rubbed rosary beads in her hands.

Dig deeper:

Stanko was leaning toward dying by South Carolina’s new firing squad, like the past two inmates before him. But after autopsy results from the last inmate killed by that method showed the bullets from the three volunteers nearly missed his heart, Stanko went with lethal injection.

RELATED: Lawyers for man executed by firing squad in South Carolina say bullets mostly missed his heart

Federal courts rejected Stanko’s last-ditch appeal to spare his life as his lawyers argued the state isn’t carrying out lethal injection properly after autopsy results found fluid in the lungs of other inmates killed that way.

Stanko was the last of four executions scheduled around the country this week. Florida and Alabama each put an inmate to death on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Oklahoma executed a man transferred from federal to state custody to allow his death.

South Carolina executions

Local perspective:

Stanko is the sixth inmate executed in South Carolina in nine months after the state went 13 years without putting an inmate to death because it could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The South Carolina General Assembly approved a firing squad and passed a shield law bill which allowed the suppliers of the drugs to stay secret.