Stephen Stanko died: American prisoner, Stephen Stanko died on June 13, 2025 at the age of 57 in Columbia, SC due to Lethal injection. He was found guilty in court for killing two people in South Carolina in 2005. He also kidnapped and raped the teenage daughter of one of the people he killed.
His full name was Stephen Christopher Stanko who born on January 13, 1968 in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
Stephen Stanko was a criminal who had been fighting a legal battle for years. He appealed in every court but on May 5, 2025, he appealed the highest court in America, the Supreme Court but supreme court rejected his final appeal.
The government of South Carolina began the process of executing him. One special thing about this state is that the execution notice is always issued on a Friday to allow more time for legal challenges. But since May 9 was a holiday due to Confederate Memorial Day, the notice was issued on May 16 and June 13, 2025, was set as the execution date.
He had until May 30 to decide the method of execution including Electric chair, Firing squad and Lethal injection.
If Stephen Stanko didn’t choose one himself, the electric chair would be selected by default.
Stephen Stanko was initially considering the firing squad, but then he came across the details of the execution of another criminal named Mikal Mahdi. Those details were so horrifying that he changed his mind about dying by firing squad.
Stanko appealed to the court, asking for the full procedures of both firing squad and lethal injection to be made public but on May 29, the court rejected his request.
Finally, on May 30, he chose to be executed by lethal injection.
On June 13, 2025, Stephen Stanko was executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution. That week, four criminals were executed across four different states in the U.S.:Anthony Wainwright, Gregory Hunt, John Hanson and Stephen Stanko.
At the time of the execution, Henry Lee Turner’s son (whose father was murdered by Stanko) said:
“This punishment should have happened long ago… I will be there to witness it. My father was a very loving person cheerful, kind, and deeply devoted to his children.”
