COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man sent to death row twice for separate murders was put to death Friday by lethal injection in the state’s sixth execution in nine months.
Stephen Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m.
He was executed 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.
The execution began after a 3 1/2 minute final statement where Stanko apologized to his victims and asked not to be judged by the worst day of his life. Witnesses could hear prison officials asking for the first dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital which was different from previous executions.
Stanko appeared to be saying words, turned toward the families of the victims and then let out several quick breaths as his lips quivered.
Stanko appeared to stop breathing after a minute. His ruddy complexion quickly disappeared and the color drained from his face and hands. A prison employee asked for a second dose of pentobarbital about 13 minutes later. 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.
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.
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.
The federal courts rejected Stanko’s last-ditch effort 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.
Also South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster refused clemency in a phone call to prison officials minutes before the execution began.
A governor has not spared a death row inmate’s life in the previous 48 executions since South Carolina reinstated the death penalty about 50 years ago.
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.
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.
“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.
Bucky Bruce protests the planned execution by lethal injection of Stephen Stanko outside the Broad River Road Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
A man prays the Rosary outside the gates of the Broad River Road Correctional Facility in Columbia, S.C., before the scheduled execution of Stephen Stanko on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
Protesters shielding themselves in the 84-degree heat await the planned execution of Stephen Stanko outside the Broad River Road Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is opening lower as the Trump administration steps up pressure on trading partners to make trade deals before a Wednesday deadline. The S&P 500 was down 0.4% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 102 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.6%. Tesla tumbled as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump reignited over the weekend. Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, said he would form a third political party in protest over the Republicans’ spending bill that passed last week.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Wall Street is pointing to a lower open Monday as the Trump administration steps up pressure on trading partners to quickly make deals before a Wednesday deadline.
The U.S. will warn trading partners that higher tariffs could kick in Aug. 1.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.3% before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1%. Nasdaq futures slid 0.5%.
Trump and his top trade advisers said over the weekend that the president could extend the tariff deadline if countries were making concessions and negotiating in good faith.
“We expect markets to be volatile into the 9-July deadline when the 90-day pause on President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs expires for non-China trading partners,” the Nomura Group wrote in a commentary.
The near-term outlook will likely hinge on several key factors like the extent to which trading partners are included in Trump letters, the rate of tariffs, and the effective date of such tariffs, according to Nomura.
“With the July 9 tariff deadline fast approaching, all eyes are trained on Washington, scanning for signs of escalation or retreat. The path forward isn’t clear, but the terrain is littered with risk,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
In equities trading, Tesla tumbled 6.5% as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and Trump reignited over the weekend. Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, announced that he was forming a third political party in protest over the Republicans' spending bill that passed late last week.
Trump criticized Musk in a social media post, suggesting that Musk's disappointment in the bill was because the legislation ended an “electric vehicle mandate,” which Trump says Musk knew was coming.
Investors fear that Musk's companies, which receive significant subsidies from the federal government, could suffer further if his feud with Trump continues to escalate.
Molina Healthcare tumbled 6% after the insurer lowered its profit guidance due to rapidly accelerating costs. UnitedHealth Group also recently reported a spike in costs that forced it to cut its forecast, sending its stock tumbling in April.
Oil prices fluctuated after OPEC+ agreed on Saturday to raise production in August by 548,000 barrels per day.
U.S. benchmark crude was essentially unchanged early Monday at $67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 40 cents to $68.70 per barrel.
At midday in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 inched up 0.1%, while Germany’s DAX added 0.8%. In Paris, the CAC 40 was up 0.2%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.6% to 39,587. 68 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index edged down 0.1% to 23,887.83.
South Korea’s KOSPI index rose 0.2% to 3,059.47 while the Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.1% higher to 3,473.13. Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 0.2% to 8,589.30.
In currency trading Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 145.42 Japanese yen from 144.44 yen. The euro edged lower to $1.1727 from $1.1779.
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Trader Niall Pawa, left, works with a colleague on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Gregg Maloney works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
