CHARLESTON, SC – An inmate on death row scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Friday, June 13th, in the state of South Carolina, was unsuccessful in his attempt to halt the set execution after a federal judge ruled there was insufficient evidence against the alleged issues with the state’s lethal injection process.
Federal judge Richard Gergel limited the arguments presented by the lawyers representing Stephen Stanko to just lethal injection, which is the method Stanko chose for his death, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Stanko’s lawyers wanted to argue about the state’s most recent execution by firing squad, saying that Stanko changed his mind about dying by gunfire because of recent accounts about the firing squad death of Mikal Mahdi after autopsy results showed the shooters nearly missed his heart.
Gergel did not allow for that discussion and within a few hours of the 50-minute hearing, he issued his ruling. The state Supreme Court already ruled against Stanko in May. Since the lawyers couldn’t argue about the firing squad, they then attempted to say that inmates in the past three lethal injection executions died a slow death.
The lawyers claimed that the inmates were still conscious as they felt like they were drowning when fluid rushed into their lungs.
Once Gergel limited arguments to lethal injection, the state and the judge said all the arguments by Stanko’s lawyers showing there was excessive pain or inmates regaining consciousness have been from other states. “There is no evidence that the second dose of pentobarbital used in South Carolina’s lethal injection protocol is administered because the first dose failed,” Gergel said.
While there may have been some isolated examples of ‘botched’ lethal injections in other states, there is simply no evidence of any difficulties in South Carolina that would suggest cruel and unusual punishment.”
Gergel said the filing came across as an attempt to force a stay by venturing into “crying wolf” territory, Post and Courier reported. “It didn’t work,” he said. The judge also said the attorneys did not show how other recent lethal injection executions in South Carolina were mishandled. “If there were actual evidence of a botched execution, nobody would tolerate that,” Gergel said.
The lawyers immediately appealed Gergel’s decision. If executed on Friday, Stanko would be the sixth inmate executed in South Carolina in the last nine months. There are four other executions scheduled for this week across the country, including Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma.
Stanko was sentenced to death after killing his 74-year-old friend, Henry Turner in 2006. In April of that year, Stanko went to Turner’s home after lying about his father dying. Hours before killing Turner, Stanko had beaten and strangled his girlfriend in her home and raped her daughter before cutting the teen’s throat.
