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Stephen Stanko Execution

closedUSJanuary 13, 1968 — June 13, 2025

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At 6:34 in the evening on June 13, 2025, Stephen Christopher Stanko was pronounced dead in a South Carolina prison. He was 57 years old — executed by lethal injection for two murders he committed in 2005, in two South Carolina counties. The legal proceedings that translated those crimes into this sentence had taken nearly two decades to reach their conclusion.

Stanko had spent that interval on death row, sentenced separately for each killing. The first victim was Henry Lee Turner, a 74-year-old retired Air Force master sergeant and father of three, killed in Conway. The second was Laura Ling, 43, Stanko's girlfriend, who died in Murrells Inlet in Georgetown County. He was sentenced to death twice — once for each murder, in separate proceedings.

In the same attack that killed Ling, Stanko raped and attempted to murder her 15-year-old daughter, Christina. Christina survived. Her survival placed her at the center of the prosecutions that followed, and it also meant she would spend the next twenty years living with what had happened to her mother and to herself while the courts worked through the case to its conclusion.

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Claims

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Defense experts diagnosed Stanko with brain damage attributed to multiple head injuries across his life, including birth trauma, a teenage head blow sustained while shielding a classmate, and repeated sports injuries.[1]

Check the sourcesAction Network ↗

origin: imported

Stanko shot and killed Henry Lee Turner, a 74-year-old retired Air Force master sergeant, and subsequently cleaned out Turner's bank account.[2]

Check the sourcesUSA Today ↗

origin: imported

After killing Laura Ling in Murrells Inlet, Stanko raped and attempted to murder her 15-year-old daughter Christina Ling, who survived and became a key witness for the prosecution.[2]

Check the sourcesUSA Today ↗

origin: imported

Stanko received two separate death sentences in South Carolina — one for each murder — making him one of the few death row inmates in the state to carry dual capital sentences.[2]

Check the sourcesUSA Today ↗

origin: imported

Sources

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  1. 1.Action Network — Stop the Execution of Stephen Stanko in South Carolina
  2. 2.USA Today — Stephen Stanko, who killed 2 and raped his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter, is executed
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