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Authors: Michael Benson
SECOND TRIAL
Time passed. By June 2009, Stephen Stanko was appealing his conviction by claiming his trial lawyer was inadequate.
Despite this,
Stanko had no intention of switching lawyers for his second trial. William Diggs was his man—inadequate or not. Stanko’s second death penalty trial, for the killing of Henry Lee Turner, was scheduled to begin November 9, 2009, in the Horry County Courthouse.
Despite this,
Stanko had no intention of switching lawyers for his second trial. William Diggs was his man—inadequate or not. Stanko’s second death penalty trial, for the killing of Henry Lee Turner, was scheduled to begin November 9, 2009, in the Horry County Courthouse.
It would be the first capital case to be tried in Horry County since February 2008, when Louis “Mick” Winkler was accused of shooting to death his estranged wife, Rebekah Grainger, in her condo complex while he was free on bail and wearing an ankle bracelet, awaiting trial on charges that he’d kidnapped and raped her. After the shooting, Winkler fled on foot. A golf course employee on the job spotted a man in the woods off the fairway, and called 911 on March 20, 2006. The suspicious man was wearing torn clothes and was covered with dirt. He was chased through the woods near River Hills by police with dogs for three hours before he was captured. Jury selection for that headline-maker began on January 2008, and a pool of two hundred was needed to build a panel of twelve. Gregory Hembree had been representing the people at that one, too. The judge was James Lockemy, and the jury brought the verdict in late on a Saturday night. During the penalty phase, Hembree focused on the reasons they were seeking the death penalty. Hembree was on the record as feeling that only the “worst of the worst” killers should be executed, and he felt Winkler qualified. Here was a guy who killed a woman that he, in theory, had once been in love with, and why? To save his own skin! Colder than cold. Such depravity gave you the shivers.
In South Carolina, the death penalty was saved for cases with aggravating circumstances—say if the victim was a child, or a cop, or involving rape. In this case, the aggravating circumstance was that Winkler killed a witness against him of a previous crime. South Carolina was not quick to kill prisoners. Horry County had five men on death row during the Winkler trial; one had been there since 1996. Hembree thought the time between sentencing and execution should be cut. “There is room for reform,” he said. “There are ways you can speed up the process.” Reformation, he warned, shouldn’t be reckless. There were people who thought the execution process wasn’t punishment enough. The killers had an opportunity to say good-bye to their friends and loved ones, but the victims of their crimes did not. Some felt the defendant should be taken directly from the courtroom to the waiting needle. No stopping to pass Go or collect two hundred dollars. But that was the other extreme. Execution was
final,
so “it required a level of scrutiny on both sides,” Hembree said. Following the penalty phase of Winkler’s trial, the defendant turned to the jury and
begged
for his life. The jury deliberated twelve hours before returning with thumbs-down.
final,
so “it required a level of scrutiny on both sides,” Hembree said. Following the penalty phase of Winkler’s trial, the defendant turned to the jury and
begged
for his life. The jury deliberated twelve hours before returning with thumbs-down.
Now Gregory Hembree was eager to return to room 3B in the Horry County Courthouse and prepare to handle the special difficulties trying Stephen Stanko a second time would entail. The first trial had only made Stanko more notorious. An extraordinarily large sample of jury summonses and questionnaires were sent out in hopes of finding sixteen impartial jurors. Four and a half years had passed since Stanko’s violent rampage. That helped the jury pool forget the case’s vivid details.
On the downside, there was the matter of Stanko’s name. “He has a unique name,” Hembree said. “It’s one [that] people remember because it is so different. If his name was Smith, people may not remember, but with a name like Stanko, they don’t forget—so that doesn’t help us.”
The solicitor was fairly certain that an impartial jury could be found. He was encouraged by the fact that Georgetown County had done it only one year after the crimes. If Georgetown County could do it then, Horry County could do it now.
Presiding over the preliminary hearings, as well as the trial, was Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court judge Steven H. John, who grew up in North Augusta, South Carolina, and graduated in 1975 from the Citadel, with a degree in political science. He earned his law degree three years later at the University of South Carolina School of Law and began his legal career as a law clerk for a judge. In 1986, he opened his own practice in North Myrtle Beach, and from 1993 through 2001, he was the pro bono lawyer for the Horry County Disabilities and Special Needs agency. He married Susan Watts John, who was the director of Family Services for that agency. In 2001, he was elected as resident circuit judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, a position he’d held ever since.
Judge John was no stranger to big-time murder cases. During the spring of 2008, he presided over the double-homicide trial of Richard Gagnon. (Gregory Hembree was the prosecutor in that one, too.) Gagnon was originally arrested with his girlfriend, Bambi Bennett, and they were charged with the 2005 murders of Diane and Charles Parker Sr., Bennett’s mother and stepfather. Diane was found in the bedroom, Charles in the bathroom, both shot, the scene a bloody mess. Gagnon and Bennett had been an item for two years when the murders took place, and the Parkers were Gagnon’s employers. Bambi spent six months in jail, but she was released before the trial because of “lack of DNA evidence” against her. Suspicion at first was that Bambi had traded freedom for cooperation, but in the long run, she didn’t testify at the trial for either side. The state hardly had an airtight case against Gagnon, one drop of victim blood on otherwise clean sneakers, and a claim by one interrogator that Gagnon had told him things that “only the killer could know.” Kept intentionally vague, these things apparently involved blood evidence at the crime scene from a third unnamed individual. To boost its case, the prosecution hauled out a jailhouse snitch. Gagnon’s big defense witness was also a caged canary, a cell mate who said he sure acted innocent when first thrown in the can. The trial was covered live by truTV, and resulted in a conviction. Judge John sentenced Gagnon to life in prison, without chance of parole.
Now, at Stephen Stanko’s October 8, 2009, hearing, Judge John heard twenty-three motions by Gregory Hembree and William Diggs, setting up the ground rules for the trial.
Stanko, during his court appearances, would not be in handcuffs or leg shackles, unless his behavior dictated otherwise. The jury would be sequestered during the trial and guarded by SLED agents.
On the day before Halloween, Stanko was transferred from his home on death row in Ridgeville, South Carolina, to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Conway, where he would be caged for the duration of his trial.
The Horry County Courthouse was on Third Avenue in the heart of Conway. The redbrick building, with white trim and pillars, was more than twice the size of its counterpart in Georgetown County. Several additions at the sides and back had been put on since the courthouse opened in 1908. (The courthouse before that, built in the 1820s, was still there, just down the street, and served as the Conway Town Hall.) The “new” courthouse came with a large front lawn, protected by mature shade trees, and a long driveway leading to the front entrance, giving it a plantation in the Old South feel. The building figured to be a busy place, if everything went as scheduled. Two noteworthy trials were slated to begin more or less simultaneously, the other being that of Miles Ferguson, from Ohio, who was charged with homicide via child abuse in connection with the death of his five-week-old daughter in July 2007 as the family vacationed in Myrtle Beach. Also on trial in the second week of November was Rodell Vereen, who faced buggery charges in connection with sexual activity with a horse.
On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, there was a short competency hearing during which Judge Steven John asked the defendant a series of questions to determine if he could assist in his own defense and if he could identify the roles to be played in the proceedings by the judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the jury. Stephen Stanko answered all of the questions correctly.
Forensic psychiatry expert Pamela Crawford had a lengthy interview with Stanko on Wednesday morning and advised the judge that she found him competent to stand trial. Crawford performed the same function before Stanko’s Georgetown County trial.
Voir dire would begin the following Monday, with a jury pool of three hundred peers.
The defense, of course, sought to keep any mention of the first trial out of this one, and for the most part, Judge John ruled that evidence regarding the Ling crimes would prejudice the jury. However, he ruled that there would be
exceptions.
Evidence from the first trial would be allowed in during the penalty phase of this trial, if there was one. Also, in some cases, the defendant’s mental state, as testified to during the first trial, would be allowed in. The details of the Ling attacks, though, would not be heard by the jury.
exceptions.
Evidence from the first trial would be allowed in during the penalty phase of this trial, if there was one. Also, in some cases, the defendant’s mental state, as testified to during the first trial, would be allowed in. The details of the Ling attacks, though, would not be heard by the jury.
During the Saturday evening of August 15, 2009, the Marion County coroner ID’d a body plucked out of the Pee Dee River as fifty-six-year-old Horry County true-crime author William Dale Hudson. According to Hudson’s wife, her husband left their home in Conway at eight in the morning, on Wednesday, August 12, on a business trip. Three hours later, he called and told her he had a migraine and was planning to pull over to the side of the road to rest. On Friday, Horry police found Hudson’s car in a Marion County woods. On Saturday morning, August 15, Hudson’s body was discovered by fishermen in the Pee Dee, two miles south of the U.S. 76 bridge. Among Hudson’s books was
Dance of Death,
about a Myrtle Beach housewife and mother who was secretly a stripper with a boyfriend, and who, with her boyfriend, conspired to kill her husband. The book was published in 2006 by Pinnacle True Crime. His other works included
An Hour to Kill, Kiss and Kill,
and
Die, Grandpa, Die.
A member of his family said Hudson was working on a book about Stephen Stanko (unrelated to this book) at the time of his death.
Dance of Death,
about a Myrtle Beach housewife and mother who was secretly a stripper with a boyfriend, and who, with her boyfriend, conspired to kill her husband. The book was published in 2006 by Pinnacle True Crime. His other works included
An Hour to Kill, Kiss and Kill,
and
Die, Grandpa, Die.
A member of his family said Hudson was working on a book about Stephen Stanko (unrelated to this book) at the time of his death.
On November 8, 2009, on the eve of Stephen Stanko’s second murder trial, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Victim Advocate Association (LEVA) presented the Solicitor of the Year Award to Gregory Hembree. In accepting the award, Hembree stated that all the people in his office, regardless of their title, were in the business of helping victims through the criminal justice system.
This was the second big award that Hembree had received in the past few months. During the summer of 2009, he was recognized by the Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation (AGACL) for excellence in prosecuting death penalty cases. Hembree, who had successfully prosecuted eight death penalty cases, was one of only six prosecutors in the country to get their award.
For Hembree, the season had not been all sunny. He lost his dad, Dr. John Hembree, who was seventy-two. The solicitor’s dad was the dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Mississippi from 1987 to 1992. His father had also served twenty-nine years of active and reserve duty in the U.S. Army, retiring as a colonel.
On Monday morning, November 9, 2009, the process known in South Carolina as “striking a jury” began. In South Carolina, this was done in two steps. First jurors had to qualify to be on the jury. Voir dire proceeded until maybe forty potential jurors had qualified. Out of that group, the actual jurors and alternates were chosen.
Outside the courthouse, it looked like a cattle call for movie extras. Potential jurors were brought into the courtroom five at a time, and each one could be questioned individually by the lawyers for up to a half hour. Fifteen members of the jury pool were qualified on the first day, leading to optimism that there might be opening statements by the end of the week. To save money, everyone would work right through the weekend.
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