Last Updated on 2/9/2010

Published on 11/22/2009

Jurors on the original death penalty trial for Stephen Stanko believe they reached the right verdict — and they haven’t changed their mind in more than three years.
Stanko received a second death sentence Thursday for shooting 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner.
Gene Baker, who was part of a jury that convicted Stanko for another killing in Georgetown County, said he still believes Stanko can control himself.
“It seemed like he could control himself, when the odds were in his favor,” said Baker.  “It wasn’t an insanity thing when it was convenient for him.  I know on this trial, from what I’ve gathered so far, he stole a car. It wasn’t insanity, it was in his favor to do this.”
Neither Baker nor former juror Pat Wofford were surprised that the Conway trial resulted in a guilty verdict.
The Conway jury took only a short while to determine Stanko was guilty.
The jury then sentenced Stanko to die.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all they received the same verdict, because he can control himself in any situation that he wants to,” Baker said.

Watching the trial
 
Wofford said she has been keeping up with the trial on the Georgetown Times Web site.
She is not surprised by anything that has happened.
She didn’t believe Stanko was insane during the original crime, and doesn’t believe it now.
“It wasn’t hard to grasp what they [the defense] was saying, but there were some evidence to the contrary that was more plausible,’’ Wofford said.
The original jurors were unanimous in their decision to give the death penalty, she said.

It took them only a short while to reach their decision. Baker and Wofford said they believed justice would be done during the second trial, too.
“Hopefully, he’ll have an opportunity to cry out to the Lord, and maybe this conviction will allow him that chance to at least, get his soul right with God,” Wofford said. “All during the original trial, I just kept praying that the truth would be revealed, and I believe it was.”