A man convicted of two murders met his fate through lethal injection, choosing cherry pie and banana pudding for his last meal.

Stephen Stanko received one of his death sentences for the 2005 murder of Henry Turner, during which he also drained Turner’s bank account.

Just hours before this incident, he had strangled his girlfriend, Laura Ling, at her residence.

Stanko, 57, also raped and slit the throat of the woman’s teenage daughter, who survived.

In a three-minute statement in Columbia state prison, South Carolina, he apologised to his victims and asked not to be judged.

He said: “I have lived for approximately 20,973 days but I am judged solely for one.

“Once I am gone, I hope that Laura’s family and Henry’s family can all forgive me.

“The execution may help them. Forgiveness will heal them.”

His last meal was fried fish, shrimp, crab cakes, baked potato, carrots, okra, cherry pie, banana pudding and sweet tea.

He was pronounced dead at 6.34pm local time on Friday — 28 minutes after the first jab.

It was South Carolina’s sixth execution in nine months.

The state’s two previous death-row inmates chose firing squad.

A third option is electric chair.