A DOUBLE murderer was executed by injection after a final meal of cherry pie and banana pudding.

One of Stephen Stanko’s two death sentences was for killing Henry Turner and emptying his bank account in 2005.

Hours earlier he had strangled girlfriend Laura Ling in her home.

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.