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In April 2005, Stephen Stanko murdered his girlfriend Laura Ling, and then raped and stabbed her daughter. Shortly afterwards, he killed a friend, Henry Turner. Previously, in 1996, Stanko had served an eight year prison term for assaulting his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth McClendon. Stanko claimed he had no memory of these events. At his trial for the murder of Laura Ling, Stanko?s lawyer called on medical experts who claimed that PET scan images of Stanko?s brain revealed that he was born with a brain defect, a neurological dysfunction that made him psychopathic and, on occasion, temporarily insane. Medical experts for the prosecution contested this claim. A jury found Stanko guilty and recommended the death penalty.