Tennessee set to execute murderer Edmund Zagorski in electric chair Thursday night Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special...
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Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.SUBSCRIBEBy David K. LiThe state of Tennessee was set Thursday night to make good on a murderer̢۪s grim request to be put to death in the electric chair rather than by lethal injection.
Edmund Zagorski, 63, is scheduled to be executed shortly after 7:10 p.m. ET at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
He̢۪s requested a final meal of pickled pig knuckles and tails, according to prison officials.
While Tennessee normally puts inmates to death with lethal injection, Zagorski wants to die in the electric chair, claiming that 1,750 volts will be less painful than receiving a deadly cocktail of IV drugs.
State law all ows condemned prisoners, who committed their crimes before January 1999, to opt for electrocution.
Zagorski, who murdered two men in 1983 in a drug deal gone wrong, had been set to die by lethal injection on Oct. 11 and the killer opted for electrocution. State authorities originally denied Zagorski̢۪s preference for electrocution, saying his request came too late.
But hours before the scheduled execution, Gov. Bill Haslam ordered a 10-day delay so the state could prepare the electric chair for Zagroski̢۪s use.
A Massachusetts man, who refurbished Tennessee̢۪s electric chair in 1988, is worried it could malfunction.
“I hope it works but I have some serious doubts,†self-taught engineer Fred Leuchter told NBC News on Thursday.
Leuchter said he rebuilt the chair to send 1,750 volts through a prisoner, based on medical studies of executions from the early 20th century.
But Leuchter now believes it takes about 2,640 volts to quickly kill a man by stopping his heart and dissipating the body̢۪s natural chemicals that would restart it.
Lower voltage for a longer period of time would be considerably more painful, according to Leuchter.
“It’s much too low,†Leuchter said. “It could be that the inmate will suffer greatly.â€
Leuchter, 75, once built a cottage industry for himself, maintaining prison death chambers around the county. But he̢۪s been largely shunned by one-time prison clients and labeled a Holocaust denier after he once said that Nazis couldn̢۪t have possibly used gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter disputes the allegations he's a denier.
The last time Tennessee used the chair was in 2007 when the state executed 45-year-old Daryl Keith Holton, a Gulf War veteran who murdered his four children.
Gov. Haslam said this week he̢۪s confident the electric chair will function properly on Thursday night.
“I have a great deal of confidence in our Department of Correction folks,†he said. “We’ve spoken with them regularly and they’ve assured us (the chair is ready).â€
Zagorski was moved to a special holding cell near the death chamber on Tuesday morning, ahead of Thursday night̢۪s scheduled execution.
That̢۪s when an execution team will seat Zagorski in the electric chair and wrap sponges soaked in saltwater around his ankles and head, to better conduct electricity.
In legal filings, Zagorki said death at the end of a syringe probably lasts “10-18 minutes... in utter terror and agony." He claimed electrocution would be a shorter, less painful experience.
Zagorski was sentenced to death for the 1983 slayings of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter â€" two 35-year-old men who were planning to buy 100 pounds of marijuana from him.
If Zagorski dies as scheduled Thursday night, he would be the 1,485th execution carried out in the Unite d States since capital punishment was re-started in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C.
It would be the eighth death penalty carried out in the Volunteer State since 1976, though there has already been one this year. William “Billy†Ray Irick was put to death on Aug. 9 for the 1985 rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.
Zagorski could become the 159th person put to death in the electric chair in the United States since 1976. The most recent electrocution was in 2013, when Virginia executed Robert Charles Gleason Jr., who murdered two fellow inmates.
Source: Google News | Netizen 24 United States
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