Edmund Zagorski is now scheduled to be put to death next week, following a last-minute delay granted to accommodate his wish to be executed using the electric chair.
Zagorski was convicted in the 1980s for the murder of two men in Robertson County during a drug deal. At the time, state law called for using the electric chair, and when Tennessee adopted lethal injection in the 1990s, inmates sentenced under the old death-penalty law were given the option of choosing between the two methods.
More:
Read the court order setting Edmund Zagorski’s execution date
Since then, only one person has been put to death by electrocution. Zagorski asked to be the second, but he submitted his request just three days before his execution was to go forward on Oct. 11.
Prison officials balked, arguing that the deadline to change methods had already passed, but a federal court nevertheless issued a restraining order prohibiting lethal injection. That prompted Gov. Bill Haslam to grant a 10-day reprieve to sort out Zagorski’s request. The reprieve expired over the weekend. The new execution date is Nov. 1.
Haslam has already ruled out granting clemency to Zagorski. The Supreme Court has declined his most recent appeals, including a claim that his defense attorney was ineffective.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM