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Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

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The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
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Judge: Tennessee can't execute Edmund Zagorski unless his lawyer gets access to a phone

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Tennessee's electric chair
Tennessee cannot execute death row inmate Edmund Zagorski as scheduled Thursday unless prison officials give his attorney access to a phone during the final minutes of his life, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger granted a temporary restraining order Monday, saying the state must allow Zagorski's lawyer to have "immediate access to a telephone during the time preceding and during the execution."

The move throws a wrench into the state's plans, but it could be a relatively easy fix.

If the state allows federal public defender Kelley Henry, Zagorski's attorney, access to a cell phone or land line, Trauger's ruling would be satisfied and the execution could move forward.

State attorneys had fought against the request for a phone, part of a last-minute challenge Zagorski's attorneys filed Friday. 

It remains unclear how they'll react to the order. 

A spokeswoman for the Tennessee attorney general's office said Tuesday morning that the state had no comment.


If the state wants to continue fighting against a phone, officials could appeal Trauger's ruling to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals before the execution date.

Henry had argued it was vital to have access to a phone during the execution so she could alert a judge if something went wrong. 

In her order, Trauger said earlier federal court rulings had supported Henry's argument.

Trauger dismissed other claims in the last-minute execution challenge. Zagorski's attorneys had claimed it was unconstitutional to force him to pick between the electric chair and lethal injection.

Trauger tossed that argument out. Zagorski's attorneys plan to appeal on that issue, in hopes that the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals might rule before the execution date.

Zagorski, 63, was convicted of murdering John Dale Dotson and Jimmy Porter in April 1983. He shot them, slit their throats and stole their money and a truck.

Source: eu.tennessean.com, Adam Tamburin, October 30, 2018


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Tennessee, USA
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