Tennessee prepares electric chair, execution date unconfirmed

While the details of the execution are still up in the air, but the state is preparing to send a death row inmate in Tennessee to the electric chair.

A jury sentenced Edmund Zagorski to death back in 1984 for the slayings of two men during a drug deal.

Zagorski had been set to be executed at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 11, but that was halted after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday granted a stay over concerns of inadequate representation.

As the state rushed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling and ensure the execution took place as scheduled, a separate federal judge barred the state from using lethal injection to kill Zagorski after it refused his request to die in the electric chair.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge of Tennessee's lethal injection protocol and lifted a stay of execution ordered by a lower court because of inadequate counsel.

The court issued the rulings Thursday night around the time Zagorski's execution had been scheduled. But earlier in the day, Gov. Bill Haslam granted a 10-day reprieve to give the state time to prepare for an execution by electric chair.

“I am granting to Edmund Zagorski a reprieve of 10 days from execution of the sentence of death imposed upon by him by a jury in 1984 which was scheduled to be carried out later today," Haslam stated. "I take seriously the responsibility imposed upon the Tennessee Department of Correction and me by law, and given the federal court’s decision to honor Zagorski’s last-minute decision to choose electrocution as the method of execution, this brief reprieve will give all involved the time necessary to carry out the sentence in an orderly and careful manner."

Before the state can use the electric chair, it has to be tested four times a year, including two weeks before an execution. The state says it just tested the chair Wednesday.

The 10-day reprieve is set to run out October 21, but It's still not clear just when Zagorski's execution could happen.

Source: wate.com, Staff, October 15, 2018

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