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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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Tennessee's electric chair protocol: How the state plans to kill Edmund Zagorski

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Electric chair
"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated, can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date on which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not to be encountered in private life." - Albert Camus

Tennessee is poised to use the electric chair for the first time in 11 years when it executes death row inmate Edmund Zagorski on Nov. 1.

Earlier this month, Zagorski chose to die by electric chair rather than lethal injection. 

A flurry of legal proceedings continues concerning the execution, but the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court both declined to intervene.

Here is the process Zagorski, 63, will go through if his execution moves forward Thursday, according to the state’s protocol for electrocution.
  • At 5 p.m., Zagorski will be dressed in cotton pants, a shirt and cotton socks or cloth house shoes.
  • Immediate family of the victims, two men Zagorski is convicted of killing, will arrive at the prison by 6:15 p.m. Around the same time, prison staff will shave Zagorski’s head and legs.
  • At 7 p.m., prison staff will take Zagorski out of his cell next to the execution chamber. He will be led to the electric chair.
  • Staff will strap Zagorski into the chair with an “electric chair harness and wrist straps.” Four sponges soaked in salt water will be strapped around his ankles to increase conductivity.
  • Zagorski’s lawyer, federal public defender Kelley Henry, and an attorney for the state will leave the execution chamber.
  • At 7:10 p.m., blinds to the witness rooms will open and the warden will ask Zagorski for last words.
  • After that, prison staff will place another sponge soaked in salt water on Zagorski’s head. Staff will then place the electric chair “head piece” on Zagorski’s head. They will also place a shroud around his face.
  • More salt brine will be poured over the ankle sponges.
  • The warden will give the signal to proceed, and the executioner will activate the electric chair.
  • The electric chair will release 1,750 volts of electricity for 20 seconds, will stop for 15 seconds and then will release 1,750 volts for another 15 seconds.
  • After the first wave of electricity, officials will wait five minutes and then close the blinds into the witness room.
  • A doctor will check Zagorski for signs of life. If there are none, the doctor will pronounce him dead.
  • If Zagorski is still alive, the blinds will be raised, another round of electricity will be administered and the doctor will be called in again.
  • The warden will announce when Zagorski’s death sentence is complete, and will ask witnesses to leave.
Prison staff is expected to train for electrocution once a quarter, with additional training in the days before an execution. Staff also tests the electric chair quarterly, with added tests before an execution.

According to prison records, the chair has been tested four times in October, most recently Oct. 12. No problems were reported.

RELATED How Tennessee prison officials test the electric chair before an execution

Zagorski was convicted in 1984 of killing two men in Robertson County. He shot them, slit their throats and robbed them after luring them into the woods by promising to sell them a large amount of marijuana.

Source: tennessean.com, Adam Tamburin, October 29, 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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