[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENNESSEE

[Rick Halperin]

November 1



TENNESSEE----execution

Tennessee murderer Edmund Zagorski is executed after receiving unusual last 
meal

Edmund Zagorski — the Tennessee death row inmate who chose pickled pig knuckles 
and pig tails for his final meal — has been executed.

Zagorski, 63, died at 7:26 p.m. CT on Thursday, the Tennessean reported. He was 
executed by electric chair.

The inmate — who reportedly said "let's rock" before he was pronounced dead — 
was the 134th person the state of Tennessee put to death in more than 100 
years, and was the first inmate since 2007 to have died via electric chair.

In 1984, Zagorski was sentenced to death for killing two men during an April 
1983 drug deal. Prosecutors said Zagorski shot John Dotson and Jimmy Porter and 
then slit their throats after robbing them when they went to him to buy 
marijuana.

His initial execution was scheduled for Oct. 11, but the courts halted it 
because Zagorski, according to his lawyer, wanted to avoid the "unspeakable" 
torture of a lethal injection death.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday night denied his appeal, which argued it was 
unconstitutional to force him to choose between the electric chair and lethal 
injection.

He reportedly chose not to order a last meal for his originally scheduled 
execution. At the time, other inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security Institute 
who are friendly with Zagorski reportedly collected money to get him pizza.

"Should he change his mind and want to have dinner, his meal will be the same 
as the one provided to the other inmates at Riverbend Maximum Security 
Institution," the Tennessee Department of Corrections said when Zagorski chose 
not to select a last meal.

Death row inmates are given $20 for a meal of their choice prior to their 
execution.

Nationwide, only 14 other people have been put to death in the electric chair 
since 2000, the most recent being in Virginia in 2013. In Tennessee, condemned 
inmates whose crimes occurred before 1999 can choose the electric chair — 1 of 
6 states that allow such a choice.

Zagorski becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Tennessee and the 8th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 
2000.

Zagorski becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1, 485th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977.

The USA carried out 21 executions in 2017; there are 4 more possible/likely 
executions scheduled in the country this year.

(sources: Fox News & Rick Halperin)