[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENNESSEE

[Rick Halperin]

October 8


TENNESSEE----impending execution

2 Jurors In Zagorski Case Argue For Life Without Parole Ahead Of Execution



With days until his scheduled execution, 2 jurors who condemned Edmund Zagorski
to death say the convicted murderer's life should be spared.

Michael Poole served on the jury in 1984, before life without parole became an
option in Tennessee capital murder cases in 1995.

"We were instructed that if we were assured beyond any doubt that Mr. Zagorski
had done this crime, that he should be given the death penalty because that's
what the prosecution was actually seeking in this case," Poole told WPLN
Friday.

Poole says he had no doubt that Zagorski committed a double murder in 1983,
shooting and slitting the throats of a Hickman County logger and a bar owner
from Dickson. The men expected to buy 100 pounds of marijuana.

Poole says the jury's concern was making sure Zagorski could never be released
and potentially commit the same crime again. The small business owner from
Springfield says he's not entirely opposed to the death penalty but says
Zagorski doesn't have to be executed.

Juror Nancy Arnold shares the same feelings, 34 years later.

"I hate for him to have to lose his life over it. I don't think that's going to
help anything," she told WPLN Sunday.

Arnold says she vividly recalls Zagorski's eyes during the trial and
sentencing. They "were so penetrating," she says. And she was sure to look him
in the eyes when the verdict was delivered.

But the graphic designer from Robertson County says she's tried to forget about
the case, though she does feel like the jury would have supported midde ground
rather than death.

"If there had been a choice of life without parole, I would have chosen that
over what we did," she said.

No Intervention

Zagorski is set to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday at Riverbend
Maximum Security Prison. He asked Governor Bill Haslam for clemency based on
good behavior while in prison.

But on Friday, Haslam denied the request.

"While Zagorski has exhibited good behavior during his incarceration, that does
not undo the fact that he robbed and brutally murdered two men and attempted to
kill a police officer while on the run. Further, while juries today have the
option of imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole in capital cases, the jury in Zagorski's case heard the evidence at
trial and rendered a unanimous verdict in accordance with the law at the time
and their duty as jurors."

Haslam also noted the verdict in Zagorski's case has been upheld by 10 courts,
including the Tennessee and U.S. Supreme Courts.

In August, Haslam also declined to intervene in the execution of Billy Ray
Irick.

The Tennessee Supreme Court is expected to rule on an expedited case
challenging the state's lethal injection protocol in the coming days, which
could also have a bearing on Zagorski's fate. If not, his attorneys say they
will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay of execution.

(source: nashvillepublicradio.org)

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[Rick Halperin]

October 10



TENNESSEE----impending execution


Zagorski Argues for Right to Choose Electrocution as Execution Looms

Condemned inmate files challenge in federal court as state says it's too late
for him to choose the electric chair


Edmund Zagorski, the man set to be executed by the state of Tennessee in less
than 36 hours, has filed a legal challenge in federal court arguing that if the
state is going to kill him tomorrow, they must honor his request that they do
so using the electric chair.

Tennessee prisoners who were sentenced to death before Jan 1. 1999 — when the
state moved away from the chair and made lethal injection its primary method of
execution — are allowed to choose the method of their execution. Zagorski, who
was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murders of two men who had met him to
buy drugs, is one of those prisoners. And on Monday evening, he signed a
document indicating that he preferred to be executed by electrocution, rather
than with the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol. Dozens of death row
prisoners, including Zagorski, have been arguing that the protocol amounts to
torture (and medical experts have agreed with them). A Nashville judge and the
Tennessee Supreme Court have upheld the protocol as constitutional, and the
inmates are now seeking to bring their challenge before the Supreme Court of
the United States.

In the affidavit stating his preference for the electric chair, Zagorski said
that he believes the electric chair and Tennessee's lethal injection protocol
amount to cruel and unusual punishment. However, if he was forced to choose, he
said he chose electrocution. His attorney, Kelley Henry, told the Scene that
the chair was "the lesser of two evils."

Soon after Henry submitted the affidavit, though, state officials said it was
too late for Zagorski to choose the electric chair. In a letter sent to Henry
yesterday, the Tennessee Department of Correction's general counsel, Debra
Inglis, says that the department must receive such an affidavit two weeks prior
to an execution. She cites a 2015 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that indicates
the department can't undertake any "last-minute switch from lethal injection to
electrocution."

"As a result," Inglis writes, "please be advised that ... Mr. Zagorski's
execution scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, will be carried out using a
three-drug combination consisting of Midazolam, Vecuronium Bromide, and
Potassium Chloride."

In a motion filed in federal court today, Henry writes: "Secrecy, evasiveness,
and a rush to execute on the part of State actors have forced Edmund Zagorski
to make a terrible choice: either allow the state to subject him to an
execution by lethal injection where the evidence establishes the last 10-18
minutes of his life will be spent in utter terror and agony, or request to be
electrocuted which will end his life by burning his organs causing his body to
be mutilated and experiencing excruciating pain for (likely) 15-30 seconds.
Trite literary metaphors like "Catch-22," "Hobson's Choice," or "between a rock
and a hard place" are inadequate to capture the horribleness of the position
the State has placed him in."

Henry goes on to argue that Zagorski "has an absolute right to choose
electrocution" and that the state "can easily conduct and execution by electric
chair."

"The prison practices the electrocution protocol every month," Henry writes.
"The electric chair is examined by an electrician every year. The idea that the
chamber requires two weeks for reconfiguration is ludicrous. Unless the prison
loses power, they can carry out an electrocution. It is simply one final
indignity to force Mr. Zagorski to submit to 10-18 minutes of torture."

Along with asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case against Tennessee's
lethal injection protocol, Zagorski is also seeking a stay of execution from
the high court. Gov. Bill Haslam has said he will not intervene to stop the
execution.

The TDOC announced this afternoon that Zagorski has decided to forego his final
meal.

According to a media release: "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. This dinner will consist of sloppy
joes, a wheat roll, pinto beans, cole slaw, a sugar cookie, and iced tea."

(source: Nashville Scene)
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[Rick Halperin]

October 11



TENNESSEE:

Judge grants Edmund Zagorski's request not to be executed by lethal injection


A judge has granted Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski's request not to
be executed by lethal injection.

On Thursday, Judge Aleta Trauger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Tennessee granted Zagorski’s motion and enjoined Tennessee state
officials from executing Mr. Zagorski using the state’s three-drug lethal
injection protocol.
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He is slated to be executed at 7 p.m. Thursday while legal battle rage on for
consideration of arguments that he had poor legal representation during his
trial and sentencing.

“Tennessee’s death penalty statute makes it clear that Mr. Zagorski has the
right to choose execution by electrocution. While being burned alive and
mutilated via electricity is not a good death, Mr. Zagorski knows that death by
electric chair will be much quicker than lethal injection using midazolam, a
paralytic, and potassium chloride.

It is my hope that Tennessee state authorities work to find a method for
carrying out executions that satisfies the Eighth Amendment’s requirement that
the government refrain from torture.” - Zagorski's attorney, Kelley Henry

Meanwhile, Tennessee Department of Corrections officials are on stand by for
the execution.

Another stay was granted, but an appeal is also being filed in the case.

(source: WZTV News)
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[Rick Halperin]

October 11



TENNESSEE----10 day reprieve granted for Edmund Zagorski

Governor grants 10-day reprieve from execution for death row inmate Edmund
Zagorski


Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday granted death row inmate Edmund Zagorski
a 10-day reprieve from execution.

“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."

(source: WATE news)
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