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A TENNESSEE convicted of a double murder was put to death yesterday in the electric chair, after insisting on the rarely used method rather than lethal injection.
Edmund Zagorski, 63, was the first US convict in five years to be put to death by electrocution.
Zagorski was sentenced to death for the 1983 murders of two men he lured into a wooded area with a promise to sell them marijuana. The victims’ bodies were found two weeks later, shot and their throats slit.
An 11th-hour appeal to the US Supreme Court was denied.
Only nine US states still use the electric chair as a form of capital punishment. It was set to be Tennessee’s only electric chair execution since 2007.
The southern state’s Department of Correction said the execution was carried out “in accordance with the laws” of Tennessee. Zagorski was pronounced dead at 7:26 pm (12.26am Irish time).
Controversy
In Tennessee, people condemned to death before 1999 have the right to choose between the two methods of capital punishment.
Officials initially had intended to perform a lethal injection, which has become more common, but Zagorski challenged the state’s use of a three-drug cocktail that includes the controversial sedative midazolam.
When the state supreme court rejected the challenge, he asked to be put to death by electric chair.
Midazolam has been the focus of numerous legal challenges in death penalty cases as lawyers have argued it cannot adequately prevent suffering during executions.
The eighth amendment to the US Constitution provides protections against “cruel and unusual punishment”.
Zagorski’s lawyer Kelley Henry said the state had forced him to “choose between two absolutely barbaric methods of death”.
“The state’s three-drug protocol is certain torture,” she charged.
‘Macabre requirement’
Robert Dunham, head of the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks US executions, said: “What we’re seeing in Tennessee is a direct result of the US Supreme Court’s macabre requirement that prisoners propose an alternative method of execution before the court will evaluate whether the method the state seeks to use is unconstitutionally cruel.”
“It says a lot about the failures of lethal injection as a method of execution that a prisoner would opt for a method he considers to be a half-minute of torture instead of one he considers to be 18 minutes of torture,” Dunham added.
Before Thursday’s execution, electrocution had only been used nationwide for 14 executions out of nearly 900 since 2000, and had not been used at all since 2013.
The Death Penalty Information Center lists nearly 2% of electric chair executions as “botched.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, there were witness reports of inmates catching fire, bleeding, and not dying from initial jolts.
In 1997, flames up to a foot high burst from the mask covering the face of Florida convict Pedro Medina while he was in the electric chair, and the execution chamber filled with smoke.
Tennessee last carried out an execution in August, using lethal injection to put to death a man convicted of raping and murdering a child in 1986.
Zagorski requested a final meal of pickled pig knuckles and pig tails.
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Not shocking anymore. Kind of half expect this sort of stuff now.
What is it with this man and “conflicts of interests” ?
Nothing to see here move along now !!
Ah lads , cronyism in ireland ? NEVER !!
Of course he denies a conflict of interest. When did you ever read, “Minister admits conflict of interest.”
O’Reilly would deny today is Friday. He cant even lay in bed straight at this stage.
From a guy who pushed two primary care sites in his own constituency up the list of potential sites…still waiting on the criteria you used Stroker!
Then what exactly is it then? Walks like a duck…etc
Welcome to Ireland,probably the most corrupt country in Europe
Hands up who is shocked or surprised by this. …….
Richie rodgers
We’ll get there stroke by stroke.
Reilly involved again no surprise there to be honest.
Shattergate mark2 ….Reilly on the inside track…….FG/Lab even more corrupt than FF, there is a scary reality…..Resign James you have your money made…..
How come the 20,000 commission was so low? The going rate for a report like this was 125,000 in 2011 and the Health Partnership is not a charity!
Women of Ireland, come together and let us al put a stop to this madness, I’d like to c a man in the full throws of labour, having to face a 2 hr car journey. On lovely pot-holed roads!!!
If he appointed someone from outside the area, the complaint would be that they didn’t understand the area.
If he appointed someone without the medical knowledge, the complaint would be that someone who didn’t understand medical provision was making the decisions
If he appoints someone from inside the area with the right medical background, the complaint is that there’s a conflict of interest.
I wish people would state who they think should be appointed, because almost every decision can have some line of attack.
Kinda sums up JR. Anyway after the reshuffle it will be someone else’s problem.
How many absolute effin’ outrages are we, as a nation, prepared to put up with? This Minister and his shady pals should be run out of the country, let alone sacked.
And deny being in denial
How come this commission was 6 times less than the going rate for the job? A bargain at 20,000! Such reports cost 125,000 in 2011.
The Journal got it wrong! The Health Partnership predates 2008! in March 2005 the company wrote to the Dept of Finance highlighting their role in private health care ventures in Ireland, UK, Portugal and Germany and suggesting tax incentives for private sector players in e.g. direct service provision, the supply of high tech equipment, patient and staff accommodation, primary care provision, nursing home care, etc. Even hospital traffic management got a look in. Hard to believe no one in the West/North-West hospital group knew of Mr Daly’s involvement with this high profile healthcare company.
Why would anyone be surprised with this ruling class carryon, and they wonder why people voted for the left
The main conflict of interest here is the fact tgat Noel Daly wrote to revenue in 2005 with what could be described as a bluepriting which would see private interests profiting from tge removal of public services. In that letter it mentions how the private sector could provide accomodation for people who due to clousure of public services would have to travek greater distances.
Over 6 years later tgis man is appointed chair of a hospital group. In the space of little over a year his company is given the task of reviewing maternitu in the same region. This report is said to recommend many clousures.
Given all this histiry I cannot see how this review can hold any authority. Or indeed how anyone in this countru could trust its recommendations.
In fact this review ihas been damaged beyond repair. Hiwever it should be made available to the public.
Luje Ming Flaagan spoje about concerns that gospital staff had about how tgis revuew was completed. Perhaps he should come back to this important debate in Irish healthcare before he leaves fir Europe.
Reilly people dont believe a word from your lying mouth!
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