Zagorski Chooses Electric Chair Over Lethal Injection (Updated)

Update (5:50 p.m.): Edmund Zagorski's attorney, Kelley Henry, tells the Scene that Tennessee Department of Correction officials have said it's too late for Zagorski to choose the electric chair, and that they intend to execute him by lethal injection. Henry says Zagorski will file a challenge in federal court, arguing that the state must honor his decision to waive his right to an execution by lethal injection.  

When the Scene asked if he was afraid of what will happen when the state executes him on Thursday, Edmund Zagorski said, "I don’t want to be tortured with those drugs, but I am not afraid of death." 

He will almost certainly be put to death on Thursday, but he has decided to avoid those drugs. Hours after the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the state's lethal injection protocol — a three-drug cocktail that medical experts have said is certain to torture an inmate subjected to it — Zagorski signed an affidavit waiving his right to be executed by lethal injection, choosing the electric chair instead. You can see the document here. Inmates who were convicted before Jan. 1, 1999, get to choose which method of execution they want the state to use. 

Zagorski and his attorneys are appealing the state Supreme Court's ruling on the lethal injection protocol to the Supreme Court of the United States. They argue that both Tennessee's lethal injection protocol and the electric chair are unconstitutional, but say if the state is going to use one of them on Zagorski, then he'd prefer the chair. 

"Faced with the choice of two unconstitutional methods of execution, Mr. Zagorski has indicated that if his execution is to move forward, he believes that the electric chair is the lesser of two evils," Zagorski's attorney Kelley Henry says. "10-18 minutes of drowning, suffocation, and chemical burning is unspeakable. We notified prison officials of his decision within two hours of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision."

The Scene profiled Tennessee's electric chair in 2016, on the 100th anniversary of the first time it was used. It has only been used in one execution in the past 58 years — that of Daryl Holton in 2007, who also chose it over lethal injection. 

The Tennessee Department of Correction says Zagorski was moved to "death watch" this morning shortly after midnight. 

You can read more of our coverage of Zagorski and his case here:

— Edmund Zagorski's Case Illustrates 'Tennessee's Death Penalty Lottery'

— Edmund Zagorski's Plea for Mercy

— Zagorski Jurors Want Mercy for the Man They Sentenced to Death 

— As His Execution Nears, Edmund Zagorski Speaks 

Also, read Nicole Young's story on Marsha Dotson, the wife of one of the men Zagorski killed in 1983. She has said she would not oppose clemency for Zagorski.