FILE - This undated file photo released by the Tennessee Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Edmund Zagorski in Tennessee. If Tennessee electrocutes Zagorski, it will be in an electric chair built by a self-taught execution expert who is no longer welcome in the prison system. (Tennessee Department of Corrections via AP, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Latest on the scheduled execution of Tennessee inmate Edmund Zagorski (all times local):
11:20 a.m.
With just hours left before his scheduled execution, condemned Tennessee inmate Edmund Zagorski is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to put a stop to it.
On Thursday Zagorski asked the court take up his claim that it's unconstitutional to force him to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection. Zagorski chose the chair because he thinks it will be quicker, but he maintains that both methods are unconstitutional.
Zagorski already had a petition pending in a different case. That one claims Zagorski had bad lawyers at trial, resulting in an unfair verdict.
Zagorski is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. in Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He was sentenced in 1984 for murdering two men during a drug deal.
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9 a.m.
Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski has selected his final meal before Thursday's scheduled execution.
The Tennessee Department of Correction announced Wednesday that Zagorski's last meal will be pickled pig knuckles and pig tails.
Death row inmates are allowed $20 for a special meal before they're executed. In August, death row inmate Billy Ray Irick chose a combo that included a super deluxe burger, onion rings and a Pepsi.
Zagorski was originally scheduled to be executed Oct. 11, but that got delayed due to legal challenges and a last minute reprieve.
At that time, Zagorski chose to forgo having a final meal and instead eat what the rest of the inmates would eat for dinner.
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11 p.m.
Tennessee is scheduled to execute a double-murderer in the electric chair Thursday evening.
If it goes ahead as scheduled, Edmund Zagorski will be only the second person put to death by electrocution in Tennessee since 1960. Daryl Holton chose to die in the electric chair in 2007.
The last person to be executed by electrocution in the U.S. was Robert Gleason, who was put to death in Virginia in 2013.
Zagorski chose the chair after his legal challenge to Tennessee's midazolam-based lethal injection protocol failed. His attorneys say he believes death by electrocution will be quicker, but he maintains that both methods are unconstitutional.
Zagorski was sentenced to die in 1984 for the murder of two men in a drug deal.
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