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Haslam: Tennessee ready to use electric chair for execution

Posted at 3:02 PM, Oct 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-18 16:08:13-04

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam says the state is prepared to execute death row inmate Edmund Zagorski using the electric chair.

Haslam told reporters Thursday he is not reconsidering granting Zagorski clemency despite issuing a 10-day reprieve last week that delayed the inmate's execution. Among the reasons Haslam handed down a reprieve was Zagorski's request to die in the electric chair as a quicker and less painful execution method than lethal injection.

Haslam says the state has been ready to use the electric chair since Oct. 11 -- the day of Zagorski's original execution.

No new execution date has been set, but court documents indicate he could be executed as early as Oct. 28.

Zagorski was sentenced to death in 1984 for killing two men he robbed during a drug deal.