David Earl Miller To Be Executed After Edmund Zagorski

Edmund Zagorski was executed by electric chair in a prison in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday evening. With this, the 63-year-old became the first man to die by the controversial execution method in Tennessee since 2007 after he requested not to be put to death by lethal injection.

It took place minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to prevent the execution from going ahead. The man had petitioned arguing that it was unconstitutional for him to be forced to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection. His initial execution set for Oct. 11, 2018 was halted after he approached court as he wanted to avoid the torture of a lethal injection death.

The prisoner was sentenced to death in 1984 for killing two men during a drug deal in 1983. He shot two people and then slit their throats after robbing them when they approached him to buy marijuana.

Zagorski reportedly chose pickled pig’s knuckles and tails for his last meal. Death row inmates typically get $20 toward a special meal before execution. Before his originally scheduled execution in October, he reportedly chose not to order a last meal. Other inmates, whom he got along very well with, pooled their resources to make a pizza dinner for him at the time.

"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," the Tennessee Department of Corrections had said when he chose not to select a last meal, the Tennessean reported.

He reportedly said "Let's rock" shortly before the execution was carried out Thursday and occasionally smiled while strapped down. A reporter who witnessed the execution said the inmate’s attorney was nodding, smiling and tapping her heart just before the execution got underway. While speaking about her actions Kelly Henry said afterward, "I told him when I put my hand over my heart, that was me holding him in my heart,” Yahoo reported.

The next Tennessee inmate scheduled to be executed is David Earl Miller who is Tennessee's longest standing death row inmate. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 6. He was convicted for the murder of a young mentally disabled woman in 1981.

Lisa Skinner, the first reporter on the scene the night of the murder said, “We were in an unmarked car so we kept our distance and when we got there. There were several police vehicles already there and they had already found the girl.”

She added that even 35 years after the incident her memories of the night remained intact. While speaking about the difficulty involved while writing a story about it, she said, “Before I became a journalist, I worked at a special needs camp as a counselor in summers, so it always enrages me when I hear about someone being preyed upon,” NBC-affiliated television station WBIR reported.

Miller's attorneys had filed a federal lawsuit claiming a firing squad is more humane than the practice of using lethal injection for execution. Skinner hopes the family of the murdered woman finds peace post his execution.

"I hope the family feels relief that justice has been served. I hope the family remembers their good times with their daughter and that a chapter has been closed,” she said.