Tennessee death row inmate asks court to stop electrocution

NASHVILLE – A Tennessee death row inmate asked a federal court to stop his looming execution, but a judge has quickly rejected most of the inmate’s attorneys’ arguments.

Edmund Zagorski chose electrocution over lethal injection and is scheduled to die on Thursday. In a complaint filed Friday, Zagorski’s attorneys argue it was unconstitutional to force him to decide between two gruesome and painful forms of death.

The lawsuit asks that Tennessee be barred from executing Zagorski by either method. It also asks the court to order Tennessee to allow two attorney witnesses with access to a phone in case anything should go wrong.

On Friday night, U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger declined most of the arguments, but she ordered the state to respond by Monday on the issue of having attorney witnesses present with phone access during the execution.