State execution of Zagorski will make for a real Halloween
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As the suffocating heat of summer recedes, October is a sterling, life-affirming time to be in Tennessee: Amidst the alluring foliage there are outdoor concerts and festivals galore, a cornucopia of cultural celebrations, and, of course, Halloween-themed events and parties abound. But don’t don a costume just yet. Why? Needlessly, immorally, and unconscionably – for Tennesseans, tourists and for all of mankind – a veritably ghoulish event threatens to cast a pall over the festivities: the likely torturous lethal injection of Edmund Zagorski scheduled for Oct. 11.
Granted, before this vivid vestige of slavery – the execution of an otherwise reasonably healthy human being – is carried out, there are plenty of civilized, urbane happenings that’ll make Tennessee shine; for example: the National Storytelling Festival (in Jonesborough) kicked off on Friday, as did the Unicoi County Apple Festival (in Erwin). And, should neither of these humdingers float your boat, the 22nd annual “Celebrate Nashville Cultural Festival” runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Any of these fun-filled, familyfriendly excursions could help distract you from the fact that, just a few days later, a flesh and blood human being, Mr. Zagorski, will, over three decades after his convictions, be strapped to a gurney and stuck with a needle, possibly, many, many times.
If that’s “successful,” he’ll then be pumped full of noxious chemicals that will likely – as a medical expert swore under oath concerning Tennessee’s potentially botched execution of Billy Ray Irick in August – make him feel like he’s “choking, drowning in his own fluids, suffocating, being buried alive, and burning.”
Foreshadowing Irick’s gruesome demise, the Intercept’s Tennesseebased Liliana Segura wrote a piece titled, “Our Most Cruel Experiment Yet: Chilling Testimony in a Tennessee Trial Exposes Lethal Injection as Court-Sanctioned Torture.”
Surely however, cool breezes, co- pacetic music, storytelling and crisp apples all have the capacity to calm your mind – to take it off of Zagorski’s impending torture – a travesty committed by the state, in your, in my, and in all of our names?
If not, or, if perhaps you’re disturbed that Tennessee has one of the highest poverty rates, but, as a 2004 report by the state’s comptroller showed, spends twice as much than it has to – to disastrously enforce the death penalty.
But you won’t have to dwell on it long. Because the very next day after Zagorski’s execution, you can attend the 30th annual Southern Festival of Books in downtown Nashville.
There, of course, you’ll find plenty of books and plenty of stories; but best of all: unless you browse specifically for lynching, the electric chair, lethal injection, what world-renowned Scottish poet Robert Burns famously dubbed “man’s inhumanity to man,” or, the death penalty generally in Tennessee, you’re likely to find stories that don’t – like Zagorski’s and Irick’s before him – repeat the same terrible, torturous tale. Happy October. Stephen Cooper is a former Washington, D.C. public defender . He lives in Woodland Hills, California.
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