PRISONER SPARED LETHAL INJECTION, WILL FACE CHAIR

NASHVILLE Attorneys for a Tennessee death row prisoner were trying to spare him from lethal injection and they succeeded — but not the way they hoped.

Instead of getting the needle, Edmund Zagorski, pictured, is scheduled to die in the electric chair on Nov. 1.

His attorneys had hoped to overturn Tennessee’s drug protocols for lethal injection.

After repeated legal challenges, Tennessee now prescribes the sedative midazolam for executions. Zagorski’s attorneys argue that it causes an excruciating death.

Zagorski has asked to die in the electric chair instead.

His case illustrates how hard it is for states to find ways to execute prisoners that courts will deem humane; the challenge attorneys face trying to save their clients from execution; and the frustration of some judges at those attorneys’ manoeuvrings.