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David Earl Miller who has been on death row for 36 years, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of 23-year-old Lee Standifer in Knoxville. AP/PA Images

Death row inmate chooses electric chair over lethal injection, second inmate to do so in last two months

Both David Earl Miller and Edmund Zagorski before him chose the electric chair over lethal injection.

A TENNESSEE INMATE is scheduled to become the second person to die in the state’s electric chair in as many months this evening, nearly two decades after the state adopted lethal injection as its preferred method of execution.

Both David Earl Miller (61) and Edmund Zagorski before him chose the electric chair over lethal injection, a process proponents said would be painless and humane.

But the inmates argued in court that Tennessee’s current midazolam-based method causes a prolonged and torturous death. They pointed to the August execution of Billy Ray Irick, which took around 20 minutes and during which he coughed and huffed before turning a dark purple.

Their case was thrown out, largely because a judge said they failed to prove a more humane alternative was available. Zagorski was executed on 1 November. Governor Bill Haslam declined today to intervene in Miller’s planned execution.

In recent decades, states have moved away from the electric chair, and no state now uses electrocution as its main execution method, said Robert Dunham. Dunham is the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which doesn’t take a stand on the death penalty but is critical of its application.

Georgia and Nebraska courts both have ruled the electric chair unconstitutional, and about two decades ago it looked as though the US Supreme Court would weigh in on the issue. It agreed to hear a case out of Florida after a series of botched executions there. But Florida adopted lethal injection, and the case was dropped.

Dunham said he wasn’t aware of any state other than Tennessee where inmates were choosing electrocution over lethal injection.

Execution Tennessee In this 1999, file photo, Ricky Bell, then the warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, gives a tour of the prison execution chamber Mark Humphrey via PA Images Mark Humphrey via PA Images

In Tennessee, inmates whose crimes were committed before 1999 can choose electrocution over lethal injection. Zagorski’s execution was delayed about three weeks after he requested the electric chair amid a last-minute flurry of legal manoeuvres. The state initially refused his request until a federal court judge ordered the state to comply.

Haslam ordered a brief reprieve to “give all involved the time necessary to carry out the sentence in an orderly and careful manner”.

The builder of Tennessee’s electric chair warned that it could malfunction, but Zagorski’s execution appeared to be carried out without incident. It was only the second time Tennessee had put an inmate to death in the electric chair since 1960.

The courts have said Miller can’t challenge the constitutionality of the electric chair because he chose it, even though his attorneys have argued the choice was coerced by the threat of something even worse.

Miller was convicted of killing 23-year-old Lee Standifer in 1981 in Knoxville. Standifer was a mentally handicapped woman who had been on a date with Miller the night she was repeatedly beaten, stabbed and dragged into some woods.

Miller has spent 36 years on Tennessee’s death row, the longest of any inmate.

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    Mute Andrea Rock Massey
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:35 AM

    Is anybody else having trouble opening the links provided?

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    Mute Robert Wriggit
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:42 AM

    yep!

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:08 AM

    Hi Andrea – are you trying them on desktop, iOS or Android?

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    Mute Mairead Hynes
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:10 AM

    I’m on Android (lollipop), no links for me #sadface

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:11 AM

    Thanks Mairead – we’re looking into this right way, as it works on iOS and desktop.

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    Mute Jamie O'Connell
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:12 AM

    For me, it’s the Android Journal app.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:15 AM

    Hi Jamie – thanks for the info, our tech team are looking into it. In the meantime, I know it’ s not ideal but if you do have access to the desktop site, (should work on your phone’s internet browser too outside of the app I think) then you can try there?

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:00 AM

    Hi Andrea, it should be working now if you want to give it a try?

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    Mute Jennifer Reynolds
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:03 AM

    Nope, links won’t work. But I don’t actually care all that much because I got my first choice!! Helloooo primary school teaching in St Pats

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    Mute Margaret Daly
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:05 AM

    well done!

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    Mute Jennifer Reynolds
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:10 AM

    Thank you!

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    Mute E F Fanning
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:43 AM

    No links will open for me.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:00 AM

    Hi there – it should be working on Android now, let me know if you have any more problems.

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    Mute E F Fanning
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    Aug 17th 2015, 10:03 AM

    Working now, thanks.

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    Mute Sinéad Cronin
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:58 AM

    I went to another site to check points. Links not working all morning, not a morning anyone needs to be waiting for a never loading link!

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    Mute Eoin Hurley
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:38 AM

    Just accepted my place at UCC in Pharmacy absolutely delighted!

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    Mute Rob Morgan
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:51 AM

    Absolutely gutted , missed law and german by twenty points . Got 525 and the course moved up to 545 from 515. I got offered biopharmaceutical chemistry in galway which I’d strongly dislike to do as I know it’s not for me. Go to college to do a course I don’t want and move across the country or take a year out? Tough decision.

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    Mute JoJo
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    Aug 17th 2015, 10:09 AM

    Year out and work and save some money, life is too short to waste it studying something that doesn’t interest you.

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    Mute AN other
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    Aug 17th 2015, 11:11 AM

    Did you not apply for a similar level 6/7 course? I’d take that if I were you and then see about a transfer to the lv8 course

    I know somebody who couldn’t do his engineering course in UCC because despite having 500+ points he failed French…

    Now he has a masters in engineering from UCC as well as a degree, a diploma and a certificate from CIT.

    Imagine graduating 4 times lol

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    Mute Dr.Dylan Tierney
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:33 AM

    Course points have risen exponentially across the board. Let’s hope round 2 is more forgiving

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    Mute twit
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:11 AM

    To confirm… Not opening on Android OS

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:01 AM

    Hi there, it should be working now.

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    Mute Fox Trot
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:10 AM

    android

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    Mute Mark Miller
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:10 AM

    Won’t open on android

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:00 AM

    Hi Mark, it should be working on Android now.

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    Mute Tammy Ní Laoire
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:34 AM

    Still won’t open on Android!

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Aug 17th 2015, 9:00 AM

    Hi Tammy, should be working now!

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    Mute Maura Tansey
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    Aug 17th 2015, 3:20 PM

    Taught a fetac level 5 would guarantee a place in nursing???? got 10 destinations. . trying to get through on phones”(

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    Mute Larry L'Oiseau
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:33 PM

    Please tell me that was an autocorrect error Maura ?

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