NASHVILLE — Outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, protesters stood watch before the scheduled execution of Edmund Zagorski.
Two supporters of the death penalty wait in a field outside the prison.
Two dozen more opponents stand on the other side of a fence, also waiting.
"We’re going to kill your boy tonight," shouted one of the pro-death penalty protesters across the fence.
"I have no doubt the good lord is standing with him," the Rev. Joe Ingle, who Zagorski picked as his spiritual adviser, out in protest of the death penalty, said during the vigil. "Don’t be sad for Ed, let’s work for justice."
Zagorski, 63, had been on death row for 34 years for the murders of John Dale Dotson and Jimmy Porter in April 1983. He shot them, slit their throats and stole their money and a truck. The two men had expected to buy 100 pounds of marijuana from Zagorski.
A half century of protest
The Rev. John Boylan, who leads a small Ecumenical Catholic congregation in Spring Hill, showed up Thursday outside Riverbend prison to protest the death penalty. The Franciscan priest also protested during the execution of Billy Ray Irick, the last inmate the state of Tennessee put to death.
“It’s not over so I’m here until it is,” Boylan said.
Boylan arrived more than two hours before Zagorski is scheduled to die at 7 p.m.
Boylan, who has been protesting capital punishment for about 50 years and was the first protester to arrive Thursday, carried a sign that read “Abolish the Death Penalty” with him onto the grassy field where fencing was set up to separate those for and against the death penalty.
“This is about us. We’re the ones doing this,” Boylan said. “The execution is done in our name.”
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Honoring families of the victims
A group of nearly a dozen people showed up to downtown Knoxville's Market Square to hold a vigil for all victims of violence.
Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty headed the vigil, saying the death penalty is a form of violence.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about how justice and violence and these great themes are indivisible," participant Ralph Hutchison said. "They can't be separated out. So violence to one person, violence to another person, it's always violence to all of us."
The group said their goal is to start a conversation about violence in the community.
Rick Laude, of Nashville, showed up outside Riverbend prison on Thursday night to protest in support of the death penalty. Laude also was outside the Nashville prison during Billy Ray Irick’s execution.
“Today is a very unfortunate day for this man, but he brought this on himself,” said Laude, as wind gusts blew across the open grassy field.
Laude said he showed up for the families of Zagorski’s victims.
“They’ve spent 30-some years waiting for closure,” Laude said.
There is a strong law enforcement presence where the public protest is taking place. As of about 6:30 p.m., approximately 25 of protesters had arrived, but more were expected to show as the time of Zagorski’s execution approaches.
Standing watch
Glen Miller with Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty stood on the anti-death penalty side of the fence.
He thinks it is important to show up and have a presence during an execution because it helps draw attention to capital punishment. Nothing will change otherwise, he said.
“People are just inundated with so much news that if we don’t mark these occasions, if we don’t remind everyone that, yes, this is still happening, then nothing’s going to happen, nothing’s going to change,” Miller said.
Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer. Reach Mariah Timms at mtimms@tennessean.com or 615-259-8344 and on Twitter @MariahTimms.