Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski has died by electric chair Thursday night.
The 63-year-old chose electrocution rather than lethal injection.
That choice doesn't exist in our neighboring state of Georgia, due in part to a Knoxville attorney.
Stephen Ross Johnson was a young lawyer when he was part of a significant case in Georgia.
In 2001, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that death by electrocution was a cruel and unusual punishment, and thus unconstitutional.
It's a case that's inspired Johnson, but it's also haunted him.
"Having worked on that case in Georgia 17 years ago, it's forever burned into my brain," Johnson said.
According to the brief, evidence showed that sometimes two or more applications of current were needed to kill the inmate. Evidence also showed execution burned or blistered the body, and destroyed the brain by cooking it.
Johnson said Tennessee is one of the few states that allows the option of the chair.
Zagorski was convicted in 1984 for the killings of two men in Robertson County. Last month, he requested the electric chair, prompting the state to grant him a 10-day stay in preparation for his preference.
This comes less than three months after the execution of Billy Ray Irick, who died by lethal injection, which some argue also causes tremendous pain.
"Because there is such a debate right now and a tremendous amount of uncertainty about the pain and the suffering...Mr. Zagorski in Tennessee has apparently chosen on that basis electrocution. He's chosen one flawed process over another flawed process," Johnson said.
Johnson said people who don't have sympathy could consider this.
"There's no clean, sanitary way to kill another human being," Johnson said.