Tennessee completes execution by electric chair

As reported in this local piece, "David Earl Miller was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. CST on Thursday after Tennessee prison officials electrocuted him with the electric chair. He was 61." Here is more:

He is the third person executed this year and was the longest-serving inmate on Tennessee's death row. Miller was sentenced to death for the May 1981 murder of 23-year-old Lee Standifer of Knoxville, who was mentally disabled.

Miller brought her to a pastor's home where he was staying and struck her across the face with a fire poker. He hit her with enough force to fracture her skull, burst one of her eye sockets and leave imprints on the bone. He stabbed her over and over — in the neck, in the chest, in the stomach and in the mouth.

Both the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday declined to intervene and stop the scheduled execution....

With no emotion in his voice, Miller said his last words but at first could not be understood. The warden asked to him to repeat himself. With "Beats being on death row," the execution began.

An expressionless Miller stared ahead as he was held down by buckles and straps. His cream colored pants were rolled up and electrodes were fastened to his feet. His fingernails and toenails were untrimmed. Cuts were seen on his legs.

Prison staff placed a large wet sponge soaked in saline solution and a metal helmet on his shaved head. Solution dripped down his face and chest. One of the prison staff wiped Miller's face with a towel.

A black shroud was placed over his head. The warden gave the signal to proceed. At 7:16, the first jolt of 1,750 volts of electricity was sent through Miller's body. Witnesses could see him stiffen and his upper body raise up on the chair.

It was quiet. He made no sound but his hands were in fists and his pinkies stuck out over the arm rest of the seat. After he lowered on the chair, he wasn't seen moving again. A second jolt was administered for 15 seconds.

The doctor overseeing the death checked on Miller's vitals. He was dead. The curtain came down. "Miller cleared" came over the speakers.

The execution occurred similarly to Edmund Zagorski's electrocution a month prior. Down to the clenched fists, strained pinkies and no signs of breathing after the first jolt of electricity.

Via Law http://www.rssmix.com/