After being on de*ath row for 36 years, a Tennessee inmate has become the second person to choose to be executed by electric chair.
David Earl Miller, 61, had a choice between lethal injection and de*ath by chair.
His final words before being executed were, ‘It beats being on de*ath row!’ He was pronounced de*ad at 7:25 p.m. on Thursday at a maximum-security prison in Nashville, according to corrections officials.
Miller, like inmate Edmund Zagorski before him in November, chose the electric chair over lethal injection, which supporters claimed was painless and humane.
Miller’s de*ath was only the third time in Tennessee since 1960 that an inmate was put to de*ath by electric chair.
However, the inmates argued in court that Tennessee’s current midazolam-based method results in a torturous de*ath.
The state switched to lethal injection as its preferred method of execution nearly 20 years ago, but both inmates point to Billy Ray Irick’s August execution, which took about 20 minutes and during which he coughed and huffed before turning a dark purple.
Their case was dismissed, largely because a judge said they failed to demonstrate a more humane alternative existed.
Zagorski was executed on November 1, and Governor Bill Haslam declined to intervene in Miller’s execution on Thursday.
Miller was asked if he wanted to say anything before the execution, but his response was incomprehensible. When pressed further, his attorney clarified that he was saying, ‘Beats being on de*ath row.’
