Gov. Haslam said he won't intervene in Zagorski death penalty case

Governor Bill Haslam said he won't intervene in the death penalty case of Edmund Zagorski.

Zagorski is set to be put to death next week.

News Channel 5 in Nashville is reporting that while Zagorski is among 33 inmates on death row in Tennessee who are challenging the state's planned use of a three-drug lethal injection protocol to carry out death sentences.

“While Zagorski has exhibited good behavior during his incarceration, that does not undo the fact that he robbed and brutally murdered two men and attempted to kill a police officer while on the run,” Haslam said.

Zagorski was convicted in 1983 of the murders of two men, John Dotson and Jimmy Porter, during a bogus drug deal in Robertson County. He shot the two men then slit their throats.

Zagorski was later arrested in Ohio after a shootout with police where he shot an officer five times and then rammed his police car.

A jury gave Zagorski two life sentences and found the murders involved "torture and depravity of mind."

Court records show that before Zagorski's trial, he told his attorneys he preferred the death penalty over life in prison, and asked his attorneys to not show evidence during sentencing that would encourage a life sentence over the death penalty.

Read Haslam's full statement below.

“After careful consideration, I am declining to intervene in the case of Edmund Zagorski, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1984 by a Robertson County jury for the murders of John Dale Dotson and Jimmy Porter. Zagorski requests clemency based upon his behavior while incarcerated and juror affidavits obtained nearly 35 years after the trial stating that some jurors would have preferred to impose a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, which was not an option under Tennessee law at the time.

While Zagorski has exhibited good behavior during his incarceration, that does not undo the fact that he robbed and brutally murdered two men and attempted to kill a police officer while on the run. Further, while juries today have the option of imposing a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in capital cases, the jury in Zagorski’s case heard the evidence at trial and rendered a unanimous verdict in accordance with the law at the time and their duty as jurors.

Ten courts, including the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, have reviewed and upheld the jury’s verdict and sentence, and the Tennessee Supreme Court has held that the addition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as a sentencing option does not affect previous verdicts.”