A Tennessee inmate is scheduled Thursday evening to become the second person to die in the state's electric chair in as many months.
The execution plan comes nearly two decades after Tennessee adopted lethal injection. But 61-year-old David Earl Miller chose the electric chair as allowed by authorities. The last inmate to choose the chair, Edmund Zagorksi, was executed Nov. 1.
Both had unsuccessfully argued in court that Tennessee's lethal injection method causes a prolonged and torturous death.
FILE - In this Oct. 13, 1999, file photo, Ricky Bell, then the warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn., gives a tour of the prison's execution chamber. David Earl Miller, a Tennessee death row inmate, was waiting Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court or the governor would halt his Thursday execution in the electric chair. (AP PhotoMark Humphrey, File)
Miller was convicted of the 1981 killing of a 23-year-old mentally handicapped woman, Lee Standifer, in Knoxville. Miller has spent 36 years on death row, the longest of any Tennessee inmate.
FILE - In this undated file photo provided by Helen Standifer, her daughter Lee Standifer poses for a photo. David Earl Miller, a Tennessee death row inmate, was waiting Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court or the governor would halt his Thursday execution in the electric chair. (Helen Standifer via AP)
