US man executed in electric chair

A man from the state of Tennessee who murdered two people in 1984 has been executed, becoming the first inmate in the US in five years to die in an electric chair.

Before his execution on Thursday night, Edmund Zagorski, 63, had two last words: "Let's rock", reports CNN.

Relatives of the two men Zagorski killed attended the execution.

His last-day appeal to the US Supreme Court was denied.

Nine states have death by electric chair as an alternative to lethal injection.

In 2014, Tennessee became the first state to make use of the electric chair mandatory when lethal injection drugs are unavailable.

By Tennessee law, any person convicted of a capital offence before January 1, 1999, may choose electrocution.

Daryl Holton, who killed his three young sons and his former wife's daughter, chose the electric chair in 2007.

Before Holton's execution, Tennessee had not used the electric chair in 47 years.

Zagorski's electrocution was the first in the US since 2013.

--IANS

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