Electric Chair Execution
Death by Electricity Touted as Quick and Painless
During the 19th century most executions were done by hanging. Unfortunately, many of the hangmen were unskilled in their craft leading to some gruesome decapitations or slow deaths by strangulation at the end of the rope.
An Accident Leads to the Electric Chair
Dr. Alfred P. Southwick was a dentist in Buffalo, New York. According to the 2002 book Executioner’s Current by Richard Moran Southwick witnessed the accidental electrocution of a drunkard who stumbled onto a live wire.
“Since the man appeared not to suffer,” wrote Moran, “it occurred to Southwick that electricity might prove to be a quick and painless method of putting criminals to death.” Southwick took his idea to influential friends in Albany, the state capital.
Soon, Thomas Edison enters the story as a consultant to politicians on how to build an electric chair.
Business Competition Ruthlessly Exploited by Edison
Thomas Edison was in a corporate struggle with George Westinghouse for the lion’s share of wiring up America for the delivery of electricity. Edison wanted his direct current (DC) to be the standard and Westinghouse was pushing for his alternating current (AC) system.
Edison told the Albany politicians they should go with AC electricity for their executions because it was very dangerous and therefore an excellent way of bumping off criminals; he even carried out some grisly demonstrations to prove his point.
Through a shameless publicity campaign by Edison, AC was labelled “The Executioner’s Current,” planting in the public’s mind the notion that it was far too dangerous for domestic use.
William Kemler Tries out the Electric Chair
In July 1888, the inventor Harold P. Brown started work at Edison’s laboratory and soon a prototype electric chair was built. A law making its use legal was passed on January 1, 1889. Three months later, says the Canadian Coalition against the Death Penalty (CCADP), an illiterate thug named William Kemmler killed “his lover Matilda (‘Tille’) Ziegler with an axe in Buffalo, New York, which was then known as: the ‘Electric City of the Future.’ ”
By August 6, 1890, duly convicted and sentenced, Kemmler was set to make history. CCADP writes that, “A group of doctors and reporters gathered for the historic occasion. Kemmler was jolted for 17 seconds. It failed to kill him. Kemmler was unconscious, but still breathing. The embarrassed prison officials electrocuted him again for 70 seconds.”
In all it took eight minutes to kill the murderer and some of the witnesses fainted while others left the execution chamber, no doubt upset by Kemmler’s convulsions and the strong smell of burning.
Electrocution neither Quick nor Painless
The electric chair can be an extremely unpleasant way to go. The flesh often catches fire and the eyeballs may pop out.
A doctor who studied the autopsy reports of 13 men executed in Florida and Alabama electric chairs concluded that “Execution by electrocution is intensely painful.” Sometimes, the first jolt is not enough to send the person into unconsciousness, but enough to cause hideous injuries and suffering. In 1985, it took 17 minutes to kill William Vandiver in Indiana’s electric chair.
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Despite mounting evidence that the electric chair is a horrible way to die, it has remained in use for more than 100 years, although in recent years it has largely given way to lethal injections in the United States.
Symptomatic of the decline in popularity is a decision of The Nebraska Supreme Court in February 2008. As reported by Associated Press (February 8, 2008) the court “ruled Friday that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment, outlawing the electric chair in the only state that still used it as its sole means of execution.”
Judge William Connolly wrote that “Condemned prisoners must not be tortured to death, regardless of their crimes.”
Electrocution now out of Favour
The last person to die in the electric chair was Lynda Cheryl Lyon Block, who was put to death in Alabama on May 10, 2002. She had been convicted of killing a police officer.
It’s unlikely anybody else will have to sit in “Old Sparky” to begin their last journey. Only a handful of states still offer the electric chair as an option and it would be a very brave or demented prisoner who would choose it over lethal injection as their means of execution.
Old Sparky in Sing-Sing Prison.
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