electric chair history

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,misc.legal
Path: vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!kimbark!thf2
From: thf2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank)
Subject: Electric Chair
Message-ID: <1993Aug13.011007.20619@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 01:10:07 GMT
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A sporadic a.f.u. topic, I came across a law review Note on the subject
("The Madness of the Method: The Use of Electrocution and the Death
Penalty," 70 Tex. L. Rev. 1039 (1992).  It's in the same issue as "Big
Breasts and Bengali Beggars: A Reply to Richard Posner and Martha Nussbaum.")
and thought I'd inject some facts into this newsgroup.

The first victim of the electric chair was William Kemmler, a Cayuga County,
NY, fruit-peddler.  In re Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436 (1890).  New York had 
recently replaced hanging with electrocution as its means of execution, 
and Kemmler appealed his sentence as cruel and unusual punishment.  

John Laurence's "A History of Capital Punishment" reports that Westinghouse
and other electric companies financed the appeal, reportedly to the tune of
over $100,000 for fear of the bad publicity from such a dangerous use of
the product.  

Though Kemmler presented evidence of a British experiment where electric
current failed to kill a calf and a dog (see James Berry, "My Experiences
as an Executioner"; Berry was a British hangman), New York had the
countering "evidence" of a legislative commission that heard testimony from
Thomas Edison, and the Court deferred to the State's findings. 

The article includes a gruesome August 7, 1890 New York Times account of
the execution (it took two shocks, flesh and hair singed, blood appeared
on his face).  Later executions weren't especially successful, either:
the July 27, 1893 execution of William Taylor had a chair malfunction which
took an hour to repair, during which time he died.  See Robert G. Elliott,
"Agent of Death."

Arthur Miller and Jeffrey Bowman's "Death by Installments" (the title comes
from the nickname for the common need for recurrent shocks) reports on
the Willie Francis case.  Francis, who was almost certainly innocent of
the Louisiana murder he was convicted of by an all-white jury, had the dubious 
fortune of sitting on an electric chair where the cables had been improperly 
connected by drunk workmen.  Less than the full current passed through
his body, and despite multiple shocks being administered, he survived.  
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a second attempt to electrocute him 
would not be cruel and unusual punishment, 329 U.S. 459 (1947), and the
Louisiana governor refused to commute the sentence.  Francis was executed.

More recent outrages are reported by the Note, such as the May 4, 1990
execution of Jesse Tafero, which required four power surges and had
flames, sparks, and smoke emanating from the hood on his head (Hamblem
v. Dugger, 748 F. Supp. 1498, 1501 (M.D. Fla. 1990)).  Horace Dunkins
was burned to death before the electric shock could kill him because
his cables were connected to the wrong wall receptacles.  Thomas v.
Jones, 742 F. Supp. 598, 604 (S.D. Ala. 1990).  See also the gruesome
account in Justice Brennan's dissent in Glass v. Louisiana, 471 U.S.
1080 (1985).

Laurence reports the common technique: 2000-2200 volts at 7-12 amperes for
60-90 seconds, possibly lowered and reapplied at various intervals until
death.  Another method, according to an article in the 6/7/1990 Washington
Times, is 700-1000 volts at 6 amperes for one minutes, then a second jolt 
of 2000 volts for another minute.  (In comparison, Edison claimed that
1000 volts would kill instantly.)

Robert Johnson's book "Death Work" reports that nearly all electrocution
chambers come equipped with sickness bags because of the nauseating smell
of burning flesh.  (Truth or UL?)

Interestingly enough, the Note cites Fred Leuchter's claim that electrocution
is painless without noting that the "engineer" is a neo-Nazi who was
consulting on death penalty techniques without anything resembling a valid
license--in other words, he was a quack.

The electric chair seems to have fallen in a blind spot in activists'
agendas; the ACLU, for example, won't lobby for more humane methods of
execution for fear of undercutting their opposition to the death penalty;
conservative groups won't oppose the electric chair for fear of undermining
support for the death penalty.  

Please note the cross-posting when following up, and follow up to the
appropriate group.  Followups are currently set to alt.folklore.urban.
-- 
ted frank                 |  "You won't settle for putting Susan B. Anthony
thf2@kimbark.uchicago.edu |   on the new dollar then?"
the u of c law school     |   -- Justice Rehnquist, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 
standard disclaimers      |      a 1978 sex-discrimination case oral argument

January 25, 1995