The electric chair was invented by a dentist. How does a person feel when they are electrocuted?

Electric chair

Electric shock is not as brutal as the sword and guillotine, but it creates a feeling of painful uncertainty about the moment of death. Photo by Sigma.

The expansion of the sphere of industrial use of electricity in the 19th century should have naturally led to the idea that the power of electricity provides new, "progressive" possibilities of mortification.

The first electric current generator in the United States was demonstrated in New York in 1882. Eight years later, in 1890, electricity was already taking its first steps as a legal technical means of execution.

The electric chair - one of the most controversial instruments of killing, questionable even among the death penalty advocates - emerged as a result of an economic and industrial war between two rival companies that championed the superiority of different types of current: AC and DC.

The Saint-Quentin Prison building, which houses the electric chair. American Department of Corrections Archives. Qty. Monestier.

It all began in 1882 in New York, when Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb and phonograph, opened his first power plant on Pearl Street, which was to illuminate the city's commercial and financial center.

Four years later, in March 1886, engineer George Westinghouse, the inventor of the air brake, after buying up several patents, founded his electrical company. It will illuminate the entire city of Great Barrington.

From this began the confrontation between two technological concepts ... Thomas Edison produces and supplies direct current, and George Westinghouse - alternating, which leads to an irreconcilable rivalry between the two greatest scientists of our era.

The use of George Westinghouse's alternating current was soon recognized as more efficient and, most importantly, more cost-effective than Thomas Edison's direct current. And the stakes are high: serving the residential and industrial sectors of the entire American continent.

Gradually, Thomas Edison begins to lose ground in the market, many of his technical and sales specialists move to a competitor's company. Edison, urged on by shareholders, decides to act and launches a major press campaign to discredit AC, making it extremely dangerous. Edison's calculation is simple: by convincing readers that alternating current is associated with a deadly risk, push them to use direct current for home use.

Population outrage

At the instigation of Edison, a certain Harold Brown - the actual inventor of the electric chair (1888) - writes a long article in the New York Evening Post about the dangers of alternating current, in which he accuses entrepreneurs and industrialists of putting their own financial interests above safety. consumers. George Westinghouse replies to him through the newspaper, he refutes the accusations, emphasizing that Harold Brown does not have the technical qualifications to make such statements. Defending his case, Harold Brown openly collaborates with Thomas Edison and uses his laboratories for a series of tests. He even embarks on a tour of the country with a peculiar performance in which dogs, cats, monkeys and even horses are electrocuted in front of local officials, journalists and businessmen. Seeking to prove that Thomas Edison's DC electric current is more suitable for use in the home and industry, he demonstrates the number: Animals that survive under a load of 1000 volts DC, receiving less than 300 volts AC, die.

Autopsy showed that the brain of the executed person resembles a "burnt cupcake." Engraving. Private number

Harold Brown ended his trip to Columbia with a nationwide press conference, where he invited not only journalists from all over the country, but also a huge number of professional electricians: in front of the assembled crowd, he electrocuted a 38 kg dog, thus demonstrating what he thought was the danger of alternating current, and solemnly declared: "AC is only suitable for the destruction of dogs in receivers and livestock in the slaughterhouse." Finally, he cracked a dubious joke, adding: "Or for the execution of those sentenced to death."

Chronicle of electrocution

Electric shock theoretically proceeds as a continuous automatic cycle for two minutes. When the executioner applies a current of 1900–2500 volts - depending on the model of the chair used - it hits the copper wires of the helmet's contact plate, from which the convict should instantly lose consciousness and no longer feel pain.

The two-minute cycle is subdivided into 8 consecutive series of 5 and 25 seconds.

- The amperage ranges from 5 to 15 amperes. When the apparatus is turned on, the convict usually jerks forward sharply, and if he were not securely fastened with belts to the chair, he would be thrown several meters away.

- According to numerous stories of direct witnesses, during the first cycle, losing consciousness, the convict completely loses control over muscle activity. He urinates and defecates. Often vomits blood and bites his tongue.

- During the second cycle, blood flows from his nose, bubbling, flowing.

- From the third to the fifth cycle, the body temperature rises above 100 degrees, the skin becomes purple. Airway fibrillation and paralysis occurs.

- On the seventh and eighth cycles, the circulatory system of the brain "burns out", and quite often the eyes come out of the orbits. The crown of the head turns black with a bright pink border.

For the execution of the condemned, they sew a suit to order. As underwear, they give out tight pants made of cotton jersey with elastic bands at the waist and hips and an absorbent pad.

Persons attending the execution:

- the director of the prison, who gives the order to "start up the current";

- the officer in charge of execution, who, together with two or three guards, prepares the convict and puts him on a chair;

- an electrician who connects cables and electrodes and monitors the technical side of the execution;

- a doctor ascertaining the death of a convicted person;

- an executioner appointed by the court who carries out the execution, hidden from prying eyes;

- officials, including the representative of the governor of the state;

- accredited journalists and lawyers for the convict;

- persons indicated by the convicted person himself.

Pamphlets are distributed to witnesses of the execution, detailing the procedure for the killing.

Official witnesses and journalists are required to remain silent throughout the procedure. They are in a glazed room. Thanks to the acoustic system, the invitees hear everything that happens around the electric chair.

A direct telephone line is set up between the state governor's office and the room where the “chair” is located in case an adjournment decision is made at the last minute.

Among the most famous of those executed by electric chair: Sacco and Vanzetti (1927); Bruno Hauptmann (1935), who kidnapped the child of the famous American aviator Lindbergh; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1953), accused of espionage.

Execution of Liz Place, first woman electrocuted in 1899 in New York State. Private number

Historical reference

In November 1990, 2,151 convicts in the United States were awaiting execution, 600 of them in the electric chair.

A large number of minors were electrocuted. The last execution of a teenager took place on October 10, 1984 in South Carolina.

Of the 28 minors who were in the "death corridor" in 1989, 11 were sentenced to the electric chair.

Florida holds the record for the number of convicts awaiting execution by electric shock: 315 people as of July 1992, 35% of them black. It is followed by Pennsylvania with 113 convicts, Georgia with 105, Tennessee with 69 and Virginia with 38.

The two most frequent electric chairs used by convicts over the past sixty years are at Raidsville, Georgia, 300 executions, and Raiford, Florida, 196 executions.

Many of the electric chairs used in the United States were equipped by Westinghouse, others by local electricians and one by the inmates themselves.

The Miami Herald published administration-confirmed figures in 1988 that $ 57 million had been spent on electric shocks in Florida since 1976. This figure includes the cost of death row in prison, the cost of appeals. The total cost to the state per person sentenced to the electric chair was estimated at $ 3.17 million, six times the cost of forty years in prison.

A similar study on convicts in Tennessee cites a figure of $ 3-5 million for each convict. In the state of New York in 1982, published the results of a study, according to which, on average, a criminal trial, accompanied by an appeal procedure, costs about $ 1.8 million, that is, twice as much as a person's life support.

The electric chair itself cost thirty thousand dollars in 1966.

The latent meaning of Harold Brown's "performances" did not escape a group of New York state legislators, where a special commission created by the governor was working on the invention of a method of execution that was more humane than hanging. Recently, there have been several very brutal executions that have caused outrage among the broad masses. In particular, the unsuccessful hanging of one convict: his spine remained intact, and the man swung on the rope for twenty minutes, being in a clear consciousness, and died, choking on saliva. In addition, the press often reported accidents when an early death occurred from an electric shock without obvious bodily harm.

In 1881, the death of Samuel Smith from Buffalo (New York) was widely reported in the press, his death was described as quick and painless, and this planted in the minds of many leaders the idea that an electric shock could become the desired method of execution.

From 1883 to 1888, about 250 fatal accidents were reported due to electric shock.

The first electric chair

An ardent abolitionist Thomas Edison hoped to destroy a competitor, testifying before the commission that death from electric shock is quick and painless. Provided, of course, that Westinghouse alternating current is used.

Perhaps electricity will finally make the death penalty technically perfect and impeccable from the point of view of humanity. Edison's DC operating company is about to strike a decisive blow. She brings half a dozen orangutans from Thailand, large monkeys the size of a man, who are killed with alternating current for the edification of lawmakers. This sinister ceremony is said to have prompted them to become more familiar with the "wonderful world of electricity." The doctors interviewed spoke favorably, arguing that electric shock would lead to instant death due to cardiac arrest and respiratory paralysis. The US Supreme Court discusses and concludes that this type of execution does not contradict the eight constitutional amendments that prohibit "cruel and inhuman punishment."

On June 4, 1889, New York State legalizes electrocution by tasking the state forensic service to handle technical details. Soon, of course, Harold Brown is called in. He resumes a series of animal tests in Edison's labs and concludes that the execution should be carried out with 300 volts for 15 seconds.

The first discharge is the most powerful, then the voltage is gradually reduced, and at the end it is again increased to the maximum.

Harold Brown designs the first-ever electric chair. He is assisted by Dr. George Fell of Buffalo. Harold Brown and Thomas Edison considered their goal achieved: soon the alternating current of Westinghouse would become known as the "current for execution," "the current of inevitable death."

George Westinghouse is filing a lawsuit over the scientific validity of Harold Brown's tests, emphasizing that this Edison employee has one goal: to scare the public by convincing them that alternating current is dangerous in the home.

Despite the lack of consensus, a decree signed by the head of the penitentiary administration, Harold Brown, is allowed to install his electric chair in Auburn State Prison. He is determined to do everything to make the chair associated with the name of a competitor, and is trying to buy three powerful generators from Westinghouse. As you might guess, he is denied there. Thomas Edison rejoins the business and negotiates with Thomson Houston Electric to purchase the aforementioned generators for him through a Boston used electrical appliance dealer.

Bodies for Sale

In the People's Republic of China, the authorities have found a way to profit from crime: those sentenced to death serve as an "organ bank" for transplants.

In the early eighties, officials in China decided that the organs of the executed could be used as a source of foreign exchange income. Thus, the Chinese, through the mediation of doctors based in Hong Kong, who supply them with Western clients, have become famous in the field of kidney transplants.

One person in charge in China, whose words were published in June 1991 by Puen magazine, put a figure of 1,000 transplants per year since 1990. And that's just the kidney data. The number of transplants of other organs is not known, but this is probably a very significant number.

With nearly a thousand formal executions occurring in China every year (many more in reality), it becomes clear why Chinese officials are pleased to note that "China is the only country in the world with a surplus of organs."

There was only one step before the commissioned execution, which the Chinese authorities may have already taken, given a Hong Kong booklet that praised the value for money of Nanjing's communist hospitals: “Round trip, hospitalization, transplant and kidney cost - 76,000 francs ". “The kidney was taken from a living donor,” the brochure specifies. In 1992, Taiwan's Minister of Justice, Liu Yu Wen, announced that all those sentenced to death in his country should voluntarily donate their organs to the state.

The first criminal chosen to test the "modern method" of execution - or to "induce an electric current into the body," to follow the official wording, was Francis Kemmeler. He was sentenced to death for hacking a man with an ax. George Westinghouse hires lawyers for him, who appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that electric shock is unconstitutional, cruel and inhuman.

A court hearing is scheduled, where Harold Brown and Thomas Edison are summoned, who once again confirm that death from alternating current occurs quickly and painlessly. Both swear that their position has nothing to do with financial interests. Francis Kemmeler's lawyers are denied an appeal.

On April 6, 1890, Francis Kemmeler was led into the execution room at Auburn Prison. It was 6 hours and 30 minutes. He was shaved and stripped down to his underpants. “Take your time and do it well,” he tells the director of the prison. A few minutes later, he asks that the electrode attached to the helmet be tightened.

His execution was attended by about forty people, half of those invited were doctors and physicists.

The audience, amazed but curious, had twenty minutes to inspect the instrument of execution before the convict was brought in.

Execution of Francis Kemmeler - the first to be electrocuted. 1890 Execution lasted 17 minutes and caused a wave of protests around the world. Engraving. Private count

The room behind the glass, from where witnesses and journalists watch the execution. Archives of the Louisine State Penitentiary Administration. Qty. Monestier.

Judicial errors

Many famous mathematicians of the 19th century, including Laplace, Cournot and Poisson, tried to determine, on the basis of probability theory, the proportion of erroneous and reasonable sentences. Thus, Poisson carefully analyzed the French criminal procedure. According to the famous scientist, the mathematical probability of a miscarriage of justice in France is 1 in 257 death sentences. Professors Hugo Bedo and Michael Radele proved that in the 20th century in the United States, 349 innocent people were convicted of crimes punishable by death. 23 of them were executed. These data take into account only those cases when the real killer was found and the judicial authorities admitted their mistake.

The American Civil Liberties Association reports 25 cases.

It was a wide and heavy wooden chair, behind which was a control panel with three huge levers.

From the panel extended two thick, four-meter electrical wires to which pre-moistened electrodes were connected.

The convict was tied to a chair, and a metal helmet was put on his head. An electrode was attached to the helmet. The second electrode, long and flat, was pressed against the back with a belt. After checking everything for the last time, they gave the first discharge of 300 volts, which lasted 17 seconds. After receiving the blow, Kemmeler began to convulse, nearly knocking over a chair. Officials noted that the chair should henceforth be secured to the floor.

Kemmeler was still alive. Then they gave the second category. The body of the convict turned red and began to char, emitting a strong smell and yellowish smoke, which clouded the rostrum of witnesses. After three minutes, the current was turned off.

Oh God! It seemed the man was still alive. The current was turned on again, as a result "a tiny blue light flashed up and down his back."

Finally the convict died. An autopsy showed that the executioner's brain had become like a "burnt cake", the blood in his head coagulated and turned black, and his back was completely charred. Both doctors officially stated that the convict did not suffer.

Part of the American society applauded the new invention as "a step forward on the path to a higher civilization" and "the triumph of science and humanism over barbarism and atrocities." Others resented reading the horrific stories in the press. When a serious morning newspaper headlined its article "Kemmeler Was Westengaused," Thomas Edison thought his victory was not far off.

The forensic board and state deputies have found themselves in a very difficult position after the failed execution of Kemmeler. Harold Brown and Thomas Edison were required to improve the technical aspect of subsequent executions.

The electrodes were first attached to the head and back, then to the head and gastrocnemius muscle. At the suggestion of Thomas Edison, they tried to attach them to the palms. The seven executions carried out in this way were terrible. Some of the convicts, who were not immediately executed, died only when the location of the electrodes was changed, returning to the head-and-leg option.

Execution of juvenile criminals

In the 1980s, juvenile criminals were executed in eight countries: Bangladesh, Barbados, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Rwanda, Pakistan and the United States. In the 1990s, 72 countries specifically stipulated in their legislation that a criminal under the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to death.

Between 1974 and 1991, 92 juvenile offenders, including 4 girls, were sentenced to capital punishment in the United States.

In 1989, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling according to which the execution of sixteen-year-old criminals is not contrary to the constitution.

Of the 37 US states that provide for the death penalty, 26 apply to criminals under the age of 18: Idaho, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Washington, Wyoming, Vermont, Virginia, South Dakota, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Florida.

Of the 26 states where the death penalty applies to minors, ell there is no clearly defined age limit: Idaho, Arizona, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, Delaware, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Florida. At 15, the lower age limit is under 18:

- Montana: 12 years old.

- Mississippi: 13 years old.

- Alabama, Missouri, Utah: 14 years old.

- Arkansas, Louisiana, Virginia: 15 years.

- Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada: 16 years old.

- North Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Texas: 17 years old.

According to a study by Professor Victor Streib of the University of Cleveland, between 1600 and 1991, 286 juvenile offenders, including 9 girls, were lawfully executed in the United States for crimes committed as a minor. Twelve of them were less than 14 years old at the time of the crime, three were 12, and one was 10 years old. Most of the minors were executed in the 20th century - 190 out of 286 executions took place after 1905.

The youngest executed in the 20th century was Fortune Fergusson, who was hanged in 1927 at the age of 16 for a rape he committed at age 13.

Two sixteen-year-old death row men. USA. 1959 Photo by Keyston.

First woman to be electrocuted

The first woman to be electrocuted was Liz Place. She was killed in 1899 in New York State for the murder of her daughter-in-law and husband. The sentenced woman was warned about the method of execution a few hours before execution and was transported to the Sing Sing men's prison, at that time the only one in the state where there was an electric chair.

The press reported that the victim showed the highest degree of mental courage. She sat down in the electric chair without hesitation and allowed herself to be tied up without a word. But this time the execution was not up to par. As they wrote in the press, "she did not die from the first discharge of 1700 volts, although it lasted forty seconds." Witnesses saw her lips moving between the first and second discharge: she was praying. The sight was so terrifying that the confessor could not bear it and turned away. After the second shock, the blackened, half-charred body was finally removed from the chair. The electrodes stuck to the body, after the second discharge the head began to "fry". The journalist concluded: "The last word in improving the execution process has not yet been said, since death does not occur instantly, as one would like."

Indeed, like all new products, electrocution presented some problems that required "refinement".

According to many, these problems have not disappeared to this day. But, despite the unreliability of this method of execution, electric shock has become more common. In 1906, more than a hundred criminals had already sat down on a chair, which by that time had been awarded many nicknames that are still used in the underworld.

Abolitionists, whose resentment grew over the years, were told that since 1905 there have been about 500 accidental electric shocks a year in the country and that the unfortunate died absolutely painlessly. Since the first execution by electric shock, which took place in 1890, each subsequent one has become the cause of long and serious disputes among specialists.

What is the “ideal tension” in reality? 1350 volts at the beginning of the execution looks rather weak. So how much: 1750? 1900? 2000? 2500? What are the limits of current fluctuations: 7.5-10 amperes, 15 or 20? Should the weight of the convict be taken into account? Heart size? Health status?

Today, medicine admits that some individuals are better able to withstand electric shock. In the period between the world wars, it was believed that these were people of small stature, anemic and almost consumptive. It was even believed that one should not neglect such factors as the ambient temperature and the menu of the last meal.

Execution in 1933 of Zangara, assassin of the mayor of Chicago. Qty. Monestier.

It is easier to kill a person with an electric shock when a discharge of 10,000 or 20,000 volts, 50 to 100 amperes, is passed through the body. Then he will die instantly, but the corpse will be so disfigured that little will remain of him at all. However, Judeo-Christian morality requires respect for the body, and justice - at least minimal decency, and the difficulty was to find tension that could kill at once without causing visible bodily harm. Despite the technical problems, Americans at the beginning of the 20th century were generally quite satisfied with the incomparable scientific achievement of electric shock. They praised his merits so much that many countries sent competent observers to the United States. So, in 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm II sent the famous criminologist Boris Fressdenthal to the United States to observe the execution procedure and express his opinion on the introduction of this method of killing into the German criminal code.

Boris Fressdanthal was not attracted by the new method of execution. He wrote: “Electric shock is not as brutal as the sword and guillotine we use, but one serious rebuke can be leveled against this method - uncertainty, painful uncertainty about the exact moment of death. Has it really come or is it just an appearance? How much time passes between the application of the current and the loss of consciousness? " In his conclusion, he categorically rejects the introduction of this method in Germany, citing the technical imperfection of the execution.

In 1950, the British Royal Commission, which conducted a study of the methods of the death penalty, made a similar conclusion. Recall that in many American states this method was abandoned, of the twenty-three states that used it in 1967, only fourteen remained by the end of the 20th century, in others they preferred to be executed by hanging, gas chamber or firing squad, and since 1977 - by means of a fatal injections.

Only the Philippines and Taiwan used the electric chair for a while, but then returned to the execution.

Over the course of the 20th century, there has been a wealth of gruesome evidence of electrocution. Curt Ross, citing testimony from Congressman and Senator Emmanuel Teller, describes one failed execution that took place in 1926. A woman named Judo was executed in the electric chair. “The toggle switch was turned on, the current went. The woman arched in the chair, but did not faint. The body was thrown from side to side ... The executioner changed the power of the current and again gave a discharge. Discharge after discharge passed through the body of the convict, but she did not lose consciousness and remained alive. Then they gave 2000 volts. An eternity passed, my eyes were still sparkling, the prosecutor made a sign to the executioner to turn off the current ... The unhappy woman was still alive. "

She was taken to the prison medical unit, and the director of the prison, under pressure from witnesses and journalists, called the governor to ask for a pardon. He objected that there was no document allowing him to make such a decision. An hour later, the convict was returned to the execution room, where this time she died from the first discharge.

Deadly performances

Since the early 1980s, the number of countries conducting public executions, often broadcast on radio and television, has increased.

States addicted to this grim spectacle include: Angola, Cameroon, United Arab Emirates, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Mozambique, Pakistan, Uganda, North Yemen, Somalia, Liberia, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and China as part of a national anti-crime campaign.

Most often, executions and hanging were such executions, which drew thousands of spectators. In 1992, 27 people were publicly hanged in Afghanistan; in Saudi Arabia, 66 people were beheaded.

In 1928, Joseph Lang, the executioner of the Columbus State Prison (Ohio), testified: “The first discharge of 1150 volts was not fatal, the heart was beating smoothly. And the second category did not give any result. Then the voltage was increased threefold. 3,000 volts. A bright flame engulfed the body shaking in convulsions, and the execution hall was filled with the smell of fried meat ... However, the cause of death was not the actual electric shock in the narrow sense of the word, but the burning of the body. " In 1941, after being electrocuted in New York, the chaplain of Sing Sing Prison wrote: "You might have thought that these were burns from too long lying in the bright sun, the whole body swelled, taking on a deep red color."

In 1946, another witness stated: “The blood vessels swelled so much that they burst ... Steam enveloped the head and bare knees, the latter turning black and blue. Lips turned black, foam came out of the mouth. "

The performers were most afraid of the possibility of breakdown. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the car was tested on a large piece of meat. Later, the law made it mandatory for a qualified electrician to be present throughout the execution. In the event of a power outage, he was responsible for immediately connecting the electric chair to the diesel generator installed in almost all death rooms.

1900 volts and 7.5 amps: the perfect combination for killing. Private count

American court records mention an accident that occurred in 1938 at Huntsville Prison (Texas), when the convict was already seated on a chair. It was not possible to turn on the chair for several hours, and all this time the convict kept repeating: “Pardon! Pardon! This is God's will! " As a result, the execution was postponed for three days, despite thousands of demonstrators who rallied outside the prison in defense of the convict. Do not think that age-old practice has brought clear improvements in the process of electric shock.

Another failure occurred in July 1989 during the execution of Horace Dunkens in Alabama. Due to a defect in the wiring, the first discharge did not kill the convict. It took the electricians about ten minutes to fix the problem, and all the while, the heart of Dunkens tied to the chair was beating furiously. His death was announced nineteen minutes after the first shock.

In December 1984, the New York Times published an article describing the execution of Alpha-Otis Stephen, which took place in a Georgia prison. The convict resisted the electric discharges for a long time: “The first one lasted two minutes, but did not kill him, during the next two he continued to fight and resist. Then the doctors examined him and said that he was still alive.

Then he was given an additional shock of the same duration as the first. But the witnesses to the execution saw that he was still breathing. " The newspaper specifies: "In six minutes - the time allotted for cooling the body so that doctors can examine it - the convict took another twenty-three breaths."

Complete technical defeat

Many experts today believe that electrocution was a complete fiasco. Of course, many convicts die, so to speak, "normally", but there are also many who retire to another world only at the cost of unbearable suffering.

In 1983, in Alabama, thirty-three-year-old John Louis Evans died after only three shocks of thirty seconds and 1900 volts each, which he received in fourteen minutes. Thirty witnesses saw “an arc of fire burst out from under his mask. Smoke escaped from the electrode on the right leg. The belt that fixed the leg, caught fire, tore. " After the second discharge, the convict's lawyers contacted Governor George Wallace to end the procedure, which turned into unbearably brutal torture. The governor rejected the petition, and John Evans received a third, this time a fatal discharge.

In 1985, in Indiana, the execution of William Vandever required five shocks of 2,250 volts each. The execution lasted seventeen minutes. Even after the third discharge, the doctor said that the convict's heart was still beating at a frequency of forty beats per minute.

Many doctors claim that convicts lose consciousness after the first shock, and even if the heart continues to beat and the lungs work, during subsequent shocks the convicts no longer feel anything.

This statement completely refutes the execution of Judo, which we have already written about, as well as the execution in 1946 of a young black man named Willie Francis. He was one of the youngest electricians in history, barely seventeen when he was executed.

A witness to the execution says: “I saw the performer turn on the current. The lips of the convict swelled, the body began to arch. I heard the man in charge of the execution screaming at the executioner to increase the tension, because Willie Francis was not dead. But the executioner replied that he had already given the maximum current. " Willie Francis shouted, “Stop! Let me breathe! "

The execution was stopped. The survivor said: “I felt a burning sensation on my head and on my leg. Multicolored specks flashed. " After discussion, the Supreme Court ruled that nothing prevents the execution of the survivor by a miracle. Willie Francis was again seated in a chair, and this time he died on the first shock.

In 1972, the US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty, overturning Furman v. Georgia. The court made this extremely important decision, finding that the death penalty was applied "arbitrarily and unreasonably" and, in violation of the constitution, turned into a cruel and inhuman punishment.

As a result, more than a thousand suicide bombers changed the measure of restraint to life imprisonment. Such criminals as Charles Manson, the murderer of the actress Sharon Tate, Sirhan Sirhan, the murderer of Bob Kennedy, chuckling, left the "death corridor".

As a result of this decision, some states began to revise legislation. In 1976, the Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, ruled that the death penalty was not unconstitutional, approving laws that were revised by several states.

Thirty-six states have changed their laws since the Fuhrman decision, and today they provide for the death penalty for aggravated murder.

For several decades now, the technology of killing by electric shock has remained practically unchanged. The principle of operation of the electric chair is the same everywhere, although there are certain differences between the states in terms of the duration of the discharge and the voltage of current, which varies from 1750 to 2500 volts, depending on the device.

The execution itself and the preparation for it take place according to clearly established regulations, which are sometimes spelled out in such detail in bylaws that it turns into a real ritual.

The ritual of death by electric chair is similar to that of other methods of execution used in the United States. When the countdown begins, the prisoner is taken out of the “death corridor” and placed in a cell called the “death row” or “death chamber”. Here the convict spends his last days under continuous round-the-clock supervision. All personal belongings are taken from the suicide bomber. The death certificate is drawn up in advance with the mark "Legal execution by electric shock".

A few hours before the execution, the handcuffed prisoner is taken to the “preparation room”. In this room, located adjacent to the execution room, the sentenced person is subjected to a thorough examination. Examine all the holes - nose, ears, mouth, anus - checking if there is anything hidden there, in particular metal objects that could interfere with the killing procedure.

The examination of the body began to be carried out after the incident with a certain Albert Fish, who drove several dozen long metal needles into his body in order to disrupt the course of the execution. He was confident that at a discharge of 2,000 volts, the needles would crawl out of the body, turning him into a porcupine. Nothing of the sort happened.

After the search, the guard cuts the sentenced person with a hedgehog, then shaves a square on the top of the head to ensure a secure fit of the helmet electrodes.

Then the handcuffs are removed from the convict and sent to the shower located in the corner of the room. He is given five to six minutes to wash, after which he is put on a suit provided by the correctional institution. He can choose to stay barefoot or wear socks.

Execution of Richard (Bruno) Hauptmann in 1935. Photo by Keyston.

Death by electric chair to Willie Bragg, who killed his wife. The execution took place in Mississippi on a new chair, improved by Jimmy Thompson. Engraving. Private count

States using electric shock

In 1992, the electric chair was a legal method of execution in 14 American states: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia.

In the past, portable electric chairs were used in Louisiana and Mississippi. If necessary, they were brought to prisons and connected to generators located outside the execution room.

The youngest electrocution victims were George Stinney, who was executed at the age of 16 in South Carolina in 1944 for murder, and the Frenchman William Francis, who was executed at the age of 17 in Louisiana in 1946.

Usually, while dressing, a confessor comes, and the director of the prison promises the convict that he will die instantly and without pain.

While the convict is being prepared, the deputy director solemnly welcomes the official witnesses appointed by the convict himself, as well as the journalists chosen by lot. The "witness room" is opposite a chair, behind which is a small nook with electrical equipment for the killing machine.

Having seated the witnesses, the deputy director gives them written instructions, which, in particular, recommend to behave with dignity and under no pretext not to communicate with the convict. The witnesses are informed that an ambulance will be on duty during the execution in case one of them gets sick.

For the last time, direct telephone lines between the death room and the offices of the Attorney General and the Governor are checked - there is always the possibility of a last-second pardon.

Once the prisoner is dressed, he is handcuffed again and takes the final steps to separate him from the electric chair. He enters, accompanied by four guards, the director of the prison and the chaplain. He sees a chair.

An “electric chair” is a large oak chair with three or four legs, often painted white, which sits on a thick rubber carpet and bolted to the floor.

Every electric chair in the United States is unique. In some states, they are made by firms or local artisans on terms of reference provided by the State Department of Justice. In other states, prisoners themselves create them. Like the electric chair of the famous Raiford Prison in Florida. It was made by prisoners in 1924 from oak cut down on the territory of the prison.

Signal lights are often used to indicate that the chair is energized. There is a black rubber mat on the seat. The back of the chair is continued by two vertical racks of twenty-five centimeters high, which serve to fix the convict's head. Hands are tied to the armrests. There is a wooden strip in front between the legs, which serves to fix the ankles.

In most cases, the convict is immobilized with seven belts: one on the lower back, one on the chest, one on the head, two on the wrists, and two on the ankles.

The anonymous executioner is located in another room.

Location of electrodes

An electrical cabinet hangs on the wall behind the chair, from which two cables come out. Attached to the same wall is a box containing "accessories": a helmet and a contact plate, a "gaiter" and performers' gloves.

The helmet is made of dense leather, equipped with a chin strap and a special strip of ten by twenty centimeters, which covers the convict's eyes. Inside is a "contact plate" - a curved copper piece of ten centimeters in diameter, with a rod in the center protruding above the helmet, to which the first electrode is attached.

Press conference by S. T. Judy before his execution in Michigan City in 1981. Photo by Keyston.

The inner side of the helmet is covered with a thin layer of natural sponge. It provides a tighter fit to the helmet and hides the smell of burnt flesh. Previously, the electrode was attached directly to the prisoner's head, which led to severe burns and a terrible stench. However, even today, witnesses claim that the execution is accompanied by an eerie smell. The contact plate and sponge are often dipped in a salted water solution to improve conductivity.

The director of the correctional institution invites the convict to make a statement, after which a helmet is put on his head.

"Gaiter" is also leather. It is usually twenty centimeters long and eight wide. The right leg is cut off at the knee and a "gaiter" with an inner layer of metal, usually lead, foil is put on on the shaved ankle. On one side, a copper plate is fixed with a threaded rod sticking outward, to which the second electrode is attached.

The passage of current through the contact plate of the helmet to the electrode on the ankle, through the lungs and heart, and leads to the death of the convict.

Aren't the Americans themselves the first to question the infallibility of the electric shock? Probably because almost all states where it is practiced have passed laws requiring autopsies to be performed immediately after execution.

In the state of New York, the reason was given without false modesty: "To eliminate any possibility of returning the object to life." On August 23, 1991, in Greensville, Virginia, Derrick Peterson received 1,725 ​​volts for 10 seconds, then 240 volts for 90 seconds. When the body was removed from the chair, the doctor ascertained the presence of a pulse. The operation had to be repeated.

Electric shock theoretically proceeds as a continuous automatic cycle for two minutes. When the executioner applies a current of 1900–2500 volts - depending on the model of the chair used - it hits the copper wires of the helmet's contact plate, from which the convict should instantly lose consciousness and no longer feel pain.

Gloomy collection

In May 1972, Christie's auctioned off a unique collection of Michael Foreman, an English ship owner who had collected several hundred instruments of torture and killing from the 7th century to the present day. The result of the auction is over a million dollars.