How the electric chair works. History of the Electric Chair Death Penalty Law

Relatively recently, in the United States, criminals sentenced to death were sent to the electric chair. But in last years such a "high-tech" method of execution was practically abandoned. What is the reason?

Who invented the electric chair

Execution in the electric chair began in late XIX centuries. A "progressive" society has decided that executions such as burning at the stake, hanging, and beheading are inhumane. The criminal should not suffer additionally in the process of execution: after all, he is already being deprived of the most precious thing - his life.

According to the official version, an incident in 1881 served as the impetus for this invention. Dentist Albert Southwick of Buffalo, New York, once witnessed an elderly man die after accidentally touching contacts. electric generator. It occurred to Southwick that such a death could be quick and painless. He first suggested using electricity to get rid of unwanted animals such as kittens or puppies. This method of killing seemed to him more humane than, say, practiced drowning. The idea was also liked by the head of the Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty, Colonel Rockwell.

Southwick began experimenting with killing animals with electricity.

He published the results of his experiments in scientific publications, and then showed these articles to his friend, Senator David Macmillan. He turned to D.B. Hill, Governor of New York. In 1886, a special commission was created, whose task was to study the question "of the most humane and commendable way of carrying out death sentences." Southwick also joined the commission.

The inventor of electricity himself, the famous Thomas Edison, undertook to conduct official tests. In West Orange, New Jersey, they staged a demonstrative experiment on cats and dogs. They were placed on a metal plate under a voltage of 1000 volts, as a result of which the animals died. In 1888, inventor Harold Brown and Columbia University employee Fred Peterson tested the equipment at Edison Laboratories, electrocuting more than two dozen dogs over the course of several months. On January 1, 1889, the earlier "Electric Execution Law" was enacted in the state of New York.

The first working model of the electric chair was developed in 1890 by an ordinary electrician named Edwin Davis, an employee of the prison in the city of Auburn.

Operating principle

The essence of the execution is this. The convict is shaved head and calf on one leg. Then the torso and arms are firmly tied with straps to a chair made of dielectric material with a high back and armrests. Legs are fixed with special clamps. At first, the criminals were blindfolded, then they began to put a hood on their heads, and more recently, a special mask. One electrode is attached to the head, on which the helmet is put on, the other to the leg. The executioner turns on the switch button, which passes through the body an alternating current with a power of up to 5 amperes and a voltage of 1700 to 2400 volts. An execution usually takes about two minutes. Two discharges are given, each is switched on for one minute, the interval between them is 10 seconds. The first discharge destroys the brain and central nervous system, the second leads to complete cardiac arrest. Death must be recorded by a doctor.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Not everyone approved of the innovation. So, Edison's main competitor, George Westinghouse, who supplied consumers electrical equipment, refused to supply prisons with electric current generators, considering this method of execution inhumane.

For the first time in the electric chair was executed on August 6, 1890 in the Auburn prison of the US state of New York, William Kemmler, convicted of the murder of his mistress Tilly Zeigler. Westinghouse tried to save the man, even hiring lawyers for him to appeal the sentence on the grounds that electrocution was a cruel and unusual punishment and should therefore be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. But it did not help. The sentence was carried out. Tellingly, the executioner did not die immediately, he had to turn on the switch again. Westinghouse commented, "They would have done better with an axe."

Up to now, more than four thousand people have been executed in this way in the United States. One of them was Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President McKinley. A similar type of execution was used in the Philippines.

The communist spouses Julius and Ethel Rosenberg ended their lives in the electric chair, accused of working for Soviet intelligence and transferring American nuclear secrets to it. In particular, they allegedly handed over to the Soviets a drawing atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Prominent public figures stood up to protect the Rosenberg family - among them the famous physicist Albert Einstein, the writer Thomas Mann and even Pope Pius XII. But all petitions for clemency were rejected, and in 1953 US President Dwight Eisenhower approved the death sentence. To this day, there are people who express doubt about the guilt of the Rosenbergs: the evidence against them was allegedly fabricated by the CIA - perhaps to gain an advantage over the USSR in the Cold War.

"Let me breathe!"

It was assumed that when an electric current was passed through the body, a person would die immediately. But this did not always happen. Often, eyewitnesses had to observe how people put in an electric chair convulsed, bit their tongues, foam came out of their mouths, blood came out of their sockets, their eyes popped out of their sockets, involuntary emptying of the intestines and bladder occurred ... Some screamed during the execution. Almost always, after applying the discharge, a light smoke began to go from the skin and hair of the convict. There have also been cases when a person sitting in an electric chair caught fire and exploded in the head. Quite often, the burnt skin "glued" to the belts and the seat. The bodies of the executed turned out, as a rule, so hot that it was impossible to touch them, and then the smell of burnt meat lingered in the room for a long time.

One of the protocols describes an episode when a convict was exposed to a discharge of 2450 volts for 15 seconds, but a quarter of an hour after the procedure, he was still alive. As a result, the execution had to be repeated three times until the offender died.

In 1985, in Indiana, a certain William Vandiver was electrocuted five times. It took 17 minutes to kill him.

According to experts, when exposed to such a high voltage, the human body is literally fried alive. Here is the memoir of one of the survivors: “There was a taste of cold peanut butter in my mouth. I felt my head and left leg burning, so I tried my best to break free of the bonds.” 17-year-old Willie Francis, who sat in the electric chair in 1947, shouted: “Turn it off! Let me breathe!"

Repeatedly, the execution turned out to be painful as a result of various failures and malfunctions. So, on May 4, 1990, when the criminal Jesse D. Tafero was executed, a gasket under the helmet caught fire, the convict received third and fourth degree burns. In 1991, during the execution, one of the criminals kicked his legs against a chair so much that he broke them.

The story of the murderer of the whole family, Allen Lee Davis, caused a great resonance, to whom not only his mouth (instead of a gag), but also his nose was sealed with a leather tape before execution. In the end, he suffocated.

Electric chair or injection?

It soon became clear that the "humane" execution often turns into torture, and its use was limited. True, some people believe that the whole point is not at all in humanity, but in the high cost of the procedure.

Currently, electric chair execution is used in six US states - Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Moreover, the convict is offered a choice of electric chair or lethal injection. In some states, shooting, hanging, and gas chambers are also practiced as an alternative.

The last execution in the electric chair took place on January 16, 2013 in Virginia. This measure was applied to Robert Gleason, who, by the way, specifically killed two cellmates in order to commute his life sentence to a death sentence.

At the choice of the convict, along with a lethal injection, and in Kentucky and Tennessee, only those who committed a crime earlier than a certain date have the right to choose to use the electric chair (in Kentucky - April 1, 1998, in Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Nebraska, the electric chair was used as the only method of execution, but on February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that it was a "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the constitution. In Oklahoma, it can be used only in strictly specified cases, for example, if all other methods of execution are found unconstitutional at the time of the execution of the death sentence.

During 2004 this method of execution was used only once, in 2005 it was never used, in 2006 - once.

The last known case of using the electric chair was on March 18, 2010, when Paul Powell, a racist killer, was executed in Virginia, who killed a girl for dating an African American, and also raped and tried to kill her sister.

Device and principle of operation

The electric chair is a chair made of dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps for rigid fixation of the sentenced person. Hands are attached to the armrests, legs - in special clamps on the legs of the chair. The chair also comes with a helmet. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. Part technical support step-up transformer included. During the execution, an alternating current with a voltage of about 2700 is supplied to the contacts, the current limiting system maintains a current through the body of the convict of the order of 5. (The figures given are for the electric chair used in Massachusetts, as described in section .) Current and voltage are limited to prevent the condemned person from bursting into flames during execution.

The chair's power management system has a power-on protection that must be deactivated immediately before the execution by the person in charge using a special key. According to one version, the chair may have one or more control switches, by pressing which the current is turned on. In this case, they are turned on simultaneously by different executioners, and in reality the current turns on only one of them. This order is used so that no one, including the performers themselves, could know who actually carried out the execution (by analogy with the well-known type of execution, when parts of the shooters are given weapons loaded with blank cartridges).

The order of execution

The convict is seated in an electric chair, the hands are attached to the armrests, and the legs are attached to the foot contact mounts. Before putting the helmet on, a hood is put on the suicide bomber's head, or his eyes are sealed. The helmet is put on the head of the convict, on which the hair on the top of the head is shaved before execution. A sponge impregnated with saline is inserted into the helmet, this is done in order to ensure minimal electrical resistance to contact in the helmet with the head and, thus, hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the convict. The torso is fixed with additional straps.

After turning off the protection system, the executioner turns on the current. The voltage is turned on twice, for one minute, with a break of 10 seconds (in different designs, the number of turns on and time intervals may vary). After turning off the power, the doctor must make sure that the convict is dead. In some US states and states, if death does not occur, the operation may continue. In the laws of others, a pardon is provided if the convict miraculously survived three switching on of the current for one minute. William Vandiver was killed only after the fifth discharge of current (October 16, 1985, Indiana (1001 deaths, A.P. Lavrin)).

Humanity of execution in the electric chair

The electric chair was introduced as a humane means of execution, allowing a criminal to be put to death without causing him unnecessary suffering. Supporters of this type of execution claim that it is painless - the electric current of the parameters used destroys the parts of the nervous system responsible for feeling and understanding pain in a time twenty to thirty times less than it takes for a person to feel pain. Opponents of the electric chair point out that these claims are the product of theoretical calculations, not proven fact.

In some cases, before the onset of death, it is necessary to pass a current through the body of the executed for several minutes or even longer. In this case, the executed person may experience spontaneous urination, defecation, vomiting, including blood, darkening and charring of the skin. There were precedents that the eyes of the executed person burst or went out of their sockets. The room smells of burnt flesh, and smoke may rise. Cases of fire are known (the hair on the head catches fire). In the event of a malfunction in the operation of the equipment or any violation of the rules of use, death may not occur immediately. On the other hand, according to American organizations that advocate for the abolition of the death penalty, the number of such overlays when using the electric chair is still significantly less than when executed by lethal injection.

Story

The creation of the electric chair is associated with the name of Thomas Edison. In the US, Edison, who organized the first DC power supply system, actively competed with new AC-based power supply systems, which was called the war of currents. Edison convinced consumers of the shortcomings of the competitor's system, promoted the danger of such systems, including public experiments on killing animals with alternating current.

These events coincided with the discussion that began in the country about choosing a more humane method of the death penalty (until the 80s of the XIX century, hanging was mainly used in the USA. Every now and then, horrific scenes of too long and painful execution leaked into the press: even the most experienced the executioner sometimes could not foresee the nuances, and death did not come from a fracture of the vertebrae, as was supposed, but from strangulation, which is more painful.

The increasing use of electricity was naturally accompanied by occasional accidents resulting in deaths. In 1881, in Buffalo, New York, dentist Albert Southwick accidentally witnessed the death of an elderly drunk who touched the contacts of an electric generator. Struck by how quickly and apparently painlessly death came, Southwick turned to a friend, Senator David MacMillan, with a proposal to replace the rope with wires. He asked the New York State Legislature to consider the prospect of using electricity on death row to stop hanging. In 1886, a commission was set up to investigate the question "as to the most humane and commendable method of carrying out the death penalty." At this stage, the famous Thomas Edison joined the history of the electric chair, so tenaciously that this chair, by analogy with the guillotine, could be called "Edisonina" (although the prison population of America calls him "yellow mother" or " old smokehouse"). Inventor arranged in West Orange (English) Russian (NJ) revealing experience: several cats and dogs were lured onto a metal plate energized with 1000 VAC. In 1888, the New York State Legislature passed a law establishing electrocution as the state's method of carrying out death sentences.

In the latter half of 1888, inventor Harold Brown and Columbia University employee Fred Peterson conducted research in the Edison Laboratories on the use of electricity for the death penalty. Within a few months, more than two dozen dogs were electrocuted, according to the results of the experiments, on December 12, 1888, the group presented a report to the New York State Forensic Society recommending an electric chair as an execution tool (other options were also considered, including a tank with water and a table with a rubber coating). On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act went into effect in New York State.

The opponent of the electric chair was George Westinghouse, who had previously developed a system for supplying consumers with alternating current electricity, Edison's main competitor. After the introduction of the electric chair law, Westinghouse refused to supply alternating current generators to prisons, as a result of which Edison and Brown had to buy generators in a roundabout way.

The first people sentenced to death in the electric chair were William Kemmler and Joseph Chapleau (the first for the murder of his mistress, the second for the murder of a neighbor). Chapleau was pardoned and received a life sentence. Westinghouse also tried to save Kemmler, for which he hired lawyers who demanded an appeal against the verdict on the basis that the execution in the electric chair falls under the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, but the appeals were rejected.

In 1890 Edwin Davies, an electrician at Auburn Jail, developed the first working model of the electric chair. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler was the first person in the world to be executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison. Although one of the reporters stated: “He didn’t hurt at all!”, In reality, the execution did not go quite smoothly: after the first turn on of the current, Kemmler was still alive, the current had to be turned on again. George Westinghouse commented on the execution with the words: "They would have done better with an ax" (Kemmler killed his mistress with an ax).

In 1896, the electric chair was introduced in Ohio, in 1898 in Massachusetts, in 1906 in New Jersey, in 1908 in Virginia, in 1910 in North Carolina. Over the next ten years, it was legalized in more than ten states and became the most popular execution tool in America. In just over a hundred years of use, more than 4,300 people have been executed in the electric chair.

Conceived as a means of discrediting AC power systems, the electric chair just failed to perform this function. Despite its appearance, the use of alternating current expanded. Later, Edison was forced to admit that he underestimated the benefits of alternating current. In 1912, Westinghouse was awarded the Edison Medal for his achievements in the development of this technology.

Outside USA

There are known cases of the use of home-made electric chairs as a tool of torture by various organized criminal groups at the PSP, in particular, the "slave owner" Alexander Komin from Vyatskiye Polyany used a home-made electric chair to kill one of his prisoners.

Famous people who were executed in the electric chair

• William Kemmler William Kemmler) (, New York), the first person in the world to be executed in the electric chair; killed his mistress with an ax
• Martha Place (English) Martha Place) (, New York), the first woman executed in the electric chair; was found guilty of murdering her 17-year-old stepdaughter (the girl was strangled by her stepmother)
• Leon Czolgosz Leon Czolgosz) ( , New York), assassin of President McKinley
• Chester Gillette (ur. Chester Gillette) ( , New York)
• Arthur Hodges. Arthur Hodges) ( , Arkansas)
• Charles Becker (ur. Charles Becker) ( , New York)
• Sacco and Vanzetti Sacco and Vanzetti) ( , Massachusetts), executed on trumped-up charges, became a textbook example of politically motivated persecution.
• Ruth Snyder Ruth Snyder) ( , New York)
• Giuseppe Zangara (ur. Giuseppe Zangara) (, Florida), attempted on the life of President-elect F. Roosevelt and killed the mayor of Chicago
• Albert Fish. Albert Fish) ( , New York
• Bruno Hauptmann (ur. Bruno Hauptmann) (, New Jersey), found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the young son of Charles Lindbergh
• Anna Maria Han Anna Marie Hahn) ( , Ohio
• Herman and Paul Petrillo Herman and Paul Petrillo) ( , Pennsylvania)
• Nazi Agents (Washington, DC)
• Louis Lepke (ur. Louis Lepke) ( , New York)
• Lena Baker (ur. Lena Baker) ()
• Willie Francis Willie Francis) ( , Louisiana)
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) (, New York), executed for espionage - the transfer of information about the American nuclear bomb to Soviet agents. Previously, it was believed that their guilt was not fully proven. The now declassified materials of the Venona Project have proven Julius' involvement in espionage.
• Martin, Rhonda Bell Rhonda Belle Martin) ( , Alabama), American serial killer
• Charles Starkweather (ur. Charles Starkweather) ( , Nebraska), American serial killer
• James French (ur. James French) ()
• John Spenkelink John Spenkelink) (1979, Florida) - the first person executed in the electric chair after the abolition of the moratorium on the death penalty (he was convicted even before the moratorium was introduced).
• Larry da Silva Larry da Silva) (1979) - his execution was featured in documentary Faces of death
• John Louise Evans John Louis Evans) ( , Alabama)
• Tad Bundy (English) Ted Bundy) ( , Florida , American serial killer)
• Donald Gaskins Donald Henry Gaskins, Jr.(), American serial killer
• John Joubert John Joubert (), Nebraska), American serial killer
• Pedro Medina Pedro Medina) ( , Florida)
• Gerald Stano (English) Gerald Eugene Stano) (), Florida - American serial killer (41 victims).
• Buenoano, Judias Judia Buenoano) (, Florida) - American serial killer.
• Allen Lee Davis Allen Lee Davis) ( , Florida)
• Earl Conrad Bramblett Earl Conrad Bramblett) ( , Virginia)
• James Neil Tucker James Neil Tucker) ( , South Carolina)
• Brandon Headrick (ur. Brandon Hedrick) ( , Virginia)

In culture

In literature

In music

• The execution in the electric chair was reflected in the song "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica and "Electrocution" by Sodom.
• In the video for the song "Killed by Death" by Motorhead, the police electrocute frontman Lemmy, who at the end of the video comes to life and leaves own grave on a motorcycle.
• The electric chair as an element of a stage show is used at concerts by American shock rocker Alice Cooper.
• In Madonna's "Die Another Day" video, she is put in the electric chair, but she escapes; also on the Re-Invention World Tour, Madonna sang the song "Lament" in the electric chair.
• The song "The Mercy Seat" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is written from the perspective of a man on death row. The title of the song refers both to God's throne and to the electric chair.
• In the clip Nogu Svelo! "S.O.S in the Ass" events of some sort erotic game turn around the electric chair.
• In Nike Borzov's video "The Last Song", he is executed in the electric chair.
• In Philip Kirkorov's video "You Will Believe", the protagonist is put in an electric chair. One second before the power-on time, the execution is cancelled.
• In the video for Eminem's song "We Made You" there is a scene where he is sentenced to death and the sentence is carried out. However, Eminem does not even feel discomfort.
• Rage Against The Machine's "No Shelter" video features a mock electric chair execution of American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.

• The electric chair is mentioned in the song "Fucking Police" by Metal Corrosion, as well as in "Song Without Words" by Kino.

To the cinema

• In the film "Angels with Dirty Faces" one of the main characters of the film, Rocky, was executed in the electric chair.
• In the movie "Sin City" one of the characters was also executed by means of an electric chair, while he was killed after only two execution attempts.
• In The Crow 3 Salvation, the protagonist, Alex Corvis, was executed in the electric chair. The main antagonist of the film also accepts death in the electric chair.
• In the film "Monster's Ball", the artist was executed in the electric chair.
• In the film "Constantine: Lord of Darkness" the hero of the film uses the electric chair of Sing Sing Prison to travel to hell.
• The film The Green Mile shows the execution of a death sentence using the electric chair.
• In the movie "Neither Dead nor Alive", a convict is brought to the reopened Alcatraz prison for execution in the electric chair.
• In the movie "Death Man" (in the original - "Alive") the main character was sentenced to death by means of an electric chair, but survived.
• In one of the episodes of the third season of the Quantum Leap series, called "The Last Dance Before Execution", Sam Beckett, the main character, becomes a criminal sentenced to be executed in the electric chair.
• In the movie Passenger 57, the terrorist Charles Rein is sent by plane to Los Angeles for execution in the electric chair.
• In the Escape series, the executions of Lincoln Burrows and the General.
• In the horror film Electroshock (1989), the main villain was executed in a chair, but he survived using the electric shock to rise from the dead.
• In the horror film Dead Man Walking (1936), a group of criminals kill a judge and frame John Ellman (Boris Karloff), who is accused of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Later, two witnesses are found in his favor, but just at the moment when he finally manages to get through to the prison, the execution is carried out.
• The film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ends with protagonist Ed Crane preparing to be executed by the electric chair.
• The first episode of the first season of the TV series Tales from the Crypt (1989) tells about a prison executioner who has become so enamored of his electric profession that he ends up in the electric chair himself.
• Toward the end of the movie "Supercop", the protagonist is tried to be executed by means of an electric chair, but he, having superpowers, transfers the tension to the spectators of the execution and the executioner.
• In The Lonely Hearts movie's finale, the murderous lovers (Salma Hayek and Jared Leto) are executed using the electric chair. The execution scene is replete with a large number of physiological details and details of death in the electric chair.
• The film The Faces of Death shows footage of the death penalty in the electric chair.

In computer games

• In the first part of Unreal, the protagonist, wandering around a crashed space prison, can find a sentenced prisoner in an electric chair. After the ship crashes, the prisoner may already be dead, but the player has the ability to "finish him off" by activating the chair.

Electric chair

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

The expansion of the sphere of industrial application of electricity in the 19th century should of itself lead to the idea that the power of electricity provides new, "progressive" possibilities of killing.

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 executions.

The electric chair, one of the most controversial killing tools, questioned even by supporters of the death penalty, emerged as a result of an economic and industrial war between two competing companies that asserted the superiority of different types of current: alternating and direct.

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

It all started in New York City in 1882, when the inventor of the electric light bulb and the phonograph, Thomas Edison, opened his first power plant on Pearl Street to light the commercial and financial center of the city.

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

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

George Westinghouse's alternating current was soon found to be more efficient and - more 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 the shareholders, decides to act and launches a major press campaign to discredit AC, presenting it as extremely dangerous. Edison's calculation is simple: by impressing readers that alternating current is associated with a mortal risk, to push them to use direct current for domestic needs.

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 ahead of safety consumers. George Westinghouse answers him through the newspaper, he denies the accusations made, pointing out that Harold Brown does not have the technical qualifications to make such statements. Defending his case, Harold Brown openly enters into cooperation with Thomas Edison and uses his laboratories for a series of tests. He even undertakes a tour of the country with a peculiar performance in which dogs, cats, monkeys and even horses are electrocuted in front of local authorities, journalists and businessmen. In an effort to prove that Thomas Edison's direct current is more suitable for domestic and industrial applications, he shows a number: Animals that survive 1,000 volts DC with less than 300 volts AC die.

An autopsy showed that the brain of the executed man resembled a "burnt cupcake." Engraving. Private Col.

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 dog weighing 38 kg, thus demonstrating, as he thought, the danger of alternating current, and solemnly declared: "Alternating current is suitable only for the destruction of dogs in receivers and cattle in the slaughterhouse." In the end, he made 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 gets on the copper wires of the contact plate of the helmet, 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 current strength ranges from 5 to 15 amperes. When the apparatus is turned on, the convict usually jerks forward sharply, and if he were not securely strapped 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. He often vomits blood and bites his tongue.

- During the second cycle, blood bubbles out of his nose.

- From the third to the fifth cycle, the body temperature rises above 100 degrees, the skin acquires a purple hue. Fibrillation and paralysis of the airways occur.

- On the seventh and eighth cycles, the circulatory system of the brain "burns out", and often the eyes crawl out of their sockets. The top of the head becomes black with a bright pink border.

For the execution of the condemned, a suit is sewn to order. As underwear, tight shorts made of cotton jersey with elasticated waist and hips and an absorbent pad are issued.

Persons present at the execution:

- the director of the prison, who gives the order to "turn on the current";

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

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

- a doctor certifying the death of the convict;

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

- officials, including a representative of the state governor;

- accredited journalists and lawyers of the convict;

- persons indicated by the convict himself.

Pamphlets are handed out to witnesses of the execution, which detail the procedure for killing.

Official witnesses and journalists are required to remain silent during the entire procedure. They are in a glass room. Thanks to the acoustic system, guests can hear everything that happens around the electric chair.

A direct telephone line is set up between the state governor's office and the "chair" room, in case a last-minute postponement decision is made.

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

Execution of Liz Place, the first woman to be electrocuted in 1899 in New York State. Private Col.

History reference

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

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

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

The record for the number of convicts awaiting execution by electric shock belongs to Florida: 315 people as of July 1992, 35% of them blacks. Then come Pennsylvania with 113 convicts, Georgia with 105, Tennessee with 69 and Virginia with 38.

The two electric chairs most frequently used by convicts over the past sixty years are at Ridesvilk (Georgia, 300 executions) and Rayford (Florida, 196 executions).

Many of the electric chairs in use in the US were supplied by Westinghouse, others by local electricians, and one by the prisoners themselves.

The Miami Herald published in 1988 an administration-confirmed figure that showed $57 million had been spent on electrocution in Florida since 1976. This figure includes the cost of staying on death row in prison, the cost of appeal procedures. The state's total cost per person sentenced to the electric chair was estimated at $3.17 million, six times the cost of a forty-year prison sentence.

A similar study of convicts in Tennessee cites a figure of $3-5 million per convict. In New York State, a 1982 study published that, on average, a criminal process followed by an appeal procedure costs about $1.8 million, or twice as much as a person's lifetime allowance.

The electric chair itself cost thirty thousand dollars in 1966.

The hidden meaning of Harold Brown's "performances" did not escape the group of legislators in the state of New York, where a special commission created by the governor was working on the invention of a method of execution more humane than hanging. Recently, several very cruel executions have taken place, which have caused outrage among the broad masses. In particular, the unsuccessful hanging of one convict: his spine remained intact, and the man swayed on a rope for twenty minutes, being in a clear mind, and died, choking on saliva. In addition, the press often reported on accidents when electric shock caused quick death no obvious bodily injury.

In 1881, the death of Samuel Smith of 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 figures the idea that it was electric shock that could be the desired method of execution.

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

First electric chair

An ardent abolitionist, Thomas Edison hoped to destroy a competitor, testifying before the commission that death by electric shock occurs quickly and painlessly. 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 exploitation company is about to strike the decisive blow. She imports from Thailand half a dozen orangutans, large apes the size of a man, who are killed by alternating current as a warning to legislators. This sinister ceremony is said to have prompted them to become more familiar with the "wonderful world of electricity". Doctors interviewed are favorable, arguing that electric shock will lead to instant death due to cardiac arrest and paralysis of the respiratory apparatus. The U.S. Supreme Court debates and concludes that this type of execution is consistent with the Eight Amendments to the Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and inhuman punishment."

On June 4, 1889, New York state legalizes electrocution, instructing the state medical service to settle the technical details. Soon, of course, Harold Brown is called. He resumes a series of animal tests at Edison Laboratories and concludes that the execution should be carried out with a current of 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 a maximum.

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

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

Despite the lack of consensus, an ordinance signed by the Chief of Corrections, Harold Brown, is allowed to install his electric chair at Auburn State Prison. He is determined to do everything to make the chair associated with the name of a competitor, and makes an attempt to buy three powerful generators from Westinghouse's firm. As you might guess, they refuse him there. Thomas Edison again steps in and arranges with Thomson Houston Electric to purchase for him, through a Boston dealer in used electrical apparatus, the above-mentioned generators.

Organs 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 1980s, Chinese officials decided that the organs of the executed could be used as a source of foreign exchange earnings. Thus, the Chinese, through the mediation of doctors working in Hong Kong, who supply them with Western clients, have become famous in the field of kidney transplants.

One responsible person China, whose words were published in Puen magazine in June 1991, cited a figure of 1,000 transplants per year since 1990. And that's just the data on the kidneys. The number of transplants of other organs is not known, but we are probably talking about very significant numbers.

Considering that about 1,000 official executions take place in China every year (much more in fact), it is understandable why Chinese officials are pleased to note "that China is the only country in the world that has a surplus of organs."

There is only one step left before the commissioned execution, which the Chinese authorities may have already taken, given a pamphlet circulating in Hong Kong touting the value for money of Nanjing's communist hospitals: francs". “The kidney comes from a living donor,” the brochure clarifies. In 1992, Taiwan's justice minister, Liu Yu Wen, declared 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 named Francis Kemmeler. He was sentenced to death for hacking a man with an axe. George Westinghouse hires lawyers for him to appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that electrocution 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 of Auburn Prison. It was 6 hours 30 minutes. He was shaved and stripped down to his underpants. “Take your time and do everything right,” he tells the director of the prison. A few minutes later, he asks that the electrode attached to the helmet be tightened.

About forty people attended his execution, half of those invited were doctors and physicists.

The public, startled but curious, had twenty minutes to inspect the execution instrument before the condemned man was brought in.

The execution of Francis Kemmeler - the first executed in the electric chair. 1890 The execution lasted 17 minutes and caused a wave of protests around the world. Engraving. Private count

A room behind glass, from where witnesses and journalists monitor the execution. Archives of the Louisina Department of Corrections. Qty. Monestier.

Judicial errors

Many famous mathematicians of the 19th century, including Laplace, Cournot and Poisson, tried to determine, on the basis of the theory of probability, the proportion of erroneous and justified sentences. Thus, Poisson carefully analyzed the French criminal procedure. According to the famous scientist, the mathematical probability of 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. This data takes into account only those cases when the true killer was found and judicial authorities admitted their mistake.

The American Civil Liberties Association says 25 cases.

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

Two thick four-meter electric wires stretched from the panel, to which pre-wetted electrodes were connected.

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

Kemmeler was still alive. Then they gave me a second grade. The body of the condemned turned red and began to char, emitting a strong smell and yellowish smoke, which covered the witness stand. Three minutes later the power was turned off.

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

Finally, the condemned man died. An autopsy showed that the brain of the executed man became like a “burnt cupcake”, the blood in the head coagulated and turned black, and the back was completely charred. Both doctors officially stated that the convict did not suffer.

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

The Medical Commission and the state deputies found themselves in a very difficult position after the unsuccessful 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 calf muscle. At the suggestion of Thomas Edison, they tried to attach them to the palms. The seven executions carried out in this way were horrendous. Some convicts who could not be executed immediately died only when the location of the electrodes was changed, returning to the head-leg option.

Execution of juvenile offenders

In the 1980s, juvenile offenders 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 could not be sentenced to death.

Between 1974 and 1991, 92 juvenile delinquents, including 4 girls, were sentenced to death in the United States.

In 1989, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not against the constitution to execute 16-year-old criminals.

Of the 37 US states that have the death penalty in their laws, 26 have it applicable to offenders 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 in which the death penalty is applicable 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 less than 18:

- Montana: 12 years old.

- Mississippi: 13 years.

- Alabama, Missouri, Utah: 14 years.

- Arkansas, Louisiana, Virginia: 15 years.

- Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada: 16 years old.

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

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

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

Two sixteen-year-old suicide bombers. USA. 1959 Photo "Keyston".

First woman to be electrocuted

The first woman to be electrocuted was named Liz Place. She was put to death in 1899 in the state of New York for the murder of her daughter-in-law and husband. The sentenced woman was warned about the method of execution a few hours before the 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 demonstrated the highest degree mental courage. She sat down in the electric chair without hesitation and allowed herself to be bound without a single word. But this time, the execution was not up to the mark. As they wrote in the press, "she did not die from the first discharge of 1700 volts, although it lasted forty seconds." Witnesses saw how her lips moved between the first and second discharges: she was praying. The spectacle turned out to be so terrifying that the confessor could not bear it and turned away. After the second discharge, 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 “roast”. The journalist concluded: "The last word in improving the process of execution has not yet been said, since death does not occur instantly, as we would like."

Indeed, like all novelties, electrocution presented some problems that needed to be “finished”.

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

The abolitionists, whose outrage grew over the years, were told that since 1905 there had been about 500 accidental electric shocks a year in the country and that the unfortunate people died absolutely painlessly. Since the first execution by electric shock, which took place in 1890, each subsequent one has become an occasion for long and serious disputes among specialists.

What is the "ideal voltage" really? 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? Is it necessary to take into account the weight of the convict? Heart size? Health status?

Today, medicine admits that some individuals tolerate electric shock better. In the period between the world wars, there was an opinion that these were people of small stature, anemic and almost consumptive. It was even believed that one should not neglect such factors as temperature environment and the last meal menu.

Execution in 1933 of Zangara, murderer 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, from 50 to 100 amperes, passes through the body. Then he will die instantly, but the corpse will be so disfigured that there will be little left of it at all. However, Judeo-Christian morality requires respect for the body, and justice requires at least a minimum of decency, and the difficulty was to find a tension that could kill at once without causing visible bodily harm. Despite the existing technical problems, Americans at the beginning of the 20th century were by and large quite satisfied with the incomparable scientific achievement which was an electric shock. They praised his virtues 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 Fressdantal was not attracted by the new method of execution. He wrote: “Electrical shock is not as cruel as the sword and guillotine we use, but one serious reproach can be made to this method - uncertainty, painful uncertainty, regarding the exact moment of death. Has it really happened or is it just an appearance? How much time exactly elapses 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, out 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 execute by hanging, gas chamber or execution, and since 1977 - by means of death. injections.

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

Over the 20th century, a lot of terrible evidence of executions in the electric chair has accumulated. Kurt Rossa, referring to the testimony of 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 her back in her chair, but did not lose consciousness. 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 unfortunate 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 similar 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, there has been an increase in the number of countries carrying out public executions, often broadcast on radio and television.

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

In 1928, Joseph Lang, executioner at the Columbus State Prison (Ohio), testifies: “The first discharge of 1150 volts was not fatal, the heart was beating smoothly. And the second one didn't work. Then the voltage was tripled. 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 an electrocution in New York, the chaplain of Sing Sing prison wrote the following: “One might have thought that these were burns from lying too long in the bright sun, the whole body was swollen, acquiring a dark red color.”

In 1946, another witness stated: “The blood vessels swelled so that they burst ... The steam enveloped the head and bare knees, the latter acquired a black-and-blue color. Lips turned black, foam came out of the mouth.

The performers were most afraid of the possibility of breakage. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the car was tested on large piece meat. Later, the law determined the mandatory presence of a qualified electrician during the entire execution. In the event of a power failure, he was responsible for the immediate connection of the electric chair to the diesel generator installed in almost all "death rooms".

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

The American court chronicles mention an accident that occurred in 1938 in the Huntsville prison (Texas), when the convict was already put on a chair. The chair could not be turned on for several hours, and all this time the convict repeated: “Pardon! Pardon! It's God's will!" As a result, the execution was postponed for three days, despite thousands of demonstrators who rallied outside the prison building 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 wiring defect, 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 a chair, was beating furiously. His death was announced nineteen minutes after the first discharge.

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 electric discharges for a long time: “The first lasted two minutes, but did not kill him, for the next two he continued to fight and resist. After that, the doctors examined him and declared that he was still alive.

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

Complete technical defeat

Many experts today believe that electrocution has been a complete fiasco. Of course, many convicts die, so to speak, “normally”, but there are also many who depart 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 erupt from under his mask. Smoke came out from under the electrode on the right leg. The strap that fixed the leg caught fire and broke. After the second discharge, the convict's lawyers contacted Governor George Wallace to stop the procedure, which turned into unbearably cruel torture. The governor turned down the petition, and John Evans received a third, this time a lethal discharge.

In 1985, the execution of William Vandevere in Indiana required five shocks of 2,250 volts each. The execution lasted seventeen minutes. Even after the third discharge, the doctor declared 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 discharge, and even if the heart continues to beat and the lungs work, during subsequent discharges, the condemned 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 people in history to be electrocuted: he was barely seventeen when he was executed.

A witness to the execution says: “I saw the performer turn on the current. The convict's lips swelled, his body began to arch. I heard the executioner yelling at the executioner to turn up the pressure because Willie Francis wasn't dead. But the executioner replied that he had already given the maximum current. Willie Francis yelled, “Stop! Let me breathe!"

The execution was stopped. The survivor said: “I felt a burning sensation on my head and on my leg. Multi-colored specks flickered. After deliberation, the Supreme Court ruled that nothing prevented the execution of a miraculous survivor. Willie Francis was put back in his chair, and this time he died on the first shock.

In 1972, the US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia. The court made this extremely important decision, determining 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 preventive measure to life imprisonment. Criminals such as Charles Manson, the killer of actress Sharon Tate, Sirhan-Sirhan, the killer of Bob Kennedy, chuckling, left the "corridor of death."

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

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

For several decades now, the technology of electrocution has remained virtually 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, which varies from 1750 to 2500 volts depending on the apparatus.

The execution itself and the preparation for it take place according to clearly established regulations, which are sometimes so detailed in by-laws that it turns into a real ritual.

The death ritual in the electric chair is similar to that of other execution methods used in the United States. When the countdown begins, the prisoner is taken out of the "corridor of death" and placed in a cell called the "special death cell" 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 note "Legitimate execution by electric current."

A few hours before the execution, the handcuffed prisoner is brought to the "preparation room". In this room, located next to the execution room, the condemned is subjected to a thorough examination. Examine all openings - nose, ears, mouth, anus - checking if anything is hidden there, in particular metal objects that can interfere with the killing procedure.

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 sure that with a discharge of 2000 volts, the needles would come out of the body, turning it into a porcupine. Nothing of the sort happened.

After the inspection, the guard cuts the sentenced man's hair with a buzz cut, then shaves off the square on the top of his head for 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 or six minutes to bathe, after which he is put on a suit provided by the correctional facility. He can choose to stay barefoot or wear socks.

The execution of Richard (Bruno) Hauptmann in 1935. Photo "Keyston".

The death penalty in the electric chair of Willy Bragg, who killed his wife. The execution took place in Mississippi on a new chair improved by Jimmy Thompson. Engraving. Private count

States applying electric shock

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

Previously, 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 Frenchman William Francis, who was executed at the age of 17 in Louisiana in 1946.

Usually, while dressing, the 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 official witnesses appointed by the convict himself, as well as journalists chosen by lot. The "witness room" is opposite the chair, behind which is a small nook with the electrical equipment of the killing machine.

After seating the witnesses, the deputy director gives them written instructions, which, in particular, recommend to behave with dignity and not to communicate with the convict under any pretext. Witnesses are informed that during the execution will be on duty " ambulance', in case any of them got sick.

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

As soon as the prisoner is dressed, he is again handcuffed and takes the last steps to separate him from the electric chair. He enters, escorted by four guards, the director of the prison, and a chaplain. He sees a chair.

The "electric chair" is a large oak chair with three or four legs, often painted White color standing on a thick rubber carpet and bolted to the floor.

Every electric chair in the US is unique. In some states, they are made by firms or local artisans to specifications provided by the Department of Justice. In other states, they are created by the prisoners themselves. Like, for example, the electric chair of the famous Rayford prison in Florida. It was made by prisoners in 1924 from an oak tree cut down on the territory of the prison.

Warning lights are often used to indicate that "the chair is energized." The seat has a black rubber mat. The back of the chair is continued by two vertical posts twenty-five centimeters high, which serve to fix the head of the convict. Hands are tied to the armrests. In front between the legs there is a wooden plank that serves to fix the ankles.

In most cases, the convicted person is immobilized with seven straps: one for the lower back, one for the chest, one for the head, two for the wrists, two for the ankles.

The executioner, working anonymously, is in another room.

Location of the electrodes

Behind the chair on the wall is an electrical cabinet with two cables coming out of it. Attached to the same wall is a box containing "accessories": a helmet and a contact plate, "gaiters" and gloves of performers.

The helmet is made of thick leather, equipped with a chin strap and a special strip ten by twenty centimeters, with which the convict's eyes are closed. A “contact plate” is placed inside - a copper part curved shape ten centimeters in diameter, having in the center a rod protruding above the helmet, to which the first electrode is attached.

S. T. Judy's press conference prior to his execution in Michigan City in 1981. Photo "Keyston".

The inside 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 head of the convict, which led to serious burns and a terrible stench. However, even today, witnesses claim that the execution is accompanied by a terrible smell. The contact plate and sponge are often dipped in a solution of salted water to improve conductivity.

The director of the correctional facility 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 trouser leg is cut off at the knee and a "gaiter" with an inner layer of metal, usually lead, foil is put on the shaved ankle. On one side, a copper plate with a threaded rod protruding outward is fixed, 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.

Were the Americans themselves the first to question the infallibility of electrocution? Probably because almost all the states where it is practiced have passed laws requiring an autopsy to be performed immediately after an execution.

The state of New York gave the reason without false modesty: "To eliminate any possibility of returning the object to life." On August 23, 1991, in Greensville, Virginia, Derrick Peterson received a discharge of 1725 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 gets on the copper wires of the contact plate of the helmet, from which the convict should instantly lose consciousness and no longer feel pain.

Grim Collection

In May 1972, a unique collection of Michael Foreman, an English shipowner, who collected several hundred instruments of torture and killing from the 7th century to the present day, was sold at the Christie auction. The result of the auction - more than a million dollars.