Who was the inventor of the electric chair by profession? When and who invented the electric chair? Death Penalty Law

At the end of the 19th century, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent lamp, which was truly a great invention that made it possible to use electricity to illuminate cities ...

A Buffalo, New York dentist named Albert Southwick thought that electricity could be used in his medical practice as a pain reliever.
One day, Southwick saw a Buffalo resident touch the bare wires of an electric generator in a city power plant and die, Southwick thought, almost instantly and painlessly.
This incident gave him the idea that execution with electricity could replace hanging as a more humane and quicker punishment.
Southwick first spoke with the head of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Colonel Rockwell, suggesting using electricity to dispose of unwanted animals instead of drowning them (a traditionally used method).
Rockwell liked this idea.

In 1882, Southwick began experimenting on animals, publishing his results in scientific newspapers.
Southwick then showed the results to his influential friend, Senator David McMillan. Southwick stated that the main advantage of the execution with the use of electricity is that it is painless and fleeting.

Macmillan was committed to retaining the death penalty; he was attracted by this idea as an argument against the abolition of the death penalty, because this type of execution cannot be called cruel and inhumane, therefore, supporters of the abolition of the death penalty will lose their most compelling arguments.
Macmillan relayed what he had heard to New York Governor David Bennett Hill.

In 1886, the "Law on the Establishment of a Commission for Research and Presentation of an Opinion on the Most Humane and Acceptable Method of Executing the Death Sentence" was adopted.
The commission included Southwick, Judge Matthew Hale and politician Eluridge Jerry.
The conclusion of the commission, outlined in ninety-five pages of the report, was that the best method of carrying out the death penalty was by using electricity.
The report recommended that the state replace hanging with a new type of execution.
Governor Hill signs the law on June 5, 1888, which was to take effect on January 1, 1889, and initiate a new, humane, punishment in New York State.

It remained to decide the question concerning the apparatus itself for enforcing the sentence and the question of what type of electric current should be used: direct or alternating.
It is worth considering the history of AC and DC currents. How do they differ, and which current is more suitable for execution?
Long before the invention of Thomas Edison, scientists from different countries were working on this subject, but no one was able to use electricity in everyday life. Edison put into practice the theory developed before him.
Edison's first power plant was built in 1879; almost immediately, representatives of different cities in the United States went to the scientist.
Edison's DC system had its own difficulties. Direct current flows in one direction. It is impossible to supply direct current over a long distance; power plants had to be built, even to provide electricity to a medium-sized city.

The way out was found by the Croatian scientist Nikola Tesla. He developed the idea of using alternating current.
The alternating current can change direction several times per second, creating a magnetic field without losing electrical voltage.
AC voltage can be stepped up and down with transformers.
High voltage current can be transmitted over long distances with low losses, and then, through a step-down transformer, bring electricity to consumers.
Several cities used an AC system (but not designed by Tesla), and this system attracted investors.

One such investor was George Westinghouse, famous for his invention of the aerodynamic brake.
Westinghouse intended to make the use of AC profitable, but Edison's DC technology was more popular at the time. Tesla worked for Edison, but he did not pay attention to his development, and Tesla resigned.
He soon patented his ideas and was able to demonstrate them in action.
In 1888 Westinghouse bought forty patents from Tesla, and within a few years more than a hundred cities were using the AC system. Edison's enterprise began to lose ground. It was becoming apparent that the AC system would replace the DC system.
However, Edison did not believe it. In 1887, he began to discredit the Westinghouse system by requiring his employees to collect information on AC deaths in the hopes of proving that his system was safer for the public.

The battle of the titans, as this story is sometimes called, began when the question arose about the type of current that was to be used in the death penalty apparatus. Edison did not want his invention to be associated with death, he wanted an alternating current to be used in the death penalty apparatus.

On June 5, 1888, a letter from Harold Brown was published in the New York Evening Post, warning of the dangers of alternating current. This letter provoked an alarming reaction in the community. Brown was an employee of Edison in the 1870s, and it can be assumed that this letter was a certified letter. In 1888, Brown conducted a series of experiments on animals, demonstrating the destructive power of alternating current. The trials used two second-hand alternators because Westinghouse refused to sell their generators. Experiments were carried out on several dozen dogs, cats, on two horses.

The speech of the respected scientist Thomas Edison before the commission on the decision of the method of execution made a vivid impression. The legendary inventor convinced everyone present that death with the use of electricity is painless and quick, of course, in the case of using alternating current. The commission had the choice to introduce lethal injection.
Lethal injection is considered more humane than electric stool. In the XX century, almost all states in which the death penalty exists began to use it.

Perhaps many would not have suffered from the electric chair if there had not been competition between campaigns or Edison's convincing speech before the commission, although the main question was that the execution by lethal injection should take place with the help of doctors or the doctors themselves, which is impossible for obvious reasons.

The first execution took place on January 1, 1889.
For several decades after this event, this "unit" was called the Westinghouse chair or "Westinghoused" chair.

The next executions took place in the spring of 1891.
Four were executed for various crimes. The method of enforcement has been adjusted. The generator has become more powerful, the wires are thicker. The second electrode was connected not to the spine, but to the arm.
These executions proceeded more smoothly and the new method was accepted by public opinion.
The first "test" of the innovation was a killer named Kemmsler. For obvious reasons, he could not describe his feelings, but witnesses to the execution noted that 15 - 20 seconds after the first discharge, the offender was still alive.
I had to turn on the current of a higher voltage and for a longer time. For a long time and painfully, the "experiment" was carried out "to the end." This execution caused many protests from the American and world public.

And the technology of murder with the help of an electric chair is as follows: the criminal is seated on a chair, tied to him with leather straps and fixing his wrists, ankles, hips and chest. Two copper electrodes are attached to the body, one on the leg, the skin underneath is usually shaved to better conduct the current, and the other is placed on the shaved crown. Typically, the electrodes are lubricated with a special gel to improve current flow and reduce skin burning. An opaque mask is put on the face.

The executioner presses the switch button on the control panel, giving the first discharge with a voltage of 1700 - 2400 volts and a duration of 30 - 60 seconds. The time is set in advance on the timer and the current is cut off automatically. After 2 discharges, the doctor examines the body of the offender, who may not have been killed by the previous discharges. Death occurs as a result of cardiac arrest and respiratory paralysis.

However, modern executors came to the conclusion that the passage of current through the brain does not cause instant cardiac arrest (clinical death), but only prolongs the suffering. Now the criminals are made incisions and electrodes are inserted into the left shoulder and right thigh so that the discharge passes just through the aorta and heart.

Although all methods of execution are cruel to one degree or another, it is the electric chair that is characterized by frequent and tragic malfunctions that cause additional suffering for the convict, especially in cases where the equipment is old and needs to be repaired.

All this led to the fact that, under the influence of the famous American human rights activist Leo Jones, the electric chair was recognized as a "cruel, inapplicable" punishment, contrary to the US Constitution.

At the end of the 19th century, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent lamp, which was truly a great invention that made it possible to use electricity to illuminate cities ...

The first execution took place on January 1, 1889.
For several decades after this event, this "unit" was called the Westinghouse chair or "Westinghoused" chair.

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Application

The electric chair was first used in the United States on August 6, 1890 at the Auburn Jail in New York State. William Kemmler, the assassin, became the first person to be executed in this way. Eleven years later, Leon Cholgosh, the killer of President McKinley, was executed in the same prison in the electric chair. During the 20th century, it was used in 26 states, but in recent decades it has been actively supplanted by other forms of execution (for example, lethal injection) and is now used quite rarely. From 1952 to 1976, it was also used in the Philippines.

Currently it can be used in seven states - in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia at the choice of the convict along with a lethal injection, and in Kentucky and Tennessee, only those who have committed a crime before a certain date have the right to choose the use of an electric chair (in Kentucky - April 1, 1998, Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Tennessee and Virginia, the electric chair can also be used in the event that lethal injection components are not found. In Nebraska, the electric chair was used as the only method of execution, but on February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it was "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the constitution. In Arkansas and Oklahoma, it can only be used in strictly specified cases, for example, if all other methods of execution are found to be unconstitutional at the time of execution.

During 2001, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, this method of execution was not used once, in all other years of the XXI century - once. In Kentucky and Nebraska, the electric chair was last used in 1997, in Georgia in 1998 (further use was prohibited by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2001), in Florida in 1999, in Alabama in 2002, in Tennessee - in 2007, in South Carolina - in 2008. In recent years, the electric chair has only been used in Virginia (between 2009 and 2013, three death row prisoners were electrocuted).

The last known case of using the electric chair was recorded on January 16, 2013, when Robert Gleeson, a prisoner who killed two inmates in order to receive a death sentence, was executed in Virginia.

Device and principle of operation

The electric chair is a chair made of dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps to firmly secure the prisoner. Hands are attached to the armrests, legs - in special clips of the chair legs. A special helmet is also attached to the chair. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. The hardware includes a step-up transformer. During the execution of the execution, an alternating current with a voltage of the order of 2700 is supplied to the contacts, the current limiting system maintains a current through the body of the convict of order 5. Current and voltage are limited so that the convicted person does not catch fire during the execution.

The chair's power management system is protected against switching on, which must be deactivated immediately before the execution by the person in charge using a special key. According to one of the versions, the chair can have one or more control switches, pressing which turns on the current. 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 a part of the shooters is given a weapon loaded with blank cartridges).

Execution procedure

The sentenced person is seated in an electric chair, his hands are attached to the armrests, and his legs are attached to the foot contacts. Before putting on the helmet, a hood is put on the suicide bomber's head, or his eyes are glued. The helmet is put on the head of the convict, on which the hair on the crown of the head is shaved before execution. A sponge impregnated with a saline solution is embedded in the helmet to ensure minimal electrical resistance to contact with the head in the helmet and, thus, hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the convict. The body is secured 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 starts and time intervals may differ). After turning off the power, the doctor must make sure that the convicted person is dead. In some US states and states, if death does not occur, the operation may continue. William Wendiver was killed only after the fifth shock.

History

The creation of the electric chair is associated with the name of Thomas Edison. In the 1920s in the United States, Edison, who organized the first DC power supply system, actively competed with new AC power systems, which was called the war of currents. Edison convinced consumers of the shortcomings of competitors' systems, promoted the danger of such systems, including making public experiments on killing animals with alternating current.

These events coincided with the discussion that began in the country on the choice of a more humane method of the death penalty (until the 80s of the XIX century, mainly hanging was used in the USA. the executioner sometimes could not foresee the nuances, and death came not from a fracture of the vertebrae, as was supposed, but from strangulation, which is more painful.

The increasing use of electricity, naturally, was accompanied by periodic accidents, as a result of which people died. 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. Amazed at how quickly and outwardly painlessly died, Southwick approached a friend, Senator David Macmillan, with a proposal to replace the rope with wires. He asked the New York State Legislature to consider the prospects for using electricity under the death penalty in order to avoid hanging. In 1886, a commission was formed to investigate "the most humane and commendable way of carrying out death sentences." At this stage, the famous Thomas Edison was included in the history of the electric chair, and so tenaciously that this chair, by analogy with the guillotine, could be called "Edisonin" (although the prison population of America calls it "yellow mother" or "old smokehouse"). The inventor settled in West Orange (English) Russian(New Jersey) showcase experience: Several cats and dogs were lured onto a metal plate energized by 1000 VAC. In 1888, the New York State Legislature passed legislation establishing execution by electricity as the state's method of carrying out executions.

In the second half of 1888, inventor Harold Brown and Columbia University employee Fred Peterson conducted research in Edison's 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 experiments on December 12, 1888, the group submitted a report to the Forensic Society of the State of New York, in which it recommended the electric chair as an execution weapon (other options were considered, including a tank with water and a rubber-coated table). On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act entered into force in New York State.

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

William Kemmler and Joseph Chaplo (the first for the murder of his mistress, the second for the murder of a neighbor) were the first convicted to be executed in the electric chair. Shaplo was pardoned and received a life sentence. Westinghouse tried to save Kemmler, for which he hired lawyers who demanded an appeal against the verdict on the basis that execution by electric chair fell within the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, but the appeals were rejected.

In 1890, Edwin Davis, an electrician at the Auburn prison, developed the first working electric chair. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler was the first in the world to be electrocuted at Auburn Prison. Although one of the reporters said: "He did not hurt at all!" George Westinghouse commented on the execution with the words: "They would have done better with an ax" (Kemmler killed his mistress with an ax).

The electric chair was introduced to Ohio in 1896, Massachusetts in 1898, New Jersey in 1906, Virginia in 1908, and North Carolina in 1910. Over the next ten years, it was legalized in more than ten states and became the most popular instrument of execution 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 supply systems, the electric chair could not fulfill just this function. Despite its appearance, the use of alternating current has expanded. Edison was later forced to admit that he had underestimated the benefits of alternating current. In 1912 Westinghouse was awarded the Edison Medal for advances in this technology.

Outside the USA

"Owner" Alexander Komin from Vyatskiye Polyany used a homemade electric chair to kill one of his prisoners.

High-profile people who were electrocuted

William Kemmler (, New York) is the first man in the world to be electrocuted.
Martha Place (, New York) is the first woman to be electrocuted.
Leon Cholgosh (, New York) - assassin of President McKinley.
Chester Gillett (New York) is an assassin who became the prototype for a fictional character in Theodore Dreiser's novel American Tragedy.
Charles Becker (English) Russian(, New York) - New York police officer, the first police officer in the United States to be sentenced to death for murder.
Sacco and Vanzetti (Massachusetts) - Executed on trumped-up charges, became a textbook example of politically motivated persecution.
Giuseppe Zangara (, Florida) - attempted on the life of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and assassinated the mayor of Chicago.
Albert Fish (New York) - serial killer known as "Moon Maniac", "Gray Ghost", "Brooklyn Vampire", "Boogie Man", "Wisteria Werewolf".
Bruno Richard Hauptmann (English) Russian(, New Jersey) - German criminal convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr.
Anna Maria Khan (, Ohio) is an American serial killer.
Herman and Paul Petrillo (Pennsylvania) are the leaders of the Philadelphia poison ring.
Herbert Haupt, Edward John Curling, Richard Quirin, Heinrich Harm Heink, Hermann Otto Neubauer, Werner Thiel (Washington) - German agents during World War II, participants in Operation Pastorius (English) Russian.
Louis Lepke (, New York) - famous American gangster of the 1930s, the only mafia leader in the United States who was sentenced to death.
Lena Baker () - African American who was executed for the murder of her employer.

Humanely invented, the electric chair has proven to be one of the most brutal methods of capital punishment.

War of currents

On August 6, 1890, humanity has written a new page in its history. Scientific and technological progress has also reached such a specific type of activity as the execution of death sentences. The United States of America carried out the first death penalty in the electric chair.
The "Electric Chair" owes its appearance indirectly to the famous inventor Thomas Edison. In the 1880s, a "war of currents" broke out in the United States - a struggle between AC and DC power systems. Edison was an adept in direct current systems, and Nikola Tesla was an adept in alternating current systems.
Edison, trying to tip the scales in his direction, pointed out the extreme danger of AC systems. For clarity, the inventor sometimes demonstrated eerie experiments, killing animals with alternating current.
In the American society of the late 19th century, literally in love with electricity, the issue of humanizing the death penalty was simultaneously discussed. Many believed that hanging was too great an atrocity that should be replaced by a more humane method of killing.
Unsurprisingly, the idea of the death penalty using electricity has become extremely popular.

Observational dentist

The first thought about the "electric death machine" came to the mind of the American dentist Albert Southwick. Once, in front of his eyes, an elderly drunkard touched the contacts of an electric generator. The death of the unfortunate was instant.
Southwick, who witnessed this scene, shared the observation with his patient and friend David McMillan.
Mr. Macmillan was a senator and, considering Southwick's proposal a good one, approached the New York State Legislature with an initiative to introduce a new, "progressive" method of execution.
Discussion of the initiative lasted for about two years, and the number of supporters of the new method of execution was constantly growing. Among those who were in favor of both hands was Thomas Edison.
In 1888, a series of additional experiments on killing animals was carried out in Edison's laboratories, after which the authorities received a positive opinion from experts about the possibility of using the "electric chair" for the death penalty. On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act entered into force in New York State.
Supporters of the use of alternating current in everyday life opposed its use for murder in every possible way, but they were powerless.
In 1890, Auburn prison electrician Edwin Davis built the first working model of the new "death machine".

Humane theory

The humanity of the execution, according to the supporters of the invention, was that the electric current rapidly destroys the brain and nervous system of the sentenced person, thereby saving him from suffering. The executed loses consciousness in thousandths of a second, and the pain simply does not have time to reach the brain during this time.
The “electric chair” itself is a chair made of dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps to rigidly fix the sentenced person. Hands are attached to the armrests, legs - in special clips of the chair legs. A special helmet is also attached to the chair. Electrical contacts are connected to the ankle attachment points and to the helmet. The current limiting system is designed so that the body of the condemned person does not catch fire during the execution.
After the sentenced person is seated on a chair and fixed, a helmet is put on his head. Before that, the hair on the crown is shaved off. The eyes are either sealed with a plaster, or simply put on a black hood over the head. A sponge soaked in saline is embedded in the helmet: this is done in order to ensure the minimum electrical resistance of contact in the helmet with the head and thus hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the person being executed.
Then the current is turned on, which is supplied twice for one minute with an interval of 10 seconds. It is believed that by the time the second minute has elapsed, the sentenced person must be dead.
Critics of the "electric chair" from the very beginning pointed out that all arguments about its humanity are purely theoretical, and in practice everything can turn out quite differently.

First "client"

There were two candidates to go down in history as the first victim of the electric chair - Joseph Chaplot, who killed a neighbor, and William Kemmler, who hacked his mistress with an ax.
As a result, Shaplo's lawyers achieved a pardon, and Kemmler got the "honor" to test the new invention on himself.
At the time of his execution, William Kemmler was 30 years old. His parents were immigrants from Germany, who did not build a new life in America, but simply drank themselves and died, leaving their son an orphan.
A difficult childhood also affected later life, which did not indulge Kemmler. In the spring of 1889, after a quarrel with his mistress Tilly Ziegler, a man killed her with an ax blow.
The court sentenced Kemmler to death, which was to be carried out in the electric chair.
Lawyers, citing the US Constitution prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment", tried to get the court's decision to be overturned, but their appeal was rejected.
On August 6, 1890, at 6 o'clock in the morning, in the prison in the city of Auburn, the first electric shock passed through the body of William Kemmler.

Fried facts

Things didn't go as the theorists had described. Kemmler's body was convulsing so violently that the prison doctor, confused by what he saw, gave the order to turn off the current in less than 20 seconds, and not after a minute, as planned. At first it seemed that Kemmler was dead, but then he began to make convulsive sighs and moan. It took a while to recharge the device for another attempt at killing. Finally, the current was given a second time, this time for one minute. Kemmler's body began to smoke, the smell of burnt meat spread through the room. After a minute, the physician stated that the convict was dead.
The opinion of the witnesses, who numbered more than twenty people, turned out to be extremely unanimous - the killing of Kemmler looked extremely disgusting. One of the reporters wrote that the sentenced person was literally “roasted to death”.
The external impression of the journalist was not so deceiving. Forensic doctors who worked with the bodies of those executed in the "electric chair" said that the brain, which is most strongly exposed to the current, is practically welded.
Despite the negative impressions of the witnesses to the execution of William Kemmler, the "electric chair" began to rapidly gain popularity. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, it had become the most popular method of capital punishment in the United States.

Executed at will

Abroad, however, this kind of execution is not widespread. And in the United States itself, in the 1970s, lethal injection gradually began to supplant the "electric chair".
In the entire history of the use of the "electric chair", more than 4,300 people have been executed on it.
Currently, the electrocution is officially retained in eight states. However, in practice, this execution is resorted to less and less, including due to technical difficulties. The newest "models" of these "death machines" today are more than thirty years old, and some are already more than 70 years old, so during executions they often fail.
In a number of US states, there is a rule according to which the offender himself can choose the method of execution. This is exactly what the 42-year-old Robert Gleeson, who was executed in Virginia in January 2013, did. Convicted in 2007 to life imprisonment for the murder of an FBI agent Gleason in prison, dealt with two of his inmates, explaining his actions by the desire to get ... on the "electric chair". Moreover, the offender promised to continue killing inmates if he was not given such an opportunity. As a result, Robert Gleeson got his way, becoming perhaps one of the last "clients" in the history of the "electric chair".