The electric chair was invented by a dentist. When and who invented the electric chair? Cruel and unusual punishment

Invented for humane reasons, the electric chair turned out to be one of the cruelest ways death penalty.

War of the currents

On August 6, 1890, mankind entered new page into your history. Scientific and technological progress has reached such a specific kind of activity as the execution of death sentences. In the United States of America, the first death penalty was carried out on electric chair».
The electric chair indirectly owes its appearance to the famous inventor Thomas Edison. In the 1880s, the "war of currents" broke out in the United States - the struggle between the power supply systems for direct and alternating current. Edison was an adept of direct current systems, Nikola Tesla was an adept of alternating current systems.
Edison, trying to tip the scales in his favor, pointed out the extreme danger of alternating current systems. For clarity, the inventor sometimes demonstrated eerie experiments, killing animals with alternating current.
In American society at the end of the 19th century, literally in love with electricity, the issue of humanizing the death penalty was simultaneously discussed. Many believed that hanging was too much atrocity, which should be replaced by a more humane way of killing.
It is not surprising that the idea of ​​the death penalty by means of electricity has become extremely popular.

Observant dentist

First, the idea of ​​​​an "electric death machine" came to the mind of an American dentist, Albert Southwick. Once, in front of his eyes, a middle-aged drunkard touched the contacts electric generator. The unfortunate man's death was instantaneous.
Southwick, who witnessed the scene, shared his observation with his patient and friend David Macmillan.
Mr. Macmillan was a senator and, considering Southwick's proposal sensible, he turned to the New York State Legislature with an initiative to introduce a new, "progressive" method of execution.
The discussion of the initiative lasted about two years, and the number of supporters of the new method of execution was constantly growing. Among those who were both hands "for" 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 conclusion from experts on the possibility of using the "electric chair" for the death penalty. On January 1, 1889, the Electric Execution Act went into effect in New York State.
Supporters of the use of alternating current in everyday life strongly opposed its use for murder purposes, but were powerless.
In 1890 Edwin Davis, an electrician at Auburn Prison, built the first operating model 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 condemned, thus relieving him of his suffering. The victim 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 high back, equipped with belts for rigid fixation of the sentenced. 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. The current limiting system is designed so that the body of the condemned 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 this, the hair at the crown is shaved. The eyes are either sealed with a plaster, or simply put on a black hood over the head. A sponge impregnated with saline solution is inserted into the helmet: this is done in order to ensure a minimum electrical resistance helmeted contact with the head and thus hasten death and alleviate the physical suffering of the executed.
Then the current is turned on, which is supplied twice for one minute with a break of 10 seconds. It is believed that by the time the second minute expires, the condemned must be dead.
Critics of the "electric chair" from the very beginning pointed out that all the arguments about his humanity are purely theoretical, and in practice everything can turn out quite differently.

First "client"

There were two candidates for going down in history as the first victim of the electric chair - Joseph Chapleau, who killed a neighbor, and William Kemmler, who killed his mistress with an ax.
As a result, Chapleau's lawyers achieved a pardon, and Kemmler got the "honor" to try out the new invention on himself.
By the time of his execution, William Kemmler was 30 years old. His parents were emigrants from Germany, who were not built in America new life, but tritely drank themselves and died, leaving their son an orphan.
A difficult childhood also affected later life, which Kemmler did not spoil. 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, referring to the US Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment", tried to have the court's decision overturned, but their appeal was rejected.
August 6, 1890, at 6 o'clock in the morning, in the Auburn prison, the first electric shock ran through the body of William Kemmler.

Fried Facts

Everything went wrong, as described by theorists. Kemmler's body convulsed so violently that the prison doctor, confused by what he saw, gave the command to turn off the current in less than 20 seconds, and not in a minute, as planned. At first it seemed that Kemmler was dead, but then he began to take convulsive sighs and moan. For a new attempt to kill, it took time to recharge the device. Finally, the current was given a second time, this time for one minute. Kemmler's body began to smoke, and the smell of burnt meat spread throughout the room. After a minute, the doctor stated that the convict was dead.
The opinion of the witnesses, who were more than twenty people, turned out to be extremely unanimous - the killing of Kemmler looked extremely disgusting. One reporter wrote that the condemned man was literally "roasted to death."
The external impression of the journalist was not so deceptive. Forensic doctors who worked with the bodies of those executed in the "electric chair" said that the brain, subjected to the strongest current, is almost welded.
Despite the negative impressions of 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 form of capital punishment in the United States.

Executed at will

Abroad, however, this kind of execution has not received wide distribution. And in the United States itself in the 1970s, the "electric chair" gradually began to be replaced by lethal injection.
Over 4,300 people have been executed in the history of the electric chair.
Currently, execution in the "electric chair" is officially maintained 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" are over thirty years old, and some are already over 70, so they often fail during executions.
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 42-year-old Robert Gleason, who was executed in Virginia in January 2013, did. Convicted in 2007 to life imprisonment for the murder of an FBI agent, Gleason dealt with two of his cellmates in prison, explaining his actions with a desire to get ... into the "electric chair". Moreover, the criminal promised to continue to kill cellmates if he was not given such an opportunity. As a result, Robert Gleason got his way, becoming, perhaps, one of the last "clients" in the history of the "electric chair".

Assassin of President McKinley. 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 six states - in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia at the choice of the convict along with lethal injection, and in Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, only those who committed a crime before a certain date have the right to choose to use the electric chair (in Kentucky - April 1, 1998, in Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Tennessee and Virginia, the electric chair may also be used if components for lethal injection are not found. In Florida, the electric chair is used at the request of the convicted person, within 30 days of the approval of the death sentence by the Florida Supreme Court, the default is lethal injection. The last electrocution in the state of Florida was in 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 Arkansas and Oklahoma, it can only be used 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.

In the state of Alabama, since 2018, the procedure for using execution methods has been following the regulation:

1. Lethal injection is routinely used
2. If the injection is "impossible" or declared unconstitutional, pure nitrogen execution is used (a new type of execution, probably should be carried out using a special mask)
3. If injection and "execution by nitrogen inhalation" are declared unconstitutional, or if both methods of execution cannot be used, an electric chair is used
4. If all three methods of execution are declared unconstitutional or if they cannot be executed, execution is used.

During 2001, 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2014-2018, this method of execution was never used, in all other years of the 21st century - once. Kentucky and Nebraska last used the electric chair in 1997, Georgia in 1998 (further use was banned by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2001), Florida in 1999, Alabama in 2002, and Tennessee. - in 2007, in South Carolina - in 2008. IN last years the electric chair is only used in Virginia (between 2009 and 2013, three death row inmates were executed in the electric chair).

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

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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. 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 of the execution, contacts are sent alternating current with a voltage of about 2700, the current limiting system maintains a current through the body of the convict of the order of 5. The current and voltage are limited so that the convict does not catch fire during the 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 sentenced person 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 glued. 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 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 body 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 inclusions 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. William Vandiver was killed only after the fifth electric shock.

Story

The creation of the electric chair is associated with the name of Thomas Edison. In the 1880s in the United States, Edison, who organized the first DC power supply system, actively competed with the 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, horrifying 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 "of the most humane and commendable mode of carrying out death sentences." 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 were 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. Edison was later forced to admit that he had 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

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

Famous people who were executed in the electric chair

• William Kemmler (, New York) - the first man in the world to be executed in the electric chair.
• Martha Place (, New York) - the first woman to be executed in the electric chair.
• Leon Czolgosz (, New York) - assassin of President McKinley.
• Chester Gillett (, New York) is a murderer who became the prototype of a fictional character in Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy.
• Charles Becker (English)Russian(, New York) - a 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 political persecution.
• Giuseppe Zangara (, Florida) - attempted on the life of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and killed the mayor of Chicago.
• Albert Fish (, New York) is a serial killer known as "Moon Maniac", "Grey 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 State
• Herman and Paul Petrillo (, Pennsylvania) - the leaders of a gang of assassins Philadelphia poison ring.
• Herbert Haupt, Edward John Kerling, 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) - a famous American gangster of the 1930s, the only mafia leader in the United States sentenced to death.
• Lena Baker () is an African-American woman who was executed for the murder of her employer.
• Willie Francis (, Louisiana) is a black juvenile delinquent who was sentenced to death and was twice executed in the electric chair (see Francis v. Resweber).
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (, New York) - American communists accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
• Rhonda Bell Martin ( , Alabama) is an American serial killer.
• Charles Starkweather (Eng. Charles Starkweather) (, Nebraska) is an American serial killer, known as the "drunken killer."
• James French (English)Russian(, Oklahoma) - the last prisoner executed before the adoption of a moratorium on the death penalty in the United States in

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 of execution.

The electric chair, one of the most controversial killing tools, raising doubts even among supporters of the death penalty, emerged from an economic and industrial war between two competing companies that stood for supremacy. different types current: alternating and constant.

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 station 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. Seeking 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 hits copper wires 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 installed between the state governor's office and the room where the "chair" is located in case last minute adjournment decision will be 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.

Historical 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. IN Lately several very cruel executions took place, which aroused the indignation of 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 prohibit "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: soon the alternating current of Westinghouse would 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 in China, whose words were published in June 1991 by Puen magazine, 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 "induction electric current into the body, ”to follow the official wording, was the name of 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 well,” 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 person 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, mathematical probability 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 the 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 strong smell and yellowish smoke that covered the witness stand. Three minutes later the power was turned off.

Oh God! The man seemed to be still alive. The current was switched 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 his head coagulated and turned black, and his 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 a study 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 that was 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 new method did not attract execution. He wrote: “Electrical shock is not as cruel as the sword and guillotine that we use, but this method can be presented with one serious reproach - 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 US states from this method refused, of the twenty-three states that used it in 1967, only fourteen remained by the end of the 20th century, in others they preferred to be executed by hanging, gas chamber or firing squad, and since 1977 - by lethal injection.

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 to make such a decision. An hour later, the convict was returned to the execution room, where this time she died from the first discharge.

Deadly performances

Since the early 1980s, 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 machine was tested on a large piece of 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: 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 took it 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 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 inspection. 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 victims of electrocution were George Stinney, who was executed at the age of 16 in South Carolina in 1944 for murder, and the Frenchman William Francis, who was executed at the age of 17 in Louisiana in 1946.

Usually, while dressing, 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 located opposite the chair, behind which is a small nook with electrical equipment killing machines.

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 an ambulance will be on duty during the execution, in case one of them becomes unwell.

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 felled 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 racks 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. Inside is placed a "contact plate" - copper detail 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.