Humanely invented, the electric chair turned out 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 kind 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" flared up in the United States - a struggle between AC and DC power systems. Edison was an adept of DC systems, Nikola Tesla of AC systems.
Edison, trying to tip the scales in his direction, pointed to 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.
Promotional video:
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 his 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.
The 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 the killing of animals was carried out in Edison's laboratories, after which the authorities received a positive opinion from specialists 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".
Electrocution. The illustration was made after experiments on the appropriateness of the death penalty in 1888.
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 person 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 convict. 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 condemned is seated on a chair and fixed, a helmet is put on his head. Before that, the hair on the crown is shaved. 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 a break 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 won a pardon, and Kemmler got the "honor" to try out 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 punishments", 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 of the city of Auburn, the first electric shock ran through the body of William Kemmler.
Fried facts
Things didn't go as the theorists 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 time to recharge the device for a new 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 to the execution, 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 form 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 replace the "electric chair".
In the entire history of using the "electric chair", more than 4300 people have been executed on it.
Currently, the electric chair is officially retained in eight states. However, in practice, this execution is used less and less often, 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, 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 January 2013 in Virginia, did. Convicted in 2007 to life imprisonment for the murder of an FBI agent Gleason in prison, dealt with two of his cellmates, 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 Gleason got his way, becoming perhaps one of the last "clients" in the history of the "electric chair".
Andrey Sidorchik
