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123-602: Closely linked to capital punishment in the United States , the electric chair was also used extensively in the Philippines . It was initially thought to cause death through cerebral damage, but it was scientifically established in 1899 that death primarily results from ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest. Despite its historical significance in American capital punishment, electric chair use has declined with

246-494: A "unitary trial" procedure in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment. The last pre- Furman execution was that of Luis Monge on June 2, 1967. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the impositions of the death penalty in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional in violation of

369-611: A Massachusetts model. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the widely reviled 1918 case Hammer v. Dagenhart , found the new federal child protection law, the Keating-Owen Act of 1916 , violated the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, in a case now known for its dissent by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Two years later, with Gerry as the organization's legal advisor, SPCCC bought

492-423: A certain date can choose to be executed by electric chair. Arkansas currently doesn't have any death row inmates sentenced before their select date. Electrocution is also authorized in the three aforementioned states in case lethal injection is found unconstitutional by a court. In May 2014, Tennessee passed a law allowing the use of the electric chair if lethal injection drugs were unavailable. On February 15, 2008,

615-446: A competition between Thomas Edison 's direct current power system and George Westinghouse 's alternating current based system. The two companies had been competing commercially since 1886 and a series of events had turned it into an all-out media war in 1888. The committee head, neurologist Frederick Peterson , enlisted the services of Harold P. Brown as a consultant. Brown had been on his own crusade against alternating current after

738-522: A dentist who had a technical background, thought some application could be found for the curious phenomenon. Southwick joined physician George E. Fell and the head of the Buffalo ASPCA in a series of experiments electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs. They ran trials with the dog in water and out of water, and varied the electrode type and placement until they came up with a repeatable method to euthanize animals using electricity. Southwick went on in

861-548: A due process of law for deprivation of life by any states. The Espy file , compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, lists 15,269 people executed in the United States and its predecessor colonies between 1608 and 1991. From 1930 to 2002, there were 4,661 executions in the United States; about two-thirds of them in the first 20 years. Additionally, the United States Army executed 135 soldiers between 1916 and 1961 (the most recent). Three states abolished

984-482: A fall, outliving his wife by seven years. He was entombed in the churchyard of St. James Church in Hyde Park, New York . The associated Episcopal church is best known for its association with Franklin D. Roosevelt , who served on the vestry and as senior warden, and tours of the cemetery continue to be offered. At his death, Gerry was reputed to be worth $ 26 million, primarily in landholdings, making him one of

1107-484: A hatchet. An appeal on Kemmler's behalf was made to the New York Court of Appeals on the grounds that use of electricity as a means of execution constituted a " cruel and unusual punishment " and was thus contrary to the constitutions of the United States and the state of New York. On December 30, 1889, the writ of habeas corpus sworn out on Kemmler's behalf was denied by the court, with Judge Dwight writing in

1230-652: A law reintroducing electrocution and also allowing executions to be carried out via nitrogen gas . Capital punishment in the United States In the United States , capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout the country at the federal level , and in American Samoa . It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses . Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in

1353-526: A lengthy ruling: We have no doubt that if the Legislature of this State should undertake to proscribe for any offense against its laws the punishment of burning at the stake , breaking at the wheel , etc., it would be the duty of the courts to pronounce upon such attempt the condemnation of the Constitution. The question now to be answered is whether the legislative act here assailed is subject to

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1476-538: A more humane means of execution. The commission members surveyed the history of execution and sent out a fact-finding questionnaire to government officials, lawyers, and medical experts all around the state asking for their opinion. A slight majority of respondents recommended hanging over electrocution, with a few instead recommending the abolition of capital punishment. The commission also contacted electrical experts, including Thomson-Houston Electric Company 's Elihu Thomson (who recommended high voltage AC connected to

1599-487: A prisoner between 1872 and 1984. Other states which abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, and North Dakota in 1973. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1948 and Alaska in 1957, both before their statehood. Puerto Rico repealed it in 1929 and the District of Columbia in 1981. Arizona and Oregon abolished

1722-540: A way to restrain the condemned, a device that from then on would be called the electric chair . After a series of botched hangings in the United States, there was mounting criticism of that form of capital punishment and the death penalty in general. In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member death penalty commission, which was chaired by the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale and Southwick, to investigate

1845-426: Is different" jurisprudence, when it held that any indigent defendant was entitled to a court-appointed attorney in capital cases – a right that was only later extended to non-capital defendants in 1963, with Gideon v. Wainwright . In Furman v. Georgia , the U.S. Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases. The lead case involved an individual convicted under Georgia's death penalty statute, which featured

1968-473: The 1988 presidential election . It came up in the October 13, 1988, debate between the two presidential nominees George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis , when Bernard Shaw , the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed

2091-956: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals . SPCC was known as one of the first child protection societies in the country and he helped pass numerous laws to protect children. Gerry served as vice-president of SPCC, then as Wright's successor from 1879 to 1901, and finally as legal advisor until his death. The Society's deputies, nicknamed "Gerry men" or "the cruelty," aroused controversy by enforcing various laws, including child labor laws concerning public performances and were allowed to remove children from homes. Some criticized their activities as interfering with family life, or for imposing aristocratic white Protestant values upon immigrants, many of whom were Catholic or black. After 1903, many such child protection societies changed their focus from police to welfare work, following

2214-550: The Chi Psi fraternity, eventually becoming its national president. His paternal grandfather was Founding Father , Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry . His cousins included Elbridge Gerry , who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine , George Goelet Kip , and Robert Walton Goelet , who was a financier and real estate developer in New York City. His maternal grandfather

2337-568: The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution . The Supreme Court has never ruled the death penalty to be per se unconstitutional. The five justices in the majority did not produce a common opinion or rationale for their decision, however, and agreed only on a short statement announcing the result. The narrowest opinions, those of Byron White and Potter Stewart , expressed generalized concerns about

2460-574: The New York State Commission on Capital Punishment , which replaced hanging with the electric chair . For this decision, a proposed name for this method before "electrocution" was adopted was "gerrycide". He was also chairman of the New York City Commission on Insanity in 1892. In 1867, Gerry married Louisa Matilda Livingston. Louisa was the daughter of Robert James Livingston and Louisa Matilda Storm and

2583-558: The assassination of then-President William McKinley . The first photograph of an execution by electric chair was of housewife Ruth Snyder at Sing Sing on the evening of January 12, 1928, for the March 1927 murder of her husband. It was photographed for a front-page story in the New York Daily News the following morning by news photographer Tom Howard who had smuggled a camera into the death chamber and photographed her in

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2706-516: The "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry" of Florida's electric chair. In Florida, on July 8, 1999, Allen Lee Davis , convicted of murder, was executed in the Florida electric chair " Old Sparky ". Davis' face was bloodied, and photographs were taken, which were later posted on the Internet. An investigation concluded that Davis had begun bleeding before the electricity was applied and that

2829-518: The "state electrician" was Edwin Davis. The first 17-second passage of 1,000 volts AC through Kemmler caused unconsciousness, but failed to stop his heart and breathing. The attending physicians, Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos Frederick MacDonald , came forward to examine Kemmler. After confirming Kemmler was still alive, Spitzka reportedly called out, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay." The generator needed time to re-charge, however. In

2952-692: The 1990s due to the widespread adoption of lethal injection. A number of states still allow the condemned person to choose between electrocution and lethal injection, with the most recent U.S. electrocution, of Nicholas Todd Sutton , taking place in February 2020 in Tennessee. In 2021, South Carolina's governor Henry McMaster passed a law forcing inmates to be executed by electrocution if lethal injection were not available. The law also mandated electrocution if an inmate refused to select their execution method, between South Carolina's options of lethal injection,

3075-409: The 2004 protocol resulted in the ushering in of a different Nebraska protocol, calling for a 20-second application of current at 2,450 volts. Prior to the 2004 protocol change, an initial eight-second application of current at 2,450 volts was administered, followed by a one-second pause, then a 22-second application at 480 volts. After a 20-second break, the cycle was repeated three more times. In 1946,

3198-418: The 21st state to abolish capital punishment on May 30, 2019, when its state senate overrode Governor Sununu 's veto by a vote of 16–8. Colorado became the 22nd state to abolish capital punishment when governor Jared Polis signed a repeal bill on March 23, 2020, and commuted all existing death sentences in the state to life without parole. Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish capital punishment, and

3321-550: The AC used was half the voltage used in the power lines over the streets of American cities. Westinghouse criticized these tests as a skewed self-serving demonstration designed to be a direct attack on alternating current and accused Brown of being in the employ of Edison. At the request of death penalty commission chairman Gerry, Medico-Legal Society members; electrotherapy expert Alphonse David Rockwell, Carlos Frederick MacDonald , and Columbia College professor Louis H. Laudy, were given

3444-814: The British North American colonies was carried out in 1608 on Captain George Kendall , who was executed by firing squad at the Jamestown colony for spying on behalf of the Spanish government. Executions in colonial America were also carried out by hanging . The hangman's noose was one of the various punishments the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony applied to enforce religious and intellectual conformity on

3567-458: The Commission recommended electrocution using Southwick's electric chair idea with metal conductors attached to the condemned person's head and feet. They further recommended that executions be handled by the state instead of the individual counties with three electric chairs set up at Auburn , Clinton , and Sing Sing prisons. A bill following these recommendations passed the legislature and

3690-517: The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Below is a table of the states and the date that the state abolished the death penalty. Michigan became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment in 1847. Although treason remained a crime punishable by the death penalty in Michigan despite the 1847 abolition, no one

3813-574: The Midwest, 86 in the West, and only 4 in the Northeast. No state in the Northeast has conducted an execution since Connecticut , now abolitionist, in 2005. The state of Texas alone conducted 571 executions, over 1/3 of the total; the states of Texas, Virginia (now abolitionist), and Oklahoma combined make up over half the total, with 802 executions between them. 17 executions have been conducted by

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3936-610: The Nebraska Supreme Court declared execution by electrocution to be "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Nebraska Constitution. The last judicial electrocution in the U.S. prior to Furman v. Georgia took place in Oklahoma in 1966. The electric chair was used quite frequently in post- Gregg v Georgia executions during the 1980s, but its use in the United States gradually declined in

4059-455: The Supreme Court threw away William Wayne Thompson's death sentence due to it being cruel and unusual punishment, as he was 15 years old at the time of the crime he committed; the judgment established that "evolving standards of decency" made it inappropriate to apply the death penalty for people under 16 years old at the time of their capital crime, although Thompson held that it was still constitutional to sentence juveniles 16 years or older to

4182-455: The Supreme Court's Coker v. Georgia decision barred the death penalty for rape of an adult woman. Previously, the death penalty for rape of an adult had been gradually phased out in the United States, and at the time of the decision, Georgia and the Federal government were the only two jurisdictions to still retain the death penalty for this offense. In the 1980 case Godfrey v. Georgia ,

4305-530: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that murder can be punished by death only if it involves a narrow and precise aggravating factor . The U.S. Supreme Court has placed two major restrictions on the use of the death penalty. First, the case of Atkins v. Virginia , decided on June 20, 2002, held that the execution of intellectually disabled inmates is unconstitutional. Second, in 2005, the court's decision in Roper v. Simmons struck down executions for offenders under

4428-450: The U.S. states of Alabama , Arkansas , Florida , Kentucky , Louisiana , South Carolina and Tennessee . Electrocution is also authorized in Florida if lethal injection is found unconstitutional. Mississippi and Oklahoma laws provide for its use should lethal injection ever be held to be unconstitutional. Inmates in the other states must select either it or lethal injection. In Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, inmates sentenced before

4551-509: The United States decided on Trop v. Dulles in 1958. The Supreme Court declared explicitly, for the first time, that the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause must draw its meaning from the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society", rather than from its original meaning. Also in the 1932 case Powell v. Alabama , the court made the first step of what would later be called "death

4674-578: The adoption of lethal injection which was perceived as more humane. While some states retain electrocution as a legal execution method, it is often a secondary option based on the condemned's preference. Exceptions include South Carolina , where it is the primary method, and Tennessee , where it can be used without prisoner input if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. As of 2024, electrocution remains an option in states like Alabama , South Carolina and Florida , where inmates may choose lethal injection instead. Arkansas , Kentucky , and Tennessee offer

4797-465: The age of 18 at the time of the crime . In the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana , the court also held 5–4 that the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to non-homicidal crimes against the person, including child rape . Only two death row inmates (both in Louisiana) were affected by the decision. Nevertheless, the ruling came less than five months before the 2008 presidential election and

4920-623: The case of Mary Ellen McCormack , who had been abused by her foster parents, which he eventually argued before the Supreme Court of New York . In 1875, as a result of Mary Ellen McCormack's case, he co-founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children "SPCC", sometimes called the Gerry Society , together with Quaker philanthropist John D. Wright and Henry Bergh , who he had previously helped found

5043-422: The chair had functioned as intended. Florida's Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment". The use of the electric chair has declined since the 1979 advent of lethal injection, which is now the default method in all U.S. jurisdictions that authorize capital punishment. As of 2024, the only places that still reserve the electric chair as an option for execution are

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5166-496: The city's wealthiest men. His family's New York mansion at 2 East 61st Street had long been a center of cultivated and fashionable life, even as it came to be surrounded by skyscrapers. When he built it, he told architect Richard Morris Hunt specifically about needing to house his collection of 30,000 law books and cost a reported $ 3,000,000. After his death, the family mansions in Manhattan were soon demolished, to make way for

5289-457: The concerns of White and Stewart in Furman . Some states responded by enacting mandatory death penalty statutes which prescribed a sentence of death for anyone convicted of certain forms of murder. White had hinted that such a scheme would meet his constitutional concerns in his Furman opinion. Other states adopted "bifurcated" trial and sentencing procedures, with various procedural limitations on

5412-457: The course of seven minutes. The error was blamed on prison officials replacing Florida's old natural sea sponge with a kitchen sponge. The 1997 execution of Pedro Medina in Florida created controversy when flames burst from his head. An autopsy found that Medina had died instantly when the first surge of electricity had destroyed his brain and brain stem. A judge ruled that the incident arose from "unintentional human error" rather than any faults in

5535-453: The court struck down 5–4 statutes providing a mandatory death sentence . Executions resumed on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah . Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were executed prior to 1984. Following

5658-410: The creation of the United States up to the beginning of the 1960s. Until then, "save for a few mavericks, no one gave any credence to the possibility of ending the death penalty by judicial interpretation of constitutional law", according to abolitionist Hugo Bedau . The possibility of challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty became progressively more realistic after the Supreme Court of

5781-625: The death penalty by popular vote in 1916 and 1964 respectively, but both reinstated it, again by popular vote, some years later; Arizona reinstated the death penalty in 1918 and Oregon in 1978. In Oregon, the measure reinstating the death penalty was overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court in 1981, but Oregon voters again reinstated the death penalty in 1984. Puerto Rico and Michigan are the only two U.S. jurisdictions to have explicitly prohibited capital punishment in their constitutions: in 1952 and 1964, respectively. Capital punishment

5904-493: The death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime." Bush was elected, and many, including Dukakis himself, cite the statement as the beginning of the end of his campaign. In 1996, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to streamline the appeal process in capital cases. The bill

6027-468: The death penalty for murder during the 19th century: Michigan (which has never executed a prisoner and is the first government in the English-speaking world to abolish capital punishment) in 1847, Wisconsin in 1853, and Maine in 1887. Rhode Island is also a state with a long abolitionist background, having repealed the death penalty in 1852, though it was available for murder committed by

6150-477: The death penalty will not be imposed. At the second hearing, the jury determines whether certain statutory aggravating factors exist, whether any mitigating factors exist, and, in many jurisdictions, weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors in assessing the ultimate penalty – either death or life in prison, either with or without parole. The same day, in Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana ,

6273-595: The death penalty. It was not until Roper v. Simmons that the juvenile death penalty was abolished due to the United States Supreme Court finding that the execution of juveniles is in conflict with the Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment , which deal with cruel and unusual punishment. Prior to completely abolishing the juvenile death penalty in 2005, any juvenile aged 16 years or older could be sentenced to death in some states,

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6396-655: The decision, the use of capital punishment in the United States soared. This was in contrast to trends in other parts of advanced industrial democracies where the use of capital punishment declined or was prohibited. Members of the Council of Europe comply with the European Convention of Human Rights which prohibits capital punishment. The last execution in the UK took place in 1964, and in 1977 in France. In 1977,

6519-571: The doctor reports and records the time of death, and prison officials will wait for the body to cool down before removing it to prepare for autopsy . If the inmate exhibits signs of life, the doctor notifies the warden, who usually will order another round of electric current or (rarely) postpone the execution such as with Willie Francis . Critics of the electric chair dispute whether the first jolt of electricity reliably induces immediate unconsciousness as proponents often claim. The electric chair has been criticized because of several instances in which

6642-407: The early 1880s to advocate that this method be used as a more humane replacement for hanging in capital cases, coming to national attention when he published his ideas in scientific journals in 1882 and 1883. He worked out calculations based on the dog experiments, trying to develop a scaled-up method that would work on humans. Early on in his designs he adopted a modified version of the dental chair as

6765-537: The electric chair as the current was turned on. It remains one of the best-known examples of photojournalism . A record was set on July 13, 1928, when seven men were executed consecutively in the electric chair at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville , Kentucky. On June 16, 1944, an African-American teenager, 14-year-old George Stinney , became the youngest person ever executed in

6888-469: The electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis , who reportedly shrieked, "Take it off! Let me breathe!", after the current was applied. It turned out that the portable electric chair had been improperly set up by an intoxicated prison guard and inmate. A case was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court ( Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber ) , with lawyers for the condemned arguing that although Francis did not die, he had, in fact, been executed. The argument

7011-561: The electric chair to those sentenced before a certain date. Inmates not selecting this method or convicted after the specified date face lethal injection. Arkansas currently has no death row inmates sentenced before their select date. These three states also authorize electrocution as an alternative if lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional. The electric chair remains an accepted alternative in Louisiana , Mississippi , and Oklahoma if other execution methods are ruled unconstitutional at

7134-689: The electric chair when he was electrocuted at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia , South Carolina. His conviction was overturned in 2014 after a circuit court judge vacated his sentence on the grounds that Stinney did not receive a fair trial. The judge determined that Stinney's legal counsel was inadequate, thus violating his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On May 3, 1946, an African-American teenager named Willie Francis became

7257-554: The electric chair, and a firing squad. In 2022, a judge in Richland County , declared that the firing squad and electrocution were both in violation of the South Carolina State Constitution, which bans methods that are "cruel, unusual, or corporal." The court, in their decision, stated that there was no evidence that electrocution could instantaneously or painlessly kill an inmate, writing that

7380-498: The electrodes to the head and the middle of the back. Brown did take on the job of finding the generators needed to power the chair. He managed to surreptitiously acquire three Westinghouse AC generators that were being decommissioned with the help of Edison and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company , a move that made sure that Westinghouse's equipment would be associated with

7503-465: The experience of being burned alive—a punishment that has 'long been recognized as manifestly cruel and unusual.'" The ruling led to a permanent injunction being issued against both methods of execution, preventing the state from subjecting death row inmates to death by firing squad or electrocution. In July 2024, the Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled that electrocution and firing squad was legal. On March 5, 2024, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed

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7626-455: The federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder . Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums . As of 2024, of the 38 OECD member countries , only two (the United States and Japan ) allow capital punishment. Taiwan and Israel are

7749-407: The federal government carried out a total of 13 executions. In 1632, 24 years after the first recorded male execution in the colonies, Jane Champion became the first woman known to have been lawfully executed. She was sentenced to death by hanging after she was convicted of infanticide; around two-thirds of women executed in the 17th and early 18th centuries were convicted of child murder. Champion

7872-457: The federal government. Executions increased in frequency until 1999; 98 prisoners were executed that year. Since 1999, the number of executions has greatly decreased, and the 17 executions in 2020 were the fewest since 1991. A 2016 poll conducted by Pew Research, found that support nationwide for the death penalty in the U.S. had fallen below 50% for the first time since the beginning of the post-Gregg era. The death penalty became an issue during

7995-436: The first Southern state to do so when governor Ralph Northam signed a repeal bill on March 24, 2021, and commuted all existing death sentences in the state to life without parole. Since Furman , 11 states have organized popular votes dealing with the death penalty through the initiative and referendum process . All resulted in a vote for reinstating it, rejecting its abolition, expanding its application field, specifying in

8118-441: The first execution by lethal injection in world history and lethal injection subsequently became the preferred method throughout the country, displacing the electric chair. From 1976 to December 8, 2016, there were 1,533 executions, of which 1,349 were by lethal injection, 163 by electrocution, 11 by gas inhalation, 3 by hanging, and 3 by firing squad. The South had the great majority of these executions, with 1,249; there were 190 in

8241-507: The first execution. The electric chair was built by Edwin F. Davis , the first " state electrician " ( executioner ) for the State of New York. The first person in line to die under New York's new electrocution law was Joseph Chapleau, convicted for beating his neighbor to death with a sled stake, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The next person scheduled to be executed was William Kemmler , convicted of murdering his wife with

8364-528: The first inmate executed by the federal government since 2003. Thirteen federal death row inmates were executed, all under Trump. The last and most recent federal execution was of Dustin Higgs , who was executed on January 16, 2021. On July 1, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that a moratorium on the federal death penalty was being reinstated. As of March 2024 , there were 40 inmates on federal death row. The first recorded death sentence in

8487-577: The first person known to have survived the electric chair in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish , Louisiana. His appeals to the death penalty failed, and was executed again on May 9, 1947, at age 18. His trial has claimed to be unfair, which the trial also violated his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteen Amendment rights to the U.S. Constitution. On May 25, 1979, in Florida, John Spenkelink became

8610-513: The first person to be electrocuted after the Gregg v. Georgia decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1976. He was the first person to be executed in the United States in this manner since 1966. The last person to be executed by electric chair without the choice of an alternative method was Lynda Lyon Block on May 10, 2002, in Alabama. The most recent execution by electric chair

8733-545: The first state to repeal the death penalty by legislative vote since Gregg v. Georgia , followed by New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012, and Maryland in 2013. The repeals were not retroactive, but in New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland, governors commuted all death sentences after enacting the new law. In Connecticut, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that

8856-541: The former House of Mercy for use as a temporary facility to house juveniles awaiting judicial action, since they had previously either been held at stationhouses or jailed with adult prisoners, where they were often victimized. House of Mercy had been organized in 1863 by Harriet Starr Cannon to assist abandoned and delinquent women and girls. Gerry was Commodore of the New York Yacht Club . He held office from 1886 to 1892. The pilot boat Elbridge T. Gerry

8979-444: The gang rape of a white woman. The Furman decision caused all death sentences pending at the time to be reduced to life imprisonment, and was described by scholars as a "legal bombshell". The next day, columnist Barry Schweid wrote that it was "unlikely" that the death penalty could exist anymore in the United States. Instead of abandoning capital punishment, 37 states enacted new death penalty statutes that attempted to address

9102-534: The granddaughter of Maturin Livingston and Margaret Lewis. Margaret was the only child and sole heiress of Gov. Morgan Lewis . Together, Elbridge and Louisa had six children: In 1904, the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947) painted Gerry's portrait, which still hangs in the New York Yacht Club . Gerry died on February 18, 1927, about two weeks after breaking his hip in

9225-402: The head and the spine) and the inventor Thomas Edison (who also recommended AC, as well as using a Westinghouse generator). They also attended electrocutions of dogs by George Fell who had worked with Southwick in the early 1880s experiments. Fell was conducting further experiments, electrocuting anesthetized vivisected dogs trying to discern exactly how electricity killed a subject. In 1888,

9348-423: The idea of the electric chair inducing instant unconsciousness was based on "underlying assumptions upon which the electric chair is based, dating back to the 1800s, [that] have since been disproven." The decision also called electrocution "inconsistent with both the concepts of evolving standards of decency and the dignity of man", and stated, "Even if an inmate survived only fifteen or thirty seconds, he would suffer

9471-461: The inconsistent application of the death penalty across a variety of cases, but did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional death penalty law. Stewart and William O. Douglas worried explicitly about racial discrimination in enforcement of the death penalty . Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr. expressed the opinion that the death penalty was proscribed absolutely by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. This decision

9594-452: The individual's body in order to cause lethal damage to the internal organs. The first, more powerful jolt (between 2,000 and 2,500 volts) is intended to cause immediate unconsciousness, ventricular fibrillation, and eventual cardiac arrest. The second, less powerful jolt (500–1,500 volts) is intended to cause lethal damage to the vital organs. After the cycles are completed, a doctor checks the inmate for any signs of life. If none are present,

9717-433: The jury's ability to pronounce a death sentence designed to limit juror discretion. On July 2, 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Gregg v. Georgia and upheld 7–2 a Georgia procedure in which the trial of capital crimes was bifurcated into guilt-innocence and sentencing phases. At the first proceeding, the jury decides the defendant's guilt; if the defendant is innocent or otherwise not convicted of first-degree murder,

9840-594: The last of whom was Scott Hain , executed at the age of 32 in Oklahoma for the 2003 burning of two people to death during a robbery at age 17. Prior to Roper , there were 71 people on death row in the United States for crimes committed as juveniles. Since 2005, there have been no executions nor discussion of executing juveniles in the United States . Aggravating factors for seeking capital punishment of murder vary greatly among death penalty states. California has twenty-two. Some aggravating circumstances are nearly universal, such as robbery-murder, murder involving rape of

9963-483: The mid-1980s when lethal injection became widely accepted for conducting judicial executions. Other countries appear to have contemplated using the method, sometimes for special reasons. The Philippines also adopted the electric chair from 1926 to 1987. A well-publicized triple execution took place there in May 1972, when Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda, and Edgardo Aquino were electrocuted for the 1967 abduction and gang-rape of

10086-613: The office he held with the New York Yacht Club from 1886 to 1892, was an American lawyer and reformer . His paternal grandfather was U.S. Vice President Elbridge Gerry . Gerry was born on December 25, 1837, In Charlestown, Rhode Island , the son of Thomas Russell Gerry , who was active in the Sons of the American Revolution , and Hannah Green Goelet, of another prominent family. In 1857, Gerry graduated from Columbia College , with honors. During his time there he also joined

10209-593: The only other advanced democracies with capital punishment; in 2024 Taiwan's Constitutional Court upheld the legality of the death penalty, but restricted its use to the most serious crimes. The existence of capital punishment in the United States can be traced to early colonial Virginia . There were no executions in the United States between 1967 and 1977. In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down capital punishment statutes in Furman v. Georgia , reducing all pending death sentences to life imprisonment at

10332-544: The period. A study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of hypnotics in the prisoner was insufficient to ensure unconsciousness. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 ( Baze v. Rees ), again in 2015 ( Glossip v. Gross ), and a third time in 2019 ( Bucklew v. Precythe ), that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment . On July 25, 2019, Attorney General William Barr ordered

10455-532: The press, members of the Medico-Legal Society including Elbridge Gerry who was also chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas Edison looking on. Brown used alternating current for all of his tests on animals larger than a human, including 4 calves and a lame horse, all dispatched with 750 volts of AC. Based on these results the Medico-Legal Society recommended the use of 1000–1500 volts of alternating current for executions and newspapers noted

10578-507: The range of 3000–6000 volts, was followed by one story after another in newspapers about how the high voltages used were killing people, usually unwary linemen; it was a strange new phenomenon that seemed to instantaneously strike a victim dead without leaving a mark. One of these accidents, in Buffalo, New York, on August 7, 1881, led to the inception of the electric chair. That evening a drunken dock worker named George Lemuel Smith, looking for

10701-435: The relatively low number of executions of women may have been impacted by the scarcity of female laborers. Slavery was not yet widespread in the 17th century mainland and planters relied mostly on Irish indentured servants. To maintain subsistence levels in those days everyone had to do farm work, including women. The second half of the 17th century saw the executions of 14 women and 6 men who were accused of witchcraft during

10824-501: The repeal must be retroactive. In New Mexico, capital punishment for certain offenses is still possible for National Guard members in Title 32 status under the state's Code of Military Justice (NMSA 20–12), and for capital offenses committed prior to the repeal of the state's death penalty statute. Nebraska 's legislature also passed a repeal in 2015, but a referendum campaign gathered enough signatures to suspend it. Capital punishment

10947-580: The resumption of federal executions after a 16-year hiatus, and set five execution dates for December 2019 and January 2020. After the Supreme Court upheld a stay on these executions, the stay was lifted in June 2020 and four executions were rescheduled for July and August 2020. The federal government executed Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14, 2020. He became the first convict executed by the federal government since 2003. Before Trump's term ended in January 2021,

11070-461: The same condemnation. Certainly, it is not so on its face, for, although the mode of death described is conceded to be unusual, there is no common knowledge or consent that it is cruel; it is a question of fact whether an electric current of sufficient intensity and skillfully applied will produce death without unnecessary suffering. Kemmler was executed in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890;

11193-427: The second attempt, Kemmler received a 2,000 volt AC shock. Blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and the areas around the electrodes singed; some witnesses reported that his body caught fire. The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe", and The New York Times ran the headline: "Far worse than hanging". The electric chair

11316-549: The shoddy installation of pole-mounted AC arc lighting lines in New York City had caused several deaths in early 1888. Peterson had been an assistant at Brown's July 1888 public electrocution of dogs with AC at Columbia College, an attempt by Brown to prove AC was more deadly than DC. Technical assistance in these demonstrations was provided by Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory and there grew to be some form of collusion between Edison Electric and Brown. Back at West Orange on December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment with members of

11439-540: The state constitution that it is not unconstitutional, or expediting the appeal process in capital cases. The advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is creating a national network of Republican and Libertarian legislators at the state level to introduce bills aimed at abolishing or limiting the death penalty. The issue is framed along the values of pro-life , limited government , and fiscal responsibility . A total of 23 states, plus

11562-572: The statute in Kansas v. Marsh (2006), holding it did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The decision of the New York Court of Appeals was based on the state constitution, making unavailable any appeal. The state lower house has since blocked all attempts to reinstate the death penalty by adopting a valid sentencing scheme. In 2016, Delaware 's death penalty statute was also struck down by its state supreme court. In 2007, New Jersey became

11685-558: The stay. In 1642, the first ever juvenile, Thomas Graunger , was sentenced to death in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, for bestiality . Since then, at least 361 other juveniles have been sentenced to the death penalty. In 1959, Leonard Shockley was executed in Maryland, becoming the last person in the United States who was executed while still a juvenile at the time of their execution. Kent v. United States (1966), turned

11808-467: The subjects were killed only after being subjected to multiple electric shocks . This led to a call for ending of the practice, as being a " cruel and unusual punishment ". Trying to address such concerns, Nebraska introduced a new electrocution protocol in 2004, which called for the administration of a 15-second application of current at 2,450 volts; after a 15-minute wait, an official then checks for signs of life. In April 2007, new concerns raised regarding

11931-404: The task of working out the details of electrode placement. They again turned to Brown to supply the technical assistance. Brown asked Edison Electric Light to supply equipment for the tests and treasurer Francis S. Hastings (who seemed to be one of the primary movers at the company trying to portray Westinghouse as a peddler of death dealing AC current) tried to obtain a Westinghouse AC generator for

12054-408: The test but found none could be acquired. They ended up using Edison's West Orange laboratory for the animal tests they conducted in mid-March 1889. Superintendent of Prisons Austin E. Lathrop asked Brown to design the chair, but Brown turned down the offer. George Fell drew up the final designs for a simple oak chair and went against the Medico-Legal Society recommendations, changing the position of

12177-437: The thrill of a tingling sensation he had noticed when grabbing the guard rail in a Brush Electric Company arc lighting power house, managed to sneak his way back into the plant at night and grabbed the brush and ground of a large electric dynamo. He died instantly. The coroner who investigated the case brought it up that year at a local Buffalo scientific society. Another member attending that lecture, Alfred P. Southwick ,

12300-412: The tides for juvenile capital punishment sentencing when it limited the waiver discretion juvenile courts had. Before this case, juvenile courts had the freedom to waiver juvenile cases to criminal courts without a hearing, which did not make the waiving process consistent across states. Discussions about abolishing the death penalty started occurring between 1983 and 1986. In 1987, Thompson v. Oklahoma ,

12423-569: The time of execution. A significant shift occurred on February 8, 2008, when the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled electric chair execution as " cruel and unusual punishment " under the state constitution. This decision ended electric chair executions in Nebraska, the last state to rely solely on this method. In the late 1870s to early 1880s, the spread of arc lighting , a type of outdoor street lighting that required high voltages in

12546-647: The time. Subsequently, a majority of states enacted new death penalty statutes, and the court affirmed the legality of the practice in the 1976 case Gregg v. Georgia . Since then, more than 8,700 defendants have been sentenced to death; of these, more than 1,550 have been executed. At least 190 people who were sentenced to death since 1972 have since been exonerated, about 2.2% or one in 46. As of April 13, 2022, about 2,400 to 2,500 convicts are still on death row. The Trump administration 's Department of Justice announced its plans to resume executions for federal crimes in 2019. On July 14, 2020, Daniel Lewis Lee became

12669-408: The type of electricity, direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), was not determined, and since tests up to that point had been done on animals smaller than a human (dogs), some members were unsure that the lethality of AC had been conclusively proven. At this point the state's efforts to design the electric chair became intermixed with what has come to be known as the war of the currents ,

12792-404: The victim, and murder of an on-duty police officer . Several states have included child murder to their list of aggravating factors, but the victim's age under which the murder is punishable by death varies. In 2011, Texas raised this age from six to ten. Elbridge Thomas Gerry Elbridge Thomas Gerry (December 25, 1837 – February 18, 1927), usually called "Commodore" Gerry due to

12915-417: The whole community. The Bill of Rights adopted in 1789 included the Eighth Amendment which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment . The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language implying a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury indictment for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government. The Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868 also requires

13038-515: The witch hunt hysteria and the Salem Witch Trials. While both men and women were executed, 80% of the accusations were towards women, so the list of executions disproportionately affected men by a margin of 6 (actual) to 4 (expected), i.e. 50% more men were executed than expected from the percentage of accused who were men. Other notable female executions include Mary Surratt , Margie Velma Barfield and Wanda Jean Allen . Mary Surratt

13161-527: The young actress Maggie de la Riva . The last electric chair execution in the Philippines was in 1976 and was later replaced with lethal injection when executions resumed in that country. Martha M. Place became the first woman executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899, for the murder of her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Ida Place. Leon Czolgosz was executed in the electric chair at New York's Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901, for

13284-461: Was a married woman; it is not known whether her illicit lover, William Gallopin, also convicted of their child's murder, was also executed, although it appears he was sentenced to death. For the Puritans, infanticide was the worst form of murder. Women accounted for just one fifth of all executions between 1632 and 1759, in the colonial United States . Women were more likely to be acquitted, and

13407-437: Was adopted by Ohio (1897), Massachusetts (1900), New Jersey (1906), and Virginia (1908), and soon became the prevalent method of execution in the United States, replacing hanging. Twenty-six states, the District of Columbia, the federal government, and the U.S. military either had death by electrocution on the books or actively executed criminals using the method. The electric chair remained the most prominent execution method until

13530-643: Was criticized by both major party candidates Barack Obama and John McCain . In 2023 and 2024, Florida and Tennessee passed laws that could challenge the Kennedy v. Louisiana decision. In 2004, New York 's and Kansas ' capital sentencing schemes were struck down by their respective states' highest courts. Kansas successfully appealed the Kansas Supreme Court decision to the United States Supreme Court, which reinstated

13653-456: Was ever executed under that law, and Michigan's 1962 Constitutional Convention codified that the death penalty was fully abolished. Vermont has abolished the death penalty for all crimes, but has an invalid death penalty statue for treason. When it abolished the death penalty in 2019, New Hampshire explicitly did not commute the death sentence of the sole person remaining on the state's death row, Michael K. Addison . In 1982, Texas carried out

13776-428: Was executed by hanging in 1865 after being convicted of co-conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln . Margie Velma Barfield was convicted of murder and when she was executed by lethal injection in 1984, she became the first woman to be executed since the ban on capital punishment was lifted in 1976. Wanda Jean Allen was convicted of murder in 1989 and had a high-profile execution by lethal injection in January 2001. She

13899-404: Was executed in the gas chamber later that same year on December 18. Since Heady, only one more woman has been executed by the federal government: Lisa Montgomery , convicted of killing a pregnant woman and cutting out and kidnapping her baby, by lethal injection on January 13, 2021. Her execution had been stayed while her lawyers argued that she had mental health issues, but the Supreme Court lifted

14022-670: Was named in honor of him. Gerry was a notable member of Tammany Hall , the Democratic political machine of Boss Tweed , for more than 35 years. In 1867, he served as a delegate to New York State Constitutional Convention , but never again sought elective office. From 1878 until 1912, he served as governor of the New York Hospital and was also a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company . From 1886 until 1888, Gerry served as chairman of

14145-470: Was of Nicholas Todd Sutton on February 20, 2020, in Tennessee. The condemned inmate's head and legs are shaved and they are seated in the chair. Their arms and legs are tightly strapped with leather belts, and a cap with a saltwater-soaked sponge is strapped to the head, and electrodes are attached to the legs. The condemned person is optionally hooded or blindfolded. Various cycles (changes in voltage and duration) of alternating current are passed through

14268-587: Was reached by the suspicion that many states, particularly in the South, were using capital punishment as a form of legal lynching of African-American males, inasmuch as almost all executions for non-homicidal rape in the Southern states involved a black perpetrator, and this suspicion was fueled by cases such as the Martinsville Seven , when seven African-American men were executed by Virginia in 1951 for

14391-490: Was reinstated by popular vote on November 8, 2016. The same day, California 's electorate defeated a proposal to repeal the death penalty, and adopted another initiative to speed up its appeal process. On October 11, 2018, Washington state became the 20th state to abolish capital punishment when its state Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional on the grounds of racial bias. The state later abolished it through legislation passed in 2023. New Hampshire became

14514-529: Was rejected on the basis that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution, and Francis was returned to the electric chair and executed in 1947. Florida saw three highly controversial botched electrocutions in the 1990s, starting with the 1990 execution of Jesse Tafero . His case generated significant controversy, as with the first administration of electricity, Tafero's face and head caught fire. Tafero's execution ultimately required three shocks over

14637-486: Was signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889. The bill itself contained no details on the type or amount of electricity that should be used and the New York Medico-Legal Society, an informal society composed of doctors and lawyers, was given the task of determining these factors. In September 1888, a committee was formed and recommended 3000 volts, although

14760-461: Was signed into law by President Bill Clinton , who had endorsed capital punishment during his 1992 presidential campaign. A study found that at least 34 of the 749 executions carried out in the U.S. between 1977 and 2001, or 4.5%, involved "unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner". The rate of these "botched executions" remained steady over

14883-539: Was the first black woman to be executed in the US since 1954. Allen's appellate lawyers did not deny her guilt, but claimed that prosecutors capitalized on her low IQ, race and homosexuality in their representations of her as a murderer at trial. This approach did not work. The federal government executes women infrequently. Ethel Rosenberg , convicted of espionage, was executed in the electric chair on June 19, 1953, and Bonnie Brown Heady , convicted of kidnapping and murder,

15006-537: Was the merchant and landowner Peter P. Goelet and his great-grandfather was Peter Goelet . In 1879, he inherited $ 500,000 after the death of his unmarried uncle, Peter Goelet. After graduation from Columbia, he read law with William Curtis Noyes and was admitted to the New York bar in 1860. He later became partner with Noyes until his death, after which he joined William F. Allen and Vaughn Abbot, practicing as Allen, Abbott & Gerry. In 1874, Gerry took up

15129-481: Was used by 6 of 50 states in 2022. They were Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Government executions, as reported by Amnesty International , took place in 20 of the world's 195 countries. The Federal government of the United States, which had not executed a prisoner since 2003, did so in 2020, in an effort led by President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr . Executions for various crimes, especially murder and rape, occurred from

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