Electrocution

Electrocution was first established as a method of capital punishment in the United States. The original concept was created by Dr. Alfred Southwick after he had witnessed an inebriated man die from touching an electric generator. Southwick noticed that the man was killed instantly and without pain. He found this to be in sharp contrast to the existing methods of executing a person, such as a hanging.

After studying the effects of electricity on the human body, Southwick conceived of a chair that was designed to send a powerful electrical current through a prisoner who had been condemned to death. He took his idea to the Governor of New York, David Hill, and proposed the concept of an electric chair as an effective and more humanitarian method for capital punishment.

A man named Harold Brown who worked for master inventor Thomas Edison is credited with building the original electric chair based on Southwick's design. The first working model was completed in 1888 and demonstrations were performed on live animals to prove how well it performed. Brown's chair was fast and efficient, and the electric chair was accepted as a method of execution.

In 1890, William Kemmler was the first person to be put to death by electrocution. Kemmler had murdered his wife with a hatchet and was placed in the electric chair on August 6. The switch was thrown to start the machine, and an electric current tore through Kemmler's body, leaving him unconscious but still alive. A second jolt of electricity was needed to finish the job after the chair had been recharged, and this time Kemmler's body began to bleed and caught on fire. Spectators referred to the 8-minute-long process as a gruesome event that was far worse than a hanging.

The concept behind the chair called for a prisoner to have their arms and legs strapped in securely. Damp sponges would be placed on the head and legs of the condemned, and electrodes would be attached to the sponges. After the prisoner's head was covered, a switch would be thrown to release a sharp blast of electrical current through the chair and into the electrodes. The sponges helped to conduct the electricity and bring about a swift death.

By 1899, the design of the electric chair had improved, and death by electrocution became the most common form of capital punishment in America until the 1980's, when lethal injection became the preferred method in most states.

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