The Electric Chair: For or Against?

Question

Tell me what do you think about the electric chair and why. This should be at least 150-200 words long.

Answer 1

Now, for over a century, states across the United States have used the electric chair as a means of execution. The electric chair was meant to give states a more humane method of execution, but today, some people are finding the electric chair might be an unconstitutional form of death. Throughout the years, witnesses from numerous executions have accounted horrible and torturous stories of death by the electric chair. Inmates would fight the straps of the chair as the high voltage passed through their body. Many times their bodies would burn while they were still alive. Their skin would swell and stretch to the extent of breaking. Inmates would struggle to breathe as a two-thousand volt current slowly reached their brain. In some cases, it could take fourteen minutes until an inmate died. The temperature of the brain reached boiling of water. When autopsies are performed, doctors say the liver is too hot to even touch. The electric chair should not be used as a device of execution because it is painful, cruel and unconstitutional; electrocution goes further than a “mere extinguishment of life”¹

William Kemmler was an inmate sentenced to death after five months of the murder of his wife. On August 6th, 1890, Kemmler was strapped on to the electric chair where AC currents executed him. The media flooded behind the prison gates to report the results of the execution. Edison’s chair had failed. During the first cycle of electrocution, burns were immediately visible on Kemmler’s head and legs. He was not yet dead, so Edison decided to discharge a second electrocution with 2,000 volts. The machine took over a minute in warming up before the high voltage electrocuted Kemmler. Witnesses heard loud groans during this minute. After the 2,000 volts reached his body, witnesses smelled the burning flesh and saw smoke rise from the chair. Three hours after the execution Kemmler’s brain remained heated at 97°F. George Westinghouse said in an interview, “They could have done better using an ax”. A reporter who witnessed the execution stated, “…an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging”.

John Louis Evans was sentenced to death on April 12, 1983 by means of Alabama’s first electric chair. Thirty seconds of electricity measuring 1900 volts were passed through Evans’ body that morning. Sparks and flames appeared from the electrodes connected throughout Evans’ body. John Evans jerked himself against the chair and his fists clenched tightly. The electrode continued to spark causing even greater flames. Flying sparks appeared from under the headpiece. Smoke overtook the execution room. A strong odor of burning flesh and clothing could be smelled from even behind the window where witnesses were watching. The power was cut off and two doctors examined the inmate. Mr. Evans was still alive! A second cycle of electricity was quickly initiated. “The stench of burning flesh was nauseating” said Russell F. Canan. The execution took fourteen minutes until John Evans was pronounced dead.

Alpha Otis Stephens was executed by the same chair as John Evans on December 12th, 1984. The first jolt of electricity failed because of a broken circuit. Stephens struggled to breathe for eight minutes while the operator of the chair was fixing the connectivity. Finally, the first successful charge was applied, causing him to forcefully leap forward against the straps. He then slouched after the current stopped two minutes later. Witnesses saw him still struggling to breathe. It took six minutes before his body was cool enough for doctors to examine him. During this time he took a total of 23 breaths. The doctors said that he was still living, so a second charge was applied for a 20 seconds and then he was pronounced dead.

“Old Sparky”, the nickname of Florida’s electric chair, has been in operation since its first execution in 1924. In the past twenty years, Old Sparky executed 43 inmates. Electrocution has been Florida’s sole method of execution until 2000, when the Supreme Court decided it should only be used if inmate requests it. Old Sparky was located in Florida’s State Prison in Starke. The seventy five year old oak chair was recently replaced with newer wood after its previous two malfunctions in 1990 and 1997.

On the 4th of May in 1990, Jesse Tafero was executed by Old Sparky. In the three minute electrocution, Tafero’s head was covered in flames on all sides and the execution room was full of smoke. Witnesses testify that Tafero was still breathing after the second jolt. “It appears unusual. That amount of smoke is unusual,” prison spokesman, Bob Mac-Master said. Electrical engineers later inspected the chain and its equipment and concluded that there was too much resistance on the electricity in the wiring. This resistance may have reduced the voltage to as low as 100, just torturing the inmate. The state prison medical director, Frank Kligo, who attended the execution, said it was “less than aesthetically attractive.”

Derrick Peterson was executed by Virginia’s electric chair on August 22, 1991. At first, 1725 volts pass through Peterson’s body for ten seconds then dropped to 240 volts. Peterson’s hands and feet clenched and his head violently jerked. He then relaxed and moaned softly. The power was cut off and a doctor looked for a pulse. The doctor said, “He hasn’t expired”. Peterson sat on the chair for another four minutes until another doctor, Dr. Barnes, examined him. He also said, “This man has not expired”. The executioner sent a second charge, yet Peterson remained wheezing. After a total of eight minutes, he finally died.

Six years later, on March 25th, 1997, Pedro Medina was electrocuted on Old Sparky’s malfunctioning mechanics. “Almost immediately, a flame four to five inches high shot from a top portion of the headpiece. It burned clearly enough that it could be seen for six to eight seconds,” said Eugene Morris, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. Investigations show that a synthetic sponge, which replaced a natural sponge after it worn off, caused the flames. Mike Minerva, from the Capital Collateral Representative, said, “It was horrible. A solid flame covered his whole head, from one side to the other. I had the impression of somebody being burned alive. In fact, you can smell it on the other side of the glass. Very strong. Lots of smoke”.

Malfunctioning or not, the electric chair demonstrates pure torture and cruelty. The amount of torture and pain is not only unusual and unnecessary but is unconstitutional and unethical. In all the past electric executions, the government ignored the torture given to the inmates when the chair failed. Shouldn’t executions enforce law, not break it? Historically, Edison used the electric chair as a form of propaganda to scare the public, so why doesn’t it scare us today? In the past one-hundred and twenty years, the United States has “progressed” towards a modernized world, yet it is still using an archaic method of execution that has repeatedly, over the years, showed us its lack of reliability and consistency. The electric chair is nothing less than a graphic demonstration to scare the public by presenting a criminal’s violent death. Although, the United States has set an example to the world in different aspects, it cannot seem to maintain its enforcement of the Eighth Amendment. By continuing to allow the electric chair as a form of death penalty, the states in our nation are not heading towards a more “humane” and ethical society, but seem to have regressed to darker days in criminal history.

Answer 2

The electric chair was for serious punishments, extremelly painful. Dude, look it up at wikipedia.org

Answer 3

If the person murdered and didn't care at all, I mean we are talking serial killers that just don't care about anyones life.

For them, they need the electric chair.

Answer 4

I like the Chair a LOT, but I like hanging even MORE!

Answer 5

I am for it. Don't make people do a 150 word essay for you so you can print it out for school.

Answer 6

I am against the death penalty unless it is absolutly called for. As for the method I am more for the lethal injection and the gallows.

Answer 7

Thats good Chelsea. Now get started on it!


-shake & bake

Answer 8

So you are going to take someone else's words on here, use them for your homework, and not even cite your source?

Answer 9

I'm all for it! I say fire up 'Ol Sparky and cook the deserving b@$tards!

Answer 10

I'm not going to do your homework for you. But I will say that I am not for its use.

Answer 11

against