why did they put paper bags over the heads of people in the electric chair?

Question

why did executioners put paper bags on criminal's heads prior to shocking? one of my friends mentioned this to me and i never figured it out.

Answer 1

Not a paper bag, but a cloth cap. Probably the same reason people to be hanged or to the gas chamber get a cloth cap over their head, and people condemned to a firing squad or to be decapitated get blindfolded.

"...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks."

"At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool."

"If the inmate has strong neck muscles, is very light, if the 'drop' is too short, or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur."

"Descriptions of Execution Methods" : http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=479

Answer 2

It's not paper, it's burlap, and that's only in the movies. There are only ten states, here in America that still use electrocution as capitol punishment. There hasn't actually been one since June 2006. The prisoner was often blindfolded to prevent the witnesses from seeing the prisoners eyeballs melt/burn when the electricity flowed thru the body. Gruesome!

Answer 3

The bags are not paper, or they would burn. It's to mask the face of the condemned, because being electrocuted to death is not pretty and there are actually people who witness the death (often the prisoner's family and the victim's family, along with reporters).

Answer 4

Actually, it is a black cloth bag. They _say_ it is to calm the condemned person, but I think that it's really so that the executioner and witnesses will not have to see the person's face while he dies.

Answer 5

So that the spectators wouldn't see the gruesome things that happen to a persons face when they are being electrocuted.

Answer 6

i'm not sure if it was paper bags but maybe like a burlap sack or something...nobody wants to see eyeballs melt or somebodies face when being electricuted

Answer 7

THEY DON'T PUT PAPER BAGS ON THEIR HEADS. WATCH THE GREEN MILE WITH TOM HANKS. THEY SHOW STEP BY STEP HOW IT'S DONE AND WHY THE PROCEDURE IS THE WAY IT IS.

Answer 8

So people dont see their eyeballs and optic nerve pop out of their skull and dangle below their chin

Answer 9

you are the suited! (a facet- of tickles for u). "She spent 20 minutes watching the orange juice can because of the fact it pronounced: "focus..." Blondie became into hypnotized. "a hundred% organic" clean, orange you? = )

Answer 10

so when there eyes pop out of the sockets the spectators dont get sick