Who invented the electric chair profession. Execution on an electric chair: What a man feels. Executed on your own accord

Kruglov I.

The electrical chair was invented 115 years ago, becoming another US symbol.

The invention of the very humane punishment at that time was accompanied by a merger of many human vices. Inventors were guided largely mercenary goals, and not the desire to mitigate suffering, improve the conditions of convicts and facilitate their fate. In the history of the invention of the new method, intrigue, competition, slander, reproaches, science and business are intertwined.

At the end of the XIX century, Thomas Edison (below in the photo) invented the incandescent lamp, which was truly a great invention, which allowed the use of electricity to illuminate cities.

Dentist from Buffalo city, New York, named Albert Southwitch thought that electricity can be used in his medical practice as an anesthetic. Once, the Southwick saw one of the residents of Buffalo touched the bare wires of the electric generator on a city power plant and died, as Southwick thought, almost instantly and painlessly. This case came across it to the idea that the execution using electricity can replace hanging as more humane and rapid punishment. At first, Southwick talked with the head of the "Society for the Protection of Animals from Cruelty", collapse Rockwell, offering the use of electricity to get rid of unnecessary animals instead of their drowning (a method that was traditionally used). Rockwell liked this idea. In 1882, Southwick began experiments on animals, publishing its results in scientific newspapers. Then the Southwick showed the results to his influential friend, David Senator McMillan. Southwick stated that the main advantage of execution using electricity is that it is painless and fleet. McMilllan was a commitment to preserving the death penalty; It was attracted by this idea, as the argument against the cancellation of the death penalty, because such a kind of execution could not be called cruel and inhuman, therefore, supporters of the cancellation of the death penalty will lose their highest arguments. Macmillalan handed the heard Governor of New York Daid Bennett Hill. In 1886, an "law on the establishment of a commission for research and submission of the conclusion on the most humane and acceptable method of leading the death sentence" is adopted. The commission included Southwick, judge Matthew Hale and politician Elurge Jerry. The conclusion of the commission set forth on the ninety-five pages of the report was as follows: the best method of bringing the death sentence is the execution of electricity. The report recommended that the staff should replace hanging on a new type of execution.

Governor Hill signs the law on June 5, 1888, which was supposed to enter into force on January 1, 1889 and put the beginning of a new, humane, punishment in New York.

It remained to resolve the issue of the apparatus itself to bring the sentence to fulfillment and the question of which type of electric current should be used: a permanent or variable.

It is worth considering the history associated with variables and direct currents. What do they differ, and what current is more suitable for execution?

Long until the invention of Thomas Edison, scientists from different countries worked on this subject, but no one managed to use electricity in everyday life. Edison in practice implemented the theory developed before him. The first Edison Power Station was built in 1879; Almost immediately, representatives of different cities of the United States went to the scientist. The Edison system, working on a constant current, had its difficulties. Permanent current flows in one direction. The flow of DC is not possible for a large distance, it was necessary to build power plants, even to provide electricity the city of the average value.

The output was found to the Croatian scientist Nikola Tesla (right in the photo). He developed an idea of \u200b\u200busing alternating current. AC current can change the direction several times per second, creating a magnetic field without losing the electrical voltage. AC voltage can be raised and reduced by transformers. The high voltage current can be transmitted over long distances with minor losses, and then through a lowering transformer, to bring electricity to consumers. Some cities used the AC system (but not to develop Tesla), and this system attracted investors. One of these investors was George Westingau, known for its invention of aerodynamic brake. Westingau intended to make the use of alternating current, but Edison's DC technology was more popular at the time. Tesla worked for Edison, but he did not pay attention to his development, and Tesla quit. Soon he patented his ideas and was able to show them in action. In 1888, Westinghouse bought forty patents from Tesla, and in a few years more than a hundred cities used the AC system. Edison's enterprise began to pass his position.

It became obvious that the AC system will replace the DC system. However, Edison did not believe it. In 1887, he began to discredit the Westing Week, demanding from its employees to collect information on death cases caused by alternating current, in the hope of proving that its system is safer for the population. (Left: Westing Team)

The battle of Titans, as sometimes called this story, began when the question of the type of current was missing, which was to use in the apparatus for the death penalty. Edison did not want his invention to be associated with death, he wanted a variable current in the death penalty apparatus.

On June 5, 1888, a letter of Harold Brown was published in New York Ivning Post, which warned about the danger of alternating current. This letter caused an alarmed reaction in society. In the 1870s, Brown was an Eidison worker, and it can be assumed that this letter was ordered. In 1888, Brown conducted a series of animal experiments, demonstrating the destructive ability of alternating current. In the experiments, two used alternating current generators were used, as WestingAs refused to sell their generators. There were experiments on several dozen dogs, cats, over two horses.

The speech of the respected scientist Tomas Edison before the Commission on the decision of the execution method made a vivid impression. The legendary inventor convinced all those present in the fact that death with the use of electricity is painless and fast, of course, in the case of using alternating current. The Commission had a choice to introduce deadly injection into the use of execution. Mortal injection is considered humane than an electric chair. In the XX century, it was precisely all the states in which there is a death penalty. Maybe many would not suffer on an electric chair if there were no competition between campaigns or convincing speech Edison before the commission, although the main question was that the execution of the execution by mortal injection should occur with the help of doctors or doctors themselves, which is impossible By virtue of obvious reasons.

Different methods of killing, for example, on the table or in the bathroom with water were assumed. Harold Brown offered to put a convicted person on a chair, attaching a convicted electrode to the body. Brown and became an electric stool engineer. In the wrestling of Edison's fight with the Westing, the Law "On Electrical Executions" was adopted, entering into force on January 1, 1889, which was supposed to establish the only execution method - killing through the use of electric current.

By January 1, 1889, the first electric chair was ready. This invention was considered a breakthrough in the humanization of the death penalty. No one has yet guessed that this invention will open the era of the struggle for human rights sentenced to death.

Sources:

Belash V. "The most humane chair in the world." Kommersant power. August 1, 2005.
Macleod M. Electrocution. Electricity. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/chair/2.html
Dr. Richard Moran. The Strange Origins of the Electric Chair.AUG. 5, 1990. Boston. Globe. APPENDIX PART B IN JOHN N. MISKELL "S Monograph on Auburn Prison" S Electroctions http://www.correctionhistory.org/auburn&osborne/miskell/html/auburnchair_moran.html
American Electric Chairs http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/electric%20chairs/americas%20Electric%20CHAIS.htm
Mystery Electric Chair http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/mystery_electric_chair.htm

On the choice of a convicted along with mortal injection, and in Kentucky and Tennessee, the right to choose the use of an electric chair have only committed a crime of previously defined dates (Kentucky - April 1, 1998, in Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Nebrask, the electric chair was used as the only way of execution, however, on February 8, 2008, the Supreme Court Nebraska ruled that he was a "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Constitution. In Oklahoma, it can be used only in strictly agreed cases, for example, if all other execution methods are recognized as unconstitutional at the time of the fulfillment of the death sentence.

During 2004, this method of execution was used only once, in 2005 it was never used, in 2006 - once.

The last one-known case of using an electric chair was recorded on March 18, 2010, when Paul Powell was executed in Virginia - a racist killer who killed a girl for meeting with an African American, and also raped and tried to kill her sister.

Device and principle of operation

The electrical chair is an armchair from dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps for tough fixation of the sentence. Hands are attached to armrests, legs - in special clips of the armchair's legs. Also to the chair attached a special helmet. Electrical contacts are connected to the fastening places of the ankles and to the slope. The technical support includes a boost transformer. During execution of execution, an alternating current with a voltage of order 2700 is supplied to the contacts, the current limit system supports current through the body of a condemned order 5. (The above parameters characterize the electric chair used in the state of Massachusetts, according to the description from the section.) The current and voltage are limited to the convict not catch up during execution.

The stool power management system has a power protection, which must be deactivated immediately before executing a responsible person with a special key. According to one of the versions, the chair can have one or more control switches by pressing the current turns on. In this case, they are included simultaneously with different executions, and in reality the current includes only one of them. Such an order is used to ensure that no one, including the performers, could not know who actually carried out a execution (by analogy with a widely known shooter, when the part of the shooters are issued a weapon charged by idle cartridges).

The order of execution

The convict sitting on the electric chair, the hands are attached to the armrests, and their feet to the fasteners of foot contacts. Before laying a helmet, a hood is put on a suicide head, or you stick your eyes. The helmet is worn on the head of the convict on which the hair on the painter shave in front of the execution. The helmet is invested with a sponge impregnated with saline, this is done in order to ensure the minimum electrical resistance of contact in the helmet with head and, thus, accelerate death and facilitate the physical suffering of the convicted. The torso is fixed with additional belts.

After disabling the protection system, the executioner turns on the current. The voltage turns on twice, one minute, with a break of 10 seconds (in different structures, the number of inclusions and time intervals may vary). After turning off the power, the doctor must make sure that the convicted dead. In some states of the United States and states, in the event of non-death of death, the operation may continue. In the laws of others - pardon is provided, if a convicted miracle survived three current inclusions for one minute. William Vandiver was killed only after the fifth discharge of the current (October 16, 1985, Indiana (1001 death, A. P. Lavrin)).

Humanity execution on electric chair

The electric chair was introduced as a humane means of execution, which makes it possible to kill the criminal, without causing him of unnecessary suffering. Supporters of this type of execution claim that it is painless - the electric current of the parameters used destroys the departments of the nervous system responsible for the feeling and awareness of pain, during the time, twenty-thirty times less than necessary so that a person felt pain. Opponents of an electric chair indicate that these statements are a product of theoretical calculations, and not a proven fact.

In some cases, before the onset of death, it is necessary to pass through the body of the execution current within a few minutes or even longer. At the same time, the execution can occur spontaneous urination, defecation, vomiting, including blood, darkening and charging of the skin. There were precedents that the execution was bursting or left the orbits of the eye. The indoor spreads the smell of the burner flesh, can go smoke. There are cases of ignition (hair on the head lights). In the event of malfunctions in the work of the equipment or any violations of the rules of use, death may not come immediately. On the other hand, according to the information of American organizations speakers to cancel the death penalty, the number of such linings when using an electric chair is still substantially less than with the execution by the deadly injection.

History

The creation of an electric chair is associated with the name of Thomas Edison. In the years in the United States, Edison, who organized the first power supply system at a constant current, was actively competed with new power supply systems based on AC, which received the name of the war of currents. Edison convinced consumers in the shortcomings of the competitors system, promoted the danger of such systems, producing, including public experiments on the killing of animals by alternating current.

These events coincided with the discussion on the choice of a more humane method of the death penalty (until the 80s of the XIX century in the United States, it was mainly hanging. The way the terrifying scenes were too long and painful execution: even the most experienced The executioner sometimes could not provide for the nuances, and death did not come from the vertebral fracture, as it was relied, but from the stroke, which is more painful.

More wider use of electricity, naturally, was accompanied by periodic accidents, as a result of which people died. In 1881 in Buffalo (New York), the dentist Albert Southwick accidentally witnessed the death of an elderly drunk, touched by the electrical generator contacts. Amazed by how quickly and externally, death came, Southwick appealed to a friend, Senator David McMillan, with a proposal to replace the rope on the wires. He asked the State Legislative Assembly of New York to consider the prospects for the use of electricity in the death penalty to abandon hanging. In 1886, a commission was established to study the issue "On the most humane and deserving approval of the method of bringing to the fulfillment of death sentences". At this stage, the famous Thomas Edison was included in the history of the electric chair, and it would be so latch that this chair, by analogy with a guillotine, would be called Edisonin (although the prison population of America calls his "yellow mother" or "old smoking"). The inventor arranged in West Orange (eng.)russian (New Jersey State) Indicative Experience: Several cats and dogs lured on a metal plate under a voltage of 1000 in alternating current. In 1888, a law was adopted in the state of New York by the Legislative Assembly, which established the execution of electricity as adopted in the state of the method of bringing to death sentences.

In the second half of 1888, the inventor Harold Brown and an employee of the Columbia University Fred Peterson held in Edison's laboratories research on the use of electricity for the death penalty. For several months, more than two dozen dogs were killed, according to the results of experiments on December 12, 1888, the Group presented a report to the forensic medical society of New York, which recommended an electric chair as an instrument of execution (other options were considered, including a tank With water and a rubber coating table). On January 1, 1889, the state of the electric execution entered into force in New York.

The enemy of the electric chair became George Westinguz, who had previously developed the supply system of consumers with electricity on alternating current, the main competitor of Edison. After the implementation of the Law on the execution on the electric chair, the Westinguz refused to supply alternate current prisons, as a result of which Edison and Brown had to buy generators in the neighboring paths.

The first convicts for execution on the electric chair were William Cammler and Joseph Chaplo (the first - for the murder of a mistress, the second - for the killing of the neighbor). The chaplo was pardon and received a lifelong conclusion. Westingauses tried to save and Cammerler, for which he hired lawyers who demanded a sentence appeal on the basis that the execution of an electric chair falls under the definition of a "tough and unusual punishment", prohibited by the eighth amendment to the US Constitution, but the appeals were rejected.

In 1890, Edwin Davis, who worked by an electrician in the prison of the city of Obern, developed the first operating model of an electric chair. On August 6, 1890, William Cemmler was the first executed in the world on an electric chair in an oven prison. Although one of the reporters also stated: "He was not at all hurt!", In fact, the execution was not quite smooth: after the first turning on the current, the Cemler was still alive, the current had to be included secondary. George Westinguz commented on the penalty in words: "They would have better with them better" (Cammler killed the mistress of the ax).

In 1896, the electric chair was introduced in Ohio, in 1898 - in Massachusetts, in 1906 - in New Jersey, in 1908 - in Virginia, in 1910 - in North Carolina. Over the next ten years, he was pronounced even more than ten states and became the most popular to the execution in America. In just more than one hundred years of use on an electric chair, more than 4,300 people were executed.

Thought as a means of discrediting power supply systems on alternating current, the electric chair just could not be performed. Despite its appearance, the use of alternating current expanded. Later, Edison was forced to admit that he underestimated the advantages of alternating current. In 1912, Westinghouse was awarded the Edison medal for achieving this technology in the development.

Outside the USA

There are cases of applying self-made electric chairs as an instrument of torture with various organized criminal groups on the PSP, in particular, the "slave" Alexander Komin from Vyatka Polyan used a self-made electric chair to kill one of his prisoners.

Reasonable people executed on an electric chair

William Cemmler (English William Kemmler.) (, New York), the first person in the world, executed on an electric chair; He shoved the mistress of the ax
Martha Place (English Martha Place.) (, New York), the first woman, executed on an electric chair; was convicted of murdering his 17-year-old stepdaughter (stepmother strangled a girl)
Leon Cholgosh (English Leon Czolgosz.) (, New York), presidential killer McKornley
Chester Gillett (English Chester Gillette) ( , New York)
Arthur Khodjes (eng. Arthur Hodges.) (, Arkansas)
Charles Becker (eng. Charles Becker.) ( , New York)
Sakko and Vanzetti (eng. Sacco and Vanzetti.) (, Massachusetts), executed on a fabricated charge, became a textbook example of the persecution of political reasons.
Ruth Snyder (eng. Ruth Snyder.) ( , New York)
Giuseppe Zangar (eng. Giuseppe zangara.) (, Florida), cared for the life of the elected President F. Roosevelt and killed the mayor of Chicago
Albert Fish (eng. Albert Fish.) ( , New York
Bruno Hauptman (English Bruno Hauptmann.) (, New Jersey), found guilty of the abduction and murder of the young son of Charles Lidberg
Anna Maria Heng (English Anna Marie Hahn.) (, Ohio
Herman and Paul Petrillo (English. Herman and Paul Petrillo) (, Pennsylvania)
Nazi agents (, Washington, DC)
Luis Lapaque (eng. Louis Lepke.) ( , New York)
Lena Baker (eng. Lena Baker.) ()
Willie Francis (English Willie Francis.) (, Louisiana)
Julius and Ethel Rosenbergi (English. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) (, New York), executed for espionage - the transfer of information about the American nuclear bomb to Soviet agents. It was previously believed that their wines were not completely proven. Now the materials of the project "Vonon" have proven the participation of Julius in espionage.
Martin, Ronda Bell (eng. Rhonda Belle Martin.) (, Alabama), American serial killer
Charles Starkwezer (English Charles Starkweather.) (, Nebraska), American serial killer
James Frenc (English James French.) ()
John Spenkelink (English John Spenkelink.) (1979, Florida) - the first executed on the electric chair after the abolition of the moratorium on the death penalty (it was convicted even before the moratorium introduced).
Larry da Silva (English Larri Da Silva.) (1979) - His execution was shown in the documentary film
John Louise Evans (English John Louis Evans.) (, Alabama)
Ted Bandy (English Ted Bundy.) (, Florida, American serial killer)
Donald Guskins English. Donald Henry Gaskins, JR (), American serial killer
John Jubert John Joubert (), Nebraska), American serial killer
Pedro Medina (English Pedro Medina.) (, Florida)
Gerald Stano (eng. Gerald Eugene Stano.) (), Florida is an American serial killer (41 victims).
Buenoano, Judias (English Judias Buenoano.) (, Florida) - American serial killer.
Allen Lee Davis (English Allen Lee Davis.) (, Florida)
Earl Konrad Bramblett (eng. Earl Conrad Bramblett) (, Virginia)
James Neil Tucker (eng. James Neil Tucker) ( , South Carolina)
Brandon Headric (English Brandon Hedrick.) (, Virginia)

In culture

In literature

In music

The execution on the electric chair found the display in the song "Ride The Lightning" of the group "Metallica" and "Electrocution" groups "SODOM".
In the video for the song "Killed by Death" of the Motorhead Groups of the police executive on the electric chair of the frontman of the Lemmy group, which at the end of the clip comes to life and leaves from his own grave on the motorcycle.
Electric chair as an element of a stage show uses American shock rocker Alice Cooper at concerts.
In the clip of Madonna "Die Another Day", it is planted on an electric chair, but it saves; Also in the "RE-INVENTION World Tour" Madonna sang on the electric chair the song "Lament".
The song of the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds group "The Mercy Seat" is written on the face of a person sentenced to death. The name of the song also points to God's throne simultaneously on the electric chair.
In the clip, the leg is reduced! "S.O.S IN THE ASS" Events of a certain similarity of erotic game unfold around an electric chair.
In the cline of Nike Borzov, the Last Song is executed on an electric chair.
In the Philip Kirkorov video "You will believe" the main character is planted on an electric chair. In one second before the time to turn on the voltage, the execution is canceled.
In the clip on the composition of Eminem "We Made You" there is a scene, where he is sentenced to death and lead a sentence. However, Eminem does not even experience discomfort.
In the clip of the group Rage Against The Machine "No Shelter", the execution on the electric chair of American anarchists of Sacco and Vanzetti.

The electric chair is mentioned in the song "Fucking Militia" of a group of metal corrosion, as well as in a "song without words" of a movie group.

To the cinema

In the film "Angels with dirty faces" one of the main characters of the film, Rocky, was executed on an electric chair.
In the film "City of Sin", one of the characters was also executed by means of an electric chair, while it was dead only after two attempts of execution.
In the film "Raven 3: Salvation" Protagonist, Alex Corvis, was executed on an electric chair. The main antagonist of the film also takes death on an electric chair.
In the film "Monsters Ball" on the electric chair executed the artist.
In the film "Konstantin: Lord of Darkness" The hero of the film uses the Xing Sing prison electric chair to move to hell.
In the film "Green Mile" shows the fulfillment of the death sentence with an electric chair.
In the film "Nor alive, in a newly opened prison Alcatraz deliver a convict for execution on an electric chair.
In the movie "Summer" (in the original - "Alive"), the main character was convicted of execution through an electric chair, but survived.
In one of the episodes of the third season of the series "Quantum leap", which is called "the last dance before execution", Sam Bekket, the main character, becomes a criminal sentenced to execution on an electric chair.
In the film "Passenger 57", the terrorist Charles Rhine is sent by an airplane in Los Angeles for execution on an electric chair.
In the TV series "Escape" of the execution of Lincoln Barrowz and General.
In the horror film "Electroschok" (1989), the main villain was executed on a chair, but he survived using the current to rise from the dead.
In the horror movie "Flashing Dead" (1936), a group of criminals kills a judge and substitute John Ellman (Boris Carloff), who is accused of murder and sentenced to execution on an electric chair. Later two witnesses are found in his favor, but just at the moment when finally manage to reach prison, the execution is happening.
The film "The person who was not" (2001) ends with the scene preparation of the main character of Ed Crane to the death penalty through an electric chair.
The first episode of the first season of the series "Bikes from a crypt" (1989) talks about the prison wrap, so much the taste of its electric profession, which in the end itself turns out to be on an electric chair.
Closer to the end of the film "Super Polysky" the main character is trying to execute through an electric chair, but he possessing superpowers, translates the voltage on the audience of the execution and the executioner.
In the final of the film "Lonely Hearts" with the help of an electric chair, a sentence is given over murderers-lovers (Salma Hayek and Jared Summer). The scene of execution is replete with a large number of physiological details and details of death on an electric chair.
The film "Persons of Death" shows the personnel of the death penalty on an electric chair.

In computer games

In the first part of the "Unreal", the main character, wandering through the wreck of a cosmic prison, can detect a sentenced concluded on an electric chair. After the crash of the ship, the prisoner may already be dead, but the player has the ability to "finish" him by activating the chair.

On August 6, 1890, humanity entered a new page in his history. Scientific and technical progress reached such a specific kind of activity as the execution of death sentences. In the United States of America, the first death penalty was carried out on the "electric chair".

"Electric chair" by its appearance indirectly obliged to the famous inventor Thomas Edison. In the 1880s, "War of currents" broke out in the USA - the struggle between power supply systems on constant and alternating current. The adept of DC systems was Edison, A variable - Nikola Tesla.

Edison, seeking to lean the scales in his direction, indicated the extreme danger of alternating current systems. For clarity, the inventor sometimes demonstrated the cracked experiments, killing animals by alternating current.

In the American society of the late XIX century, literally inlent into electricity, at the same time the issue of humanization of the death penalty was discussed. Many believed that hanging is too big atrocity that should be replaced by a more humane method of killing.

It is not surprising that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe death penalty with the help of electricity has become extremely popular.

Observatory dentist

First, the thought of the "electric death machine" came to the American dentist Albert Southwick. One day, in his eyes, the elderly drinking was touched by the electrical generator contacts. The death of the unfortunate was instantaneous.

Southwitch, who witnessed this scene, shared an observation with his patient and friend David McMillan.

Mr. McMilllan was a senator and, considering the proposal of Southwica Delny, turned to the Legislative Assembly of the State of New York with an initiative about the introduction of a new, "progressive" way of execution.

The discussion of the initiative continued for about two years, and the number of supporters of the new way of execution constantly grew. Among those who were both hands "For", turned out to be Thomas Edison.

In 1888, a series of additional experiments were held in Edison's laboratories, after which the authorities received a positive conclusion from experts on the possibility of using the death penalty "Electric chair". On January 1, 1889, the state of the electric execution entered into force in New York.

Supporters of the use of alternating current in every way opposed its use in order to murder, but were powerless.

In 1890, the electrician of the prison of the city of Obern Edwin Davis Built the first acting model of a new "death machine".

Electrocution. The illustration was made after the experiments on the feasibility of holding the death penalty in 1888. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

Humane theory

The humanity of the execution, according to supporters of the invention, was that the electric current rapidly destroys the brain and the nervous system of sentenced, thereby paying him from suffering. The executive loses consciousness for thousands of seconds of a second, and the pain simply does not have time to achieve the brain during this time.

The "Electric Chair" itself is an armchair from dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps for tough fixation of the sentence. Hands are attached to armrests, legs - in special clips of the armchair's legs. Also to the chair attached a special helmet. Electrical contacts are connected to the fastening places of the ankles and to the slope. The current limitation system is designed so that the body of the sentence does not catch up during an execution.

After the sentenced sits on the chair and fix it, the helmet is put on his head. Before that, hair on the top shave. Eyes either stick to the plaster, or just put on the head of the black hood. The helmet is invested with a sponge impregnated with brine: this is done in order to ensure the minimum electrical resistance of contact in the helmet with head and thus accelerate death and alleviate the physical suffering of the execution.

Then turns on the current that is served twice one minute with a break in 10 seconds. It is believed that by the time of the expiration of the second minute, the sentence must be dead.

Critics "electric chair" from the very beginning indicated that all reasoning about his humanity is purely theoretical, and in practice everything can turn out quite differently.

First Client

Candidates for entering the history as the first victim of the electric chair, there were two - Joseph Chaplowho killed a neighbor and William Cemlerhaving fallen an ax misty.

As a result, the lawyers of the chaplo achieved pardon, and "honor" to try out the new invention to himself went to Cammler.

By the time of execution, William Cammler turned 30 years old. His parents were immigrants from Germany, which in America did not build a new life, and tritely cut and died, leaving the son of the orphan.

Difficult childhood affected her further life, which Cammler did not indulge. In the spring of 1889 after a quarrel with her mistress Tilly Tsigler The man killed her blow of the ax.

The court sentenced Cammer to the death penalty, which was supposed to be carried out on an electric chair.

Lawyers, referring to the US Constitution, prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishments," tried to cancel the cancellation of the court decision, but their appeal was rejected.

On August 6, 1890, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the first electric discharge ran the first electric discharge in the prison of the city of Obern on the body of William Cammler.

"Fried" facts

Everything went wrong, as described theorists. Cammler's body beat in convulsions so much that the prison physician who was confused from the seen seen was given to turn off the current in less than 20 seconds, and not after a minute, as planned. At first it seemed that Cammler was dead, but then he began to make convulsive sighs and moan. For a new attempt to kill, it took time to recharge the device. Finally, the current gave the second time this time for one minute. Cammerler's body began to smoke, the smell of burned meat spread around the room. After a minute, the Medic stated that convicted dead.

The opinion of the witnesses of the execution, which were more than twenty people, turned out to be extremely unanimous - the king of Cammerle looked extremely disgusting. One of the reporters wrote that the sentenced literally "fried to death."

The external impression of the journalist was not so deceptive. Judicial physicians who worked with the bodies of executed on the "electric chair", said that the brain, subjected to the strongest exposure to the current, turns out to be practically cooked.

Despite the negative impressions of William Cammler's executions, "Electric Chair" began to rapidly gain popularity. To the outcome of the first decade of the XX century, it became the most popular way of death in the United States.

Executed on your own accord

Abroad, however, this kind of execution did not get widespread. And in the United States themselves in the 1970s, the "Electric Chair" gradually began to crowd out a deadly injection.

In the entire history of the use of the "electric chair", more than 4,300 people were executed on it.

Currently, the execution on the "Electric Chair" is officially preserved in eight states. However, in practice, this execution is resorted to all less often, including due to technical difficulties. The newest "samples" of these "death cars" today is more than thirty years, and some have already more than 70, so during the executions they often give failures.

In a number of US states, there is a norm according to which the offender himself can choose a way of execution. This is how the executed in January 2013 in Virginia is 42-year-old Robert Glison. Condemned in 2007 on a life imprisonment for the murder of the FBI Glison agent in prison was dealt with two samplers, explaining his actions to the desire to get to the "electric chair". Moreover, the criminal promised to continue to kill the ceamers, if such an opportunity he was not provided. As a result, Robert Glison achieved his, becoming, perhaps, one of the last "customers" in the history of the "electric chair".

The execution on an electric chair was recently considered one of the most humane ways to kill criminals. However, over the years of application, it turned out that such a type of execution is by no means completely painless, and on the contrary, a terrible torment may cause convicted. What can happen to a person who fell on an electric chair?

History of electric stool

The criminals began to execute on an electric chair at the end of the XIX century, when supporters of the "progressive" society decided that the previously existing treasures, such as burning in the fire, hanging and beheading, inhuman. From their point of view, the criminal should not additionally suffer in the execution of the execution: after all, he also takes the most expensive - life.

It is believed that the first model of an electric chair was invented in 1888 by Harold Brown, who worked at Thomas Edison. According to other data, the inventor of the electric chair was the dentist Albert Southwick.

The essence of the execution is as follows. The convict shave the head of the top and the back of the leg of the leg. Then the torso and hands firmly bind belts to the chair made of dielectric, with a high back and armrests. Legs are fixed using special clamps. At first, the criminals tied their eyes, then began to wear a hood on the head, and recently - a special mask. One electrode is attached to the head on which the helmet is worn, the other to the leg. The executioner includes a switter button that passes through the body alternating current by force to 5 amps and voltage from 1,700 to 2400 volts. Usually execution takes about two minutes. Two discharge are served, each is turned on by one minute, the break between them is 10 seconds. Death, which should come from a heart stop, is mandatory records the doctor.

For the first time, this execution method was applied on August 6, 1890 in the American State of the American State of New York to William Cammler, sentenced to killing his mistress Tilly Zaigler.

Until now, more than 4 thousand people were executed so far in the United States. Also, a similar type of execution was used in the Philippines. On an electric chair, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who worked for Soviet intelligence graduated from the electric chair.

"Lzhegumanny" procedure

It was assumed that when passing through the body of an electric current, a person will die immediately. But it happened not always. Often, eyewitnesses had to be observed as people planted on an electric chair were fought in convulsions, they had a tongue, they had a foam, blood, her eyes got out of his eyes, an involuntary emptying of the intestines and a bladder occurred. Some during the execution published piercing shouts ... Almost always after the category of discharge from the skin and hair of the convict began to go easy smack. Cases were also recorded when a person sitting on an electric chair light up and exploded the head. Quite often, the burnt leather "stuck" to belts and seats. The bodies of the executed were, as a rule, so hot, that it was impossible to touch them, and in the room there was still a "aroma" of the magnificent human flesh for a long time.

In one of the protocols, an episode is described when for 15 seconds for the convicted person, a discharge of 2450 volts was influenced, but after a quarter of an hour after the procedure he was still alive. As a result, the execution had to repeat even three times, until the criminal was finally died. The last time he even melted eyeballs.

In 1985, in the state of Indiana William Vandaver, at five times later shock. To kill it, it took as many as 17 minutes.

According to experts, with the effects of such high voltage, the human body, including the brain and other internal organs, literally roasted alive. Even if death comes quickly enough, at least a person feels the strongest muscular spasm in the whole body, as well as sharp pain in the places of contact with the skin of the electrodes. After that, the loss of consciousness usually occurs. Here are the memories of one of the survivors: "In the mouth was the taste of cold peanut butter. I felt my head and left foot burn, so I tried to break out of the way. " 17-year-old Willie Francis, destroyed on an electric chair in 1947, shouted: "Turn off! Let me breathe! "

Repeated execution became painful as a result of various failures and problems. So, on May 4, 1990, when the criminal of Jessa D. Tofero executed, the synthetic gasket under his helmet occurred, and the convicts received burns of the third-fourth degree. Similar happened on March 25, 1997 with Pedro Medina. In both cases, I had to include a current several times. In total, the execution procedure took 6-7 minutes, so that it could not be called fast and painless.

The big resonance caused a story with the killer of the whole family of Allen Lee Davis, who, before execution, stuck with a leather ribbon not only mouth (instead of a swing), but also the nose. As a result, he suffered.

Chair or injection?

Over time, it became clear that the "humane" execution in fact often is an agonizing torture, and its use was limited. True, someone believes that the matter is not at all in humanity, but in the high cost of the procedure.

Currently, the execution on the electric chair is applied only in six American states - Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Moreover, the convict is offered to choose - an electric chair or deadly injection. The last time the aforementioned measure was applied on January 16, 2013 in Virginia to Robert Gliscon, who specially killed two of his cellmates, so that a life sentence would be replaced by a death sentence.

In addition, the United States operates in the USA: if after the third discharge it survives, he gets a pardon: they say, it means that the will of God ...

Encyclopedic YouTube.

1 / 4

✪ Electric Chair: Interesting Facts

✪Electric tesla chair ⚡ Brutal invention direct in the apartment

✪ It is capable of a transformer as in an electric chair a huge high-voltage arc

✪ Edison killer? The whole truth about the electric chair.

Subtitles

Application

The electric chair was first used in the US on August 6, 1890 in the New York United States Prison. William Cammler, the murderer, became the first person that was executed in this way. After eleven years in the same prison on an electric chair, Leon Cholgosh was executed - the presidential killer McKornley. Throughout the 20th century, it was used in 26 states, but in recent decades it was actively supplanted by other forms of execution (for example, mortal injection) and is now quite rare. From 1952 to 1976, also applied in the Philippines.

Currently, it can be applied in seven states - in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, on the choice of a convicted along with mortal injection, and in Kentucky and Tennessee, the right to choose the use of an electric chair have only committed a crime of previously defined dates (in Kentucky - April 1, 1998, in Tennessee - January 1, 1999). In Tennessee and Virginia, the electrical chair can also be applied if the components for the mortal injection are not found. In Nebrask, the electric chair was used as the only way of execution, however, on February 8, 2008, the Supreme Court Nebraska ruled that he was a "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Constitution. In Arkansas and Oklahoma, it can only be used in strictly agreed cases, for example, if all other execution methods are recognized as unconstitutional at the time of the fulfillment of the death sentence.

During 2001, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, this method of execution was never used, in all other years of the XXI century - one time. In Kentucky and Nebrask, the electric chair was applied for the last time in 1997, in Georgia - in 1998 (further use was banned by the Supreme Court of Georgia in 2001), in Florida - in 1999, in Alabama - in 2002, in Tennessee - In 2007, in South Carolina - in 2008. In recent years, the electric chair is applied only in Virginia (in the period from 2009 to 2013, three sentenced to death) were executed on an electric chalet).

The last well-known case of using an electric chair was recorded on January 16, 2013, when Robert Gleason was executed in Virginia - a prisoner who killed two cemeimers in order to get a death sentence.

Device and principle of operation

The electrical chair is an armchair from dielectric material with armrests and a high back, equipped with straps for tough fixation of the sentence. Hands are attached to armrests, legs - in special clips of the armchair's legs. Also to the chair attached a special helmet. Electrical contacts are connected to the fastening places of the ankles and to the slope. The technical support includes a boost transformer. During execution of execution, an alternating current with a voltage of order 2700 is supplied to the contacts, the current limit system supports current through the body of a condemned order 5. The current and voltage are limited to the convict not caught fire during execution.

The order of execution

The sentences sitting on the electric chair, the hands are attached to the armrests, and the legs to the fasteners of the foot contacts. Before laying a helmet, a hood is put on a suicide head, or put your eyes. The helmet is worn on the head of the convict on which the hair on the painter shave in front of the execution. The helmet is invested with a sponge impregnated with brine in order to ensure the minimum electrical resistance of contact in the helmet with head and, thus, accelerate death and facilitate the physical suffering of the convicted. The torso is fixed with additional belts.

After disabling the protection system, the executioner turns on the current. The voltage turns on twice, one minute, with a break of 10 seconds (in different structures, the number of inclusions and time intervals may vary). After turning off the power, the doctor must make sure that the convicted dead. In some states of the United States and states, in the event of non-death of death, the operation may continue. William Vandeiver was killed only after the fifth current discharge.

History

More wider use of electricity, naturally, was accompanied by periodic accidents, as a result of which people died. In 1881 in Buffalo (New York), the dentist Albert Southwick accidentally witnessed the death of an elderly drunk, touched by the electrical generator contacts. Amazed by how quickly and externally, death came, Southwick appealed to a friend, Senator David McMillan, with a proposal to replace the rope on the wires. He asked the State Legislative Assembly of New York to consider the prospects for the use of electricity in the death penalty to abandon hanging. In 1886, a commission was established to study the issue "On the most humane and deserving approval of the method of bringing to fulfill mortal sentences." At this stage, the famous Thomas Edison was included in the history of the electric chair, and it would be so latch that this chair, by analogy with a guillotine, would be called Edisonin (although the prison population of America calls his "yellow mother" or "old smoking"). The inventor arranged in West Orange (eng.)russian (New Jersey State) Indicative Experience: Several cats and dogs lured on a metal plate under a voltage of 1000 in alternating current. In 1888, a law was adopted in the state of New York by the Legislative Assembly, which established the execution of electricity as adopted in the state of the method of bringing to death sentences.

The first convicts for execution on the electric chair were William Cammler and Joseph Chaplo (the first - for the murder of a mistress, the second - for the killing of a neighbor). The chaplo was pardon and received a lifelong conclusion. Westinguz tried to save and Cammler, for which he hired lawyers who demanded a sentence appeal on the basis that the execution of an electric chair falls under the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment", prohibited by the eighth amendment to the US Constitution, but the appeals were rejected.

Outside the USA

Alexander Komin from Vyatskaya Polyan used a self-made electric chair to kill one of his prisoners from Vyatskaya Polyan.

Reasonable people executed on an electric chair

William Cammler (, New York) is the first man in the world, executed on an electric chair.
Marta Place (, New York) is the first woman executed on an electric chair.
Leon Cholgosh (, New York) - President McKornley's president.
Chester Gillett (, New York) - a killer, who became the prototype of the fictional character of the Roman Theodore Dwarzer "American tragedy".
Charles Becker (eng.)russian (, New York) - New York Policeman, First Policeman in the United States, sentenced to the death penalty.
Sakko and Vanzetti (, Massachusetts) are executed by the fabricated charges, became a textbook example of persecution on political reasons.
Giuseppe Dzanger (, Florida) - attempted the life of the elected President of Franklin Roosevelt and killed the mayor of Chicago.
Albert Fish (, New York) is a serial killer, known as the "Lunar Maniac", "Gray Ghost", "Brooklyn Vampire", "Bugi-Men", "Werevolph Visteria".
Bruno Richard Hauptmann (eng.)russian (, New Jersey) - a German criminal recognized as guilty of the abduction and murder of Charles Lindberg Jr.
Anna Maria Khan (, Ohio) is an American serial killer.
Herman and Paul Petrilo (, Pennsylvania) - Gangs of the Band of the hired killers of Philadelphia Poison Ring.
Herbert Haupt, Edward John Kerling, Richard Quirin, Heinrich Harm Hachink, Hermann Otto Neubauer, Werner Til (, Washington) - German agents during World War II, participants of the Pastorius operation (eng.)russian.
Luis Lapaque (, New York) is a famous American gangster of the 1930s, the only leader of the Mafia leader, sentenced to death.
Lina Baker () - African American, executed for killing his employer.