4 – Those Who Sit in the Electric Chair Lose Control of Their Bodily Functions
In a movie about notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, who cried uncontrollably as he was being led to Old Sparky, the prison officers rammed cotton up his backside to ensure he wouldn’t defecate all over himself and the chair. As nasty as it sounds, there is logic to the process as you will lose control of your bodily functions while being electrocuted. If you were dumb enough to stick a fork into an electrical socket and were shocked for your stupidity, there is a fair chance that your pants would be a complete mess.
Simply put, your body twitches and gyrates uncontrollably which means involuntary defecation and urination is common. It is normal for prisoners to be offered diapers to spare them the indignity of fouling themselves in their final moments. It is one thing to die in the electric chair; it is another thing entirely to have witnesses see you mess yourself as you writhe in agony in your final moments.
When it is time to die, the prison warden gives a signal to the executioner who pulls the handle to connect the power supply. The prisoner’s body is struck with between 500 and 2,000 volts which course through them for up to 30 seconds. The executioner turns off the current, and the prisoner’s body relaxes. The doctors have to wait for a few seconds to let the body cool down before checking to see if the person’s heart is still beating. If it is, the executioner applies another surge of electricity. The process continues until the condemned is pronounced dead. As you have seen in the previous pages, it is not always straightforward.
Also, during the process, the flesh of the inmate swells because of the swelling of the tissues. In fact, if one of the doctors touches the skin too soon after the electrocution, parts of it will fall off. There have been some truly gruesome accounts of the eyeballs of prisoners popping out and even resting on their cheeks. If the condemned person is ‘lucky,’ they will die after the first jolt. If not, things can get very painful indeed as in the cases of Tafero and Francis where multiple shocks were required. There have been many reports of prisoners screaming and shouting during the execution.
