9 – It Could See a Revival
From the death of Kemmler in 1890, until the execution of James French in 1966, over 1,000 people were electrocuted in the United States. The brief moratorium on capital punishment meant there were no further electric chair deaths until John Spenkelink in 1979. Since then, there have been around 150 more electrocutions, but it has fallen out of favor in recent times. Opponents say it is an outdated form of execution because it is often ineffective. While the first jolt is supposed to render the condemned unconscious, and the second jolt kills them, it is not always so easy.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, lethal injection has been the preferred way to carry out a sentence of capital punishment. The increasing number of horror stories surrounding the electric chair has not helped its case. Ironically, it was introduced because the previously favored method, hanging, was roundly criticized. However, there is a chance that the chair will return to prominence, primarily due to the difficulties of finding enough drugs to conduct lethal injections.
While over 50 countries have the death penalty as an option, few use it, and America is the only nation to use the electric chair. In fact, aside from the U.S., only the Philippines has ever used it with the last death occurring in 1976. At the time of writing, only six states reserve it as an option although there are provisions for its use in Oklahoma and Arkansas if lethal injection is ever ruled unconstitutional. Robert Gleason is the most recent inmate to choose electrocution over lethal injection, and he was executed in Virginia on January 16, 2013.
Despite the horror stories, there are still proponents of the chair as a form of execution. In Alabama, where it is nicknamed ‘Yellow Mama,’ there was a debate over whether it should be reintroduced in 2015. This is in spite of the notorious problems with electrocution in the state. In 1983, it took three separate attempts and 14 minutes to kill John Louis Evans. Witnesses say flames were shooting out from beneath his hood. In 1989, Horace Dunkins, an inmate with an IQ of 69, was executed but a blunder with the voltage meant it took him 19 minutes to die.
Even so, Lynn Greer sponsored a bill to bring back the electric chair which had not been used in Alabama since the execution of Lynda Lyon Block in 2002. According to Greer the system was “not working for the victims.” Another legislator said that the state has “done enough to protect the people on death row.” At present, a number of state courts have ruled that the chair is a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Time will tell whether or not Yellow Mama, Old Sparky, and others will be used more often.
