ELECTROCUTION.

Electricity has been adopted in the State of New York as the agent for the execution of condemned criminals. This has given rise to much discussion as to what form of current were the best adapted for this purpose and as to what amount were required to produce death at once and painlessly. These questions may now be regarded as practically settled, at least so far as regards the purposes mentioned, and we shall only refer incidentally to the discussions and their results.

Early in 1890 a committee consisting of Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald, Dr. A. D. Rockwell, and Prof. L. H. Landy made a report to the superintendent of prisons at Albany in regard to the efficiency of the electrical appliances and dynamos placed in the State prisons of Sing Sing, Auburn, and Clinton. This report gave details of various experiments made on animals to determine the amount of current and the time required to produce a fatal result.

On the 6th of August, 1890, occurred the first electrocution, that of William Kemmler, alias John Hart, at Auburn Prison. Dr. MacDonald in his official report to the governor in relation to this says: “It is confidently believed that when all the facts in the case are rightly understood the first execution by electricity will be regarded as a successful experiment. As might have been expected at the first execution by this method, there were certain defects of a minor character in the arrangement and operation of the apparatus. But in spite of these defects the important fact remains that unconsciousness was instantly effected and death was painless.”

The efficiency, rapidity, and painlessness of this form of execution have been confirmed by the later experiences. Up to the present date (May 26th, 1892) eight condemned criminals have been executed in the State of New York. Apparently all the officials who are intrusted with the care and inspection of this subject seem satisfied that this is, on the whole, the wisest, easiest, and most effective form of death thus far practised among civilized nations. The Medico-Legal Journal of New York, in printing the official report of the recent executions of four men made by Drs. C. F. MacDonald and S. B. Ward to the warden of Sing Sing Prison, states that it furnishes “indisputable evidence of the fact (1) that the deaths were painless and the victims unconscious from the instant of contact; (2) that they were certain and unattended with any of the revolting scenes so frequently witnessed at the scaffold; (3) that the method is humane so far as inflicting physical pain or suffering, and from all sides considered infinitely preferable to the death by hanging; and that so long as capital punishment for murder exists in New York, we need not desire to change the method of punishment.” These claims would seem to be thus far substantiated.

The value of this method of execution is now beyond doubt. When properly performed it is rapid, painless, and not repulsive. The criminal has probably no physical sensation of pain or discomfort due to the mode of death from the moment the first shock occurs. Since the rapidity of the transmission of the electric current through the body is in these cases much greater than the rapidity of the transmission of sensation, it seems just to conclude that no sensation from the electricity reaches the consciousness. The only distress suffered by the criminal is the unavoidable mental suffering natural to his position.

The mechanical means employed in electrocution are practically the same at Sing Sing, Clinton, and Auburn prisons. A special room is provided for the purpose, which should be, if possible, in the basement with a concrete floor: this room must be of sufficient size to admit readily the criminal with the attendant officers, the warden and other officials in charge or on duty at the execution, and the witnesses for whom seats are usually provided at a little distance from the criminal’s chair, and also to allow of plenty of room for the management of the electrical apparatus, and a good space around the chair in which the criminal is placed. The electrical plant consists of an alternating-current dynamo and its accessories, placed wherever may be convenient, according to the arrangements of the buildings of the institution, but connected by means of wires with the switch-board in the execution-room. In the execution-room also should be the voltmeter, the ammeter, and such other instruments of measurement or precision as may be required. In charge of these and of the switch-board during the execution is the electrical expert, an official paid by the State of New York. Means of communication by electric bells or otherwise are, of course, arranged between the execution-room and the engineer in charge of the dynamo, so that the current can be produced as desired.

The chair in which the criminal is placed is made of stout beams of oak and is securely fastened to the floor and insulated. It is perfectly plain, with broad arms and an upright back, which latter can be tilted backward a little by means of a special arrangement and firmly fixed in the desired position. This is accomplished by means of a bar of wood which is firmly attached at one end to the lower portion of the back and runs forward thence parallel to the seat of the chair and alongside of it; to the anterior end of this is fastened a perpendicular bar running downward, which can be raised or lowered at will, and securely fastened at any height. As this is raised or lowered, it raises or lowers the anterior end of the horizontal beam and correspondingly lowers or raises the opposite end to which the back of the chair is attached, thus moving the latter. When the anterior end of the horizontal bar is raised the posterior end is lowered and the back of the chair is straightened. Attached to the upper portion of the back of the chair is a head-rest, which can be raised or lowered as desired: it may, as in the case of Kemmler, have a horizontal arm which projects forward and from which the head-electrode may be suspended. The chair is also furnished with broad leather straps firmly attached, two of which pass around the body, one around each upper arm, one around each lower arm, and one around each leg. There is also a broad conjoined or compound strap which passes over the head, encircling the forehead and the chin and securing the head firmly to the head-rest. When these straps are properly adjusted and fastened, any marked degree of movement is impossible. The adjustment and fastening of these straps can be performed very rapidly, in practiced hands taking not more than forty seconds.

The electrodes used have varied slightly in different cases. In the case of Kemmler they each consisted of a bell-shaped rubber cup about four inches in diameter, with a wooden handle through which passed the wires into the bell to end in a metallic disk about three inches in diameter, faced with sponge. The upper electrode was so arranged as to rest firmly on the top of the head, where it was held closely by means of a spiral spring: it was attached to the horizontal arm of the head-rest, a sliding arrangement shaped like a figure 4. The lower electrode was in this case attached to the lower part of the back of the chair, and projected forward at a level with the hollow of the sacrum. There was also connected with it a sliding arrangement, and a spiral spring which in connection with a broad strap around the prisoner’s lower abdomen rendered contact secure.

In the later executions these electrodes have been somewhat modified and differently applied. The head-electrode is now so formed as to cover the forehead and temples, and can be easily fastened in this position without a spring. The lower electrodes have been applied to the leg in each case, sometimes apparently to the calf and sometimes more to the outer side, where they are securely strapped. They are made of such a shape as to cover a considerable portion of the surface in this region. It is not a matter of importance to which leg the indifferent electrode is attached, but they have actually been applied in most cases to the right leg, though in some they were attached to the left. They are thoroughly moistened, usually with a solution of salt and water, and a drip may be arranged so as to keep them wet during the passage of the current or other means employed to this effect.

The electromotive pressure, as shown by readings of the voltmeter by Professor Laudy, in the cases of Slocum, Smiler, Hood, Jugigo, and Loppy, varied from 1,458 to 1,716 volts. The ammeter showed a variation of from two to seven amperes.

The alternating current in the case of McElvaine made roughly 150 periods per second.

The number of contacts made in each case and the duration of each contact were as follows:

Number of
Contacts.		TIME, SECONDS.
1st.2d.3d.4th.
Kemmler21770....
Slocum22726....
Smiler410101019
Hood3202020..
Jugigo3151515..
Loppy4151115½10½
McElvaine25036....
Tice4Total time, 50

In the case of McElvaine, the first contact of fifty seconds was made through the hands, the second contact of thirty-six seconds from the head to the leg. The hands were immersed in cells containing tepid salt water, connected respectively with the opposite poles of the dynamo. Kennelly states that in this case, with the hands immersed and the electromotive force at 1,600 volts, the current began at 2.0 amperes, and in fifty seconds had increased to 3.1 amperes, indicating a resistance between the electrodes of from 800 ohms at the beginning to 516 ohms at the end. In the second application from the forehead to the leg with an electromotive force of 1,500 volts, the current amounted to 7.0 amperes during the thirty-six seconds contact, indicating a resistance practically steady at 214 ohms.

Alternating currents of from 1,600 to 1,700 volts and upward may be considered fatal currents, and as capable of producing death when contact is perfect. Dr. MacDonald goes so far as to say: No human being could survive the passage through his body of an alternating current of more than 1,500 volts for a period of even twenty seconds, contact being perfect.”

The physical phenomena caused in the body by electrocution as at present conducted are comparatively simple, and such as we should logically expect. The instant the body of the patient enters into the circuit of the current, all the voluntary muscles appear to be thrown into a condition of violent contraction which continues so long as the current lasts, and on cessation of the current is replaced by a condition of extreme muscular relaxation. All consciousness is apparently lost immediately on the application of the current. This probably has never returned in any case, but on the removal of the body from the circuit of the current the relaxation of the muscles causes movement, and sometimes, as in the case of Kemmler, slight spasmodic movements of the chest have occurred. The pupils in this case were dilated. The condition of contraction and rigidity is renewed at each new application of the current, to cease immediately when the current is removed.

In Kemmler chest movements and possibly heart-beat occurred after the first contact, the former perhaps half a minute after the cessation of the current.

In Slocum there were chest movements and radial pulsation after the first contact. In Smiler no movement of the chest, but radial pulsation after the third contact. In Jugigo a slight fluttering of the radial pulse when final contact was broken, which rapidly ceased. In Hood no movement or pulse-beat.

In some of the patients superficial burns have been caused by imperfect contact of the electrodes, either on the head or at the position of the lower electrode. In Kemmler’s case the cerebral cortex was somewhat affected under the head-electrode.

The practical effect of the application of the current to the criminal fastened in the death-chair, as seen by the bystander, is that immediately on its reaching him the whole body is straightened and rendered rigid in extension, the extremities tend to straighten out, and the face may grow red and turgid. There is reported at times swelling and turgidity of the neck. The whole body remains in this tetanic, stiffened condition until the removal of the current, when all the muscles relax and the body sinks back into the chair in a state of complete muscular collapse.