- "Arlen Bitterbuck, you have been condemned to die by a jury of your peers, sentence imposed by a judge in good standing in this state. Do you have anything to say before the sentence is carried out?"
- ―Brutus Howell
 | |
| Electric Chair | |
| Type: | Execution device |
| Continuity: | All continuities |
| Aliases: | Old Sparky |
| Availability: | Uncommon item |
| Manufacturer: | Alfred P. Southwick George Fell |
The Electric Chair is a device that exists in the real world and is used to carry out capital punishment in state executions. The concept behind the device was developed by a dentist from Buffalo, New York named Alfred Porter Southwick, and Canadian surgeon George Edward Fell. It was first put to use on a human prisoner in the year 1890. William Francis Kemmler was executed by the electric chair on August 6th, 1890 for the crime of murdering his common-law wife, Matilda Ziegler. In 1894, serial killer Lizzie Halliday was sentenced to be executed in the electric chair, but her sentence was commuted to life in a mental institution. The first woman to have a sentence carried out through this method was Martha M. Place, who had murdered her stepdaughter, Ida Place. Sentence was carried out on March 20th, 1899. Although the electric chair was a common method of execution throughout most of the twentieth century, it has largely been retired in most states in the United States. Some states still retain it as an optional means of execution, though lethal injection has now replaced it as a supposedly more humane method. Many states abolished have execution by electrocution in their respective constitutions under the grounds of "cruel and unusual punishment".
Description[]
The electric chair is traditionally a wooden straight-backed chair bolted to the floor and located in the Death Row wing of a state penitentiary. Leather straps are attached to the arms and legs to restrain the prisoner. On the day of execution, a prisoner's head is shaved and a saltwater solution is applied to the scalp to conduct electricity. A metal cap is placed upon the head with alternating current ranging from 2000-2,500 volts passing through the body to cause cardiac arrest. A second jolt of lesser voltage, usually between 500-1,500 volts is passed through the body, causing fatal damage to the organs. In some instances, multiple cycles may be applied in order to produce fatal results.
In fiction[]
The electric chair in The Green Mile.
The electric chair plays a major role in the 1996 serialized novella The Green Mile by author Stephen King. The story was adapted into The Green Mile feature film in 1999, directed by Frank Darabont. The setting of the film is the fictional Cold Mountain Penitentiary in Louisiana in the 1930s. Corrections Officer Paul Edgecomb supervised numerous executions including those of Arlen Bitterbuck, Eduard Delacroix, and John Coffey - the latter of whom had a profound impact on Edgecomb's life after demonstrating paranormal abilities. [1]
In the 1989 horror film Shocker by director Wes Craven, a serial killer named Horace Pinker is arrested and sentenced in the electric chair. However, having made pact with the devil years earlier, Pinker does not die, but instead becomes a being of pure electricity, and is able to continue his murderous rampage by possessing others. [2]
In the film Insidious: The Last Key, a murderer named Wayne Fisher is executed in the electric chair in 1953 for murdering a woman with a hammer three years earlier.
In the Hellblazer comic book series by DC Comics, the electric chair was a device used as a means of execution at the Sing Sing maximum security prison in New York. It is said that his particular item saw more than three-hundred executions. The voodoo practitioner Papa Midnite acquired the chair at an auction and had it relocated to his Midnight Club in Manhattan. John Constantine entreated Papa Midnite's aid in using the chair, for it was now imbued with powerful magic due to all of the death it had seen. [3]
Characters executed in the electric chair[]
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| Arlen Bitterbuck | Green Mile, The |
| Eduard Delacroix | Green Mile, The |
| Horace Pinker | Shocker |
| John Coffey | Green Mile, The |
| Wayne Fisher | Insidious: The Last Key |
Appearances[]
Films[]
- ABCs of Death 2
- Addams Family Reunion
- Addams Family Values
- Beyond Re-Animator
- Constantine
- Crow, The: Salvation
- Gothika
- Green Mile, The
- Hold Your Breath
- Horror Show, The
- House on Haunted Hill (1999)
- Man Made Monster
- Insidious: The Last Key
- Night Train to Terror
- Nightmare Beach
- Pinocchio's Revenge
- Seed
- Shocker
- Sin City
- Walking Dead, The (1936)
Television[]
- Amazing Stories: Life on Death Row
- Batman: Almost Got 'Im
- Batman: The Joker Goes to School
- Batman: He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul
- Batman: Ma Parker
- Black Mirror: Black Museum
- Gotham: The Trial of Jim Gordon
- Gotham: Anything for You
- Gotham: Follow the White Rabbit
- Harvey Birdman: Deadomutt (Part 2)
- Legends of Tomorrow: Slay Anything
- Power Rangers Zeo: It Cam from Angel Grove
- PSI Factor: 'Til Death Do Us Part
- Quantum Leap: Last Dance Before an Execution
- Superman: Legacy (Part 2)
- Tales from the Crypt: Dead Right
- Tales from the Crypt: For Cryin' Out Loud
- Tales from the Crypt: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime
- Tales from the Crypt: The Man Who Was Death
- Tales from the Crypt: The Trap
- The X-Files: The List
- Twilight Zone: Shadow Play
- Twilight Zone: The Executions of Grady Finch
Comics[]
- Evil Ernie Vol 3 1
- Hellblazer 2
- Vault of Horror 33
Novels[]
- Green Mile, The
Notes[]
- Milt Sturmfuller from the film Silver Bullet believed that capital punishment by way of electrocution should be applied to the disabled. After seeing a young boy named Marty Coslaw in a wheelchair, he grumbled "Damn cripples. Always end up on welfare. Ought to electrocute them all. Balance the damn budget."
See also[]
External Links[]
- Electric chair at Wikipedia
- Electric chair at the Fallout Wiki
- Electric Chair at the Dead Rising Wiki
- Electric chair at the Prison Architect Wiki