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Death by firing squad is poised to become an execution method in South Carolina as the state faces a lack of lethal-injection drugs. The state House passed a bill Wednesday, 66-43, approving the use of firing squads, two months after the state Senate approved the measure, 32-11. Condemned inmates will be able to choose between electrocution or firing squad if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. South Carolina can’t put anyone to death now because its supply of lethal-injection drugs expired and it has not been able to buy any more. Currently, inmates can choose between the electric chair and lethal...

A 24-year-old Russian woman was electrocuted when her charging iPhone fell into the water as she was taking a bath, according to a report. Olesya Semenova’s lifeless body was found by her roommate in their apartment in Arkhangelsk, East2West News reported. “I screamed, shook her, but she was pale, did not breathe and showed no signs of life,” Daria told the emergency operator. “I was really scared. When I touched her, I got an electric shock.” She added that she found Semenova’s iPhone 8 in the water — still charging.

A driver in New Jersey made a fatal mistake when he ignored a road closed barricade Thursday morning and drove on, only to run over live electrical wires downed by this week's nor'easter storm. As 6ABC in Philly reports, the driver's SUV erupted into flames in on Summit Avenue and Route 208 in Franklin Lakes just before 9 a.m., as the vehicle hit those live wires. In fact, the inferno was so bad, the driver had not been positively identified as of last reports. Fire totally gutted the vehicle, and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation...

HUNTSVILLE, AL. – An Alabama man was nearly electrocuted after falling asleep with his iPhone and charging cord in bed, WAAY-TV reports. Last week Wiley Day, 32, fell asleep with his dog tag around his neck. His iPhone was connected to its charger and an extension cord near his head. While he was sleeping, the chain to his dog tag slipped between the charger and the extension cord. The contact sent a surge of electricity through his body. “And my necklace became the conductor. And it somehow, some way, jolted me over here to the floor,” Day told WAAY-TV. Thankfully,...

Lawmakers want Mississippi to change how it handles executions, with changes meant to overcome legal challenges to execution drugs, and possibly allow the state to use electrocution and the firing squad as death penalty methods. The Senate agreed on Tuesday to changes to HB 638, sending it to Gov. Phil Bryant for his approval or veto after the House agreed Monday. The measure lists four preferred execution methods. The first is lethal injection using a three-drug mixture. After that, in order, the bill specifies poison gas, electrocution and firing squad as execution methods. The bill is a response to lawsuits...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers are advancing a proposal to add firing squad, electrocution and gas chamber as execution methods in case a court blocks the use of lethal injection drugs. House Bill 638 is a response to lawsuits filed by "liberal, left-wing radicals," said House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican. The bill passed the House amid opposition Wednesday, and it moves to the Senate for more debate. Lethal injection is Mississippi's only execution method. The state faces lawsuits claiming the drugs it plans to use would violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Mississippi...

Apple said Monday it would investigate claims that a Chinese woman was killed by an electric shock she received when answering a call while the device was charging. The claim quickly drew attention after a woman in the western region of Xinjiang wrote about the death of her 23-year-old sister Ma Ailun on China's popular microblog service Sina Weibo. "We will fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in this matter," said Apple's Beijing-based spokeswoman Carolyn Wu, offering condolences to the family.

The father of a girl electrocuted while detasseling corn in a Whiteside County farm field is suing Monsanto Co. and four other defendants for negligence. Hannah Kendall, 14, and Jade Garza, 14, both of Sterling, Ill., were killed in the July 25 accident. snip--- Smith said witnesses told him Jade stepped into a puddle that was electrified, and she and Hannah, who grabbed her, were electrocuted. The electrical current came from a damaged meter connected to a central pivot irrigation system, Smith said in the lawsuit. He added that the girls did not necessarily come into contact with the irrigator...

Separate juries found two men guilty of murder today in the electrocution death of a Chicago man who fell onto the tracks during a melee on a CTA Red Line platform. Maurice Evans, 25, and Antwaun Thompson, 29, were among four young men caught on Roosevelt subway station surveillance cameras kicking and beating Daniel McKenzie, 43, before he tumbled onto the electrified third rail. Evans briefly buried his face in his hands and shook his head when the verdict was announced. Hours later, Thompson remained expressionless as his verdict was read aloud.

MONTESANO, Wash. (AP) - Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash. Grays Harbor County sheriff's Deputy Dave Pimentel (PIM'-en-tel) said Monday 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday and called a relative to pull his car from a ditch. However, family members found Messenger electrocuted when they arrived.

A 27-year-old man trying to set up an antenna for a pirate radio station was electrocuted in the backyard of his home Sunday, a Fort Lauderdale police spokesman said. Authorities were called to the home on the 1100 block of Northwest 18th Court about noon, said the spokesman, Frank Sousa. Details were sketchy, but authorities said the electrocution appeared to be accidental.

A 28-year-old man died early this morning in Pueblo while trying to steal electrical wiring from a high voltage electrical box... The man, Brian Repinski of Pueblo, was brought unconscious to Parkview Hospital suffering from high voltage burns. Duran said interviews were conducted with associates of Repinski. They said the electrocution occurred on Greenhorn Drive while Repinski and an accomplice were attempting to steal the wiring. Detectives are continuing their investigation to determine whether Repinski and his associates were involved in other recent thefts and burglaries.

Michael Anderson Godwin was a murderer. He was awaiting South Carolina's electric chair in 1989 when he decided to fix his TV set while sitting on his cell's metal toilet. You can probably see where this is going.Being on death row is lonely, so having a TV is important to your sanity. Godwin's was on the fritz, so he decided to multitask by trying to fix it was using the commode.The last stupid decision of his life was to bite down on an exposed wire in the plugged-in TV while sitting on the metal toilet. He was electrocuted instantly,...

BREAKING NEWS CNN (January 22/2009) 3:55pm EST: KBR, formally Halliburton, a private contractors, through shoddy work caused electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers in army bases in Iraq.

OGDENSBURG, N.Y. — A veteran state trooper and a civilian were electrocuted while fixing a flat tire on an antique fire truck when the truck's ladder touched a high-voltage power line, police said. AP via Fox 1 p rule

Emergency Responders At Risk. hybrids may also hold a hidden danger if they are involved in a serious accident... a risk of electrocution. "If you don't know what you're doing you can be hurt seriously, if not killed by the voltage," said hybrid-certified mechanic Kevin Klein."There's 330 volts of electricity running through the lines," ... It only takes 50 to 100 volts to kill a person. "My coworkers know when I set these up, nobody's allowed in here but me," said Klein as he set up orange cones around his work area. "We have to wear face protection in case...

A child killer received a reprieve Friday from the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that electrocution, the state's only means of capital punishment, is unconstitutional. "Old Sparky" was used for 60 years to execute inmates in Texas before it was decommissioned in 1964. Death penalty experts said the ruling is likely to put an end to a form of execution rarely used in the United States in recent years. Lethal injection is administered in 35 of the 36 states that execute condemned prisoners, with Nebraska the sole exception. "It is the hallmark of a civilized society that we punish cruelty...

They risk electrocution to escape Zimbabwe By Stephen Bevan in Musina, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:56pm BST 21/07/2007 Like the thousands of others who trekked across the border this month, Kudakwashe Vandira brought nothing but the clothes he was wearing and the vague hope of a better life. A man struggles beneath a barbed wire fence, one of three border barriers meant to stop illegal crossings from Zimbabwe to South Africa What little spare cash he had saved up had been stolen by the guma guma - the gangsters who prey on desperate Zimbabweans as they try to flee illegally...

A federal appeals court has turned down the appeal of a death row inmate who has chosen electrocution over lethal injection but now argues that electrocution is unconstitutional. Gary Bradford Cone was convicted in 1982 of bludgeoning to death an elderly Memphis couple -- Shipley and Cleopatra Todd -- while hiding out in their home on Evergreen near Poplar after robbing a jewelry store. The Sixth U.S. Court of Appeals has twice set aside Cone’s death sentence, once ruling that his trial lawyer was ineffective and then again after finding that the jury instructions were unconstitutionally vague. The U.S. Supreme...

A US pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his Texas church when he grabbed a microphone while partially submerged, a church employee said. The Reverend Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal in front of 800 people at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted yesterday, said Jamie Dudley, a church business administrator. Doctors in the congregation unsuccessfully performed chest compressions for 40 minutes, Dudley said. The woman Lake was baptising was not injured, Dudley said. Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, Dudley said. "He was grabbing...