Posted on 08/06/2023 9:25:43 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1890 the iconic symbol of the American death penalty made its grisly debut upon the person of William Kemmler at New York’s Auburn Prison.
The long New World tradition of hanging condemned prisoners came under fire as a barbarism in the late 19th century, leading reformers to look for killing procedures less likely to result in a horrendously protracted strangulation or a midair decapitation. As Empire State Governor David Hill put it,
The present mode of executing criminals by hanging has come down to us from the dark ages, and it may well be questioned whether the science of the present day cannot provide a means for taking the life of such as are condemned to die in a less barbarous manner.
On this stage, Executed Today presents a rogues’ gallery of homo Americanus, the salesmen and swindlers who would help the U.S.A. ride the lightning.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Mike says:
19 March, 2012 at 2:20 am
Love the title “only in America” the loser who wrote this article should do a little research about executions. The electric chair is Micky mouse compaired to the suffering every other country has done. (except for the US, which has never used any of these methods) France, Britain.. all of Europe for that matter executed hundreds of thousands by horrendous means that you were alive for 90% of. let’s see…Burning at the stake, drawn and quartered, disembowelment, four winds, garroted, (sure you will have to look that one up cause you apearently did no research) beheading, hanging, streching, pressed to death, stoning, impaling at the stake, boiled alive, 1000 cuts, bleeding, wrapped in bag and thrown into a river, and a thousand other ways, and you dare to criticize the electric chair that every neurologist has said in afidavits renders anyone unconcious is 1/240th part of 1 second 24 times faster than the brain can process pain. What a joke of a site!
You (and Mike) should read the eyewitness account of how many flips of the switch it took to kill the guy.
It seems a firing squad of ten people would likely result in death quickly a great deal of the time, if the goal was to execute someone humanely.
I’m not sure this should be the goal of an execution. A good wheeling is, IMHO, what someone like Fauci deserves.
I think the “Only in America” part was used by Headsman mainly because the electric chair is America’s unique contribution to the history of executions. We are, after all, the nation that had the most to do with the early use of electricity for much of what goes on in life, i.e. lighting rooms, running a fan., etc.
LOL You remind me of Marvin Boggs "saying how many times have I told you? You cannot trust the system! I told you when you're in the system, they switch the flip and you're done."
Thank you. Good reply.
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