Free Republic

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida state lawmaker is calling for a return to the electric chair and firing squads for those sitting on the state's death row. Rep. Brad Drake, R-Eucheeanna, this week filed a bill that would end the use of lethal injection. Instead, those with a death sentence could choose between electrocution or a firing squad. Drake said the idea came to him after having a conversation at a DeFuniak Springs Waffle House over the legal battles associated with the September execution of Manuel Valle. Valle's lawyers tried to stop the execution by arguing that a new drug...

Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a "killer of soldiers." Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body. His heart stopped. Maseth's electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why...

Army: Witnesses did not recall seeing signs about power lines before four Scout leaders died Three witnesses to the electrocution of four National Scout Jamboree leaders did not recall any signs warning of high-voltage power lines in the vicinity, according to investigative documents. However, a photograph included in the documents does show the presence of a sign. And one Boy Scout from the Western Alaska troop stated he noticed the overhead electrical lines before a metal tent pole touched them on July 25, 2005, the first day of the quadrennial event at the U.S. Army's Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline...