St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-18
THE DEATH SENTENCE.
Discussion in Regard to the Man.
ner in Which 1t Should Be Exc

Discussion in Regard to the Man
ner in Which 1t Should Be Exc
cuted.
NEW YORK, Jan. 1.-THE report of
the commission appointed by the legis-
lature in 1886 to report the most humane
and practical method known to modern
science of carrying into effect the SEN
tence of death in capital cases was
transmitted to the legislature yesterday.
1t recommends killing the culprits by
electricity. The commissioners are
Elbridge L. Gerry, Alfred p. SOuthwick
and Matthew Hall.
Your commission has examined with
care the accounts which exist of the
various curious modes of capital punish
ment which are or have been used
among different communities with the
result of feeling that the element of
barbarOus cruelty is so prominent in
each that no existing mode can be con-
sldered as embOdying suggestions of
improvement Oh that now in use in this
state. Any change to deserve common
datiOn must be to a system substantially
new, and the careful reader of a deScrip-
ton of those punishments cannot, with
out prejudice, arrive at different con-
cl uSiOn.
The chief objections to the guillotine
by the commission are that it is too
bloody, and that it is associated with
the scenes of the French revolution.
The garrOte is Objectionable because
physicians say the fatal screw cannot
be depended upon to be so quick and
certain in operation that there may not
be great agony on the part of the crimi-
nal. Shooting, if used i'm civil life,
would be bloody in character and eff
fects; would sometimes lack celebrity,
would require large number of execu-
TONERS, and would be demoraliZing be-
cause OF its tendency to encourage the
untaught pOpulace to think lightly of
the fatal use of firearms. The first OBJ
lection to hanging is that the effect of
giving StimulantS to the condemned inn
mediately before execution is democrat
ling. Another objection to hanging is
the danger of an attempt by the con-
demned man to commit suicide, and of
some horrible scene afterWard. The
commission then states the objections
to various other modes of infiicting the
death penalty. In regard to the use of
electricity, it says:
perhaps the most potent agent for
destroying human life is electricity.
Death is instantaneous. The applica-
ton may be made without injury to Of
iSioio, tiIC ploCC III It's uSc ludy UO
strictly private, and its certainty is be-
yOnd doubt"
Thomas A. Edison writes that dy-
namO-electric machines which employ
intermittent currents would be the most
suitable apparatus. The passage of the
current from these machines through
the body, even by the slightest contact.
causes instant death.
The commissioners describe number
OF experiments with electricity as a
means of destroying animals witnessed
in Buffalo by one of the commissioners
last year, with DR.. George Z. Fell, of
that city.
The commission recommends that
chair, with head and foot rest,
should be used, in which the condemned
man could be seated in half-reclining
position. One wire could be connected
with the head rest and the other with
the foot rest, which would be metal
plate. The electric current could be
supplied by electric wires.
The commission recommends that the
date of the execution be made uncer-
tain, so that the criminal may not know
what day he is to die; and that the
corpse go to doctors or to a namelesS
grave without religious rites, and that
the newspapers be forbidden to describe
the execution.