New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-11
FYECUTIONS BY ELECTRICITY

No right-minded person can fail to approve
the enactment of the law which puts an end III
this State to the brutal and barbarous prac1ice
of executing condemned murderers by hanging
1t is crcdtabe to the Empire State that 1t has
taken the lead in reform that probably in no
long time must be adopted by all civilized COM
munities. The practical effect of the new law
in diminishing the crime of murder, which, OF
course, is the object aimed at in capital punish-
ment, cannot be determined in advance OF us
practical operation But the feeling which has
led to its passage is the same which has done
away with so much that is cruel and inhuman IN
the inhiction of legal penalties Punishments
involving mutilaton or the in6ictiOn OF personal
violence have disappeared with the advance OF
civilization, and the gallows is to share the
fate of the stocks and the whipping post.
or the effectiveness of the electric current as an
agent of death, the Investigations of the comms-
sion of which Mr. EIbridge Il. Gerry was the
chairman left no room for doubt The too
frequent results of the touching of electrlc-nght
wires have demonstrated the death dealing quail
ties of electricity, even when casually applied
That death may be caused instantly is certain I;
that it is absolutely painless is highly probable
But it will be necessary TO make the application
of the electric fluid in such a way as TO leave
no doubt of the result. Attention has recently
fact that the electric shock may seem to cause
death and yet may not kill. That journal Of
unquestiOned authority says:
One of the most striking examples OF cataepsy In
our time caused by lightning stroke, which Is
thoroughly mist AIKEN for one dead that no was laid
out dead and heard the sound of his own passing
bell yet he recovered and lived many years afterward
to recount the strange experience. In experiments
the lower animals it has also been observed that
a shock sufficient TO produce such Complete pros
tratiOn seemed fatal was not SO. The greatest
care therefore, must be talen X the electric shock
is used for destroying the lives OF criminals, that Inc
This is obviously point to be carefully attended
TO- and it is plain that the application of electricity
must be made under the direction of competent
experts and that the executed mans body must be
subjected to careful examination at the hands
of physicians There will be plenty of time
for the authorities to make the speedful prepare
lions. The law relates only to murderers whose
crimes are committed after January l, 1889,
and if q murder should speedily follow that date
it is fair to suppose that the usual appeals would
be made in behalf of the criminal, and conse-
quenty it is not probable that an execution by
electricity will take place before IL 800.
Besides the radical change in the method Of exc
cutting these condemned to death, the law just
signed by Governor Hill contains several excellent
provisions, such as leaving the exact time of the
inhiction of the penalty uncertain, preventing the
condemned man from being made q hero and the
object Of maudlin sympathy, and requiring the
funeral services to be conducted quietly and with
out display