The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1888-08-03
JOB DEP PARTMENT.
egalDeath by Electricity.

DIR. Richardson in 'Asclcpiad."
While executions still continue
there is nothing i'll the present and
long-establishcd plan of carrying
them out which needs to he changed.
If the process he considered brutal,
il is not more brutal than the spirit
of the act itself, all attempts to re-
fine which cannot add to it's eff
cacy as IL deterrent of crime. The
process of hanging looks brutal with
out actually being SO. Since the age
OF Moryagni the question now under
discussion has been considered, and
the opinion of the lmst-iniormcd
psychologists, then and since then,
has always been that death by
strangulation, or by suspension, is
practically a painless mode of death.
Persons who have recovered from
the. unconsciousncss produced by
stl1,ngulation have testified com
plctely on this point, and that tho
old and legal method of death by
suspension, according to the terms
of the judicial sentence, should, ut
the instance of any ignorant aud
common officer who may carry out
the sentence, have ever bccn changed
for the long drop, or death by an
cNcruciating and cruel blow, is in
credible. Some member OF the house;
of commons ought to put the secre-
tary. OF. state for the home depart
merit. WHO is cilurgsai with Tie duty
OF directing that the law, be il good
or bad. shall he carried out, the
question why the gentle, though it
lnny seem prolonged, extinction OF
life by hanging should not he re-
stored. While death is the national
punishment for murder. this nation-
III mode of vil'lratiny The law is al
so il" most rational. Making the
method Of execution more scientific,
il it b" right tu degrade science by
so connecting her civilizing powers
with sucl, degrading and ignorant
work. is simply To put II premium
Oh crime itself.
Since set up Il lctlrnl chamber for
the painless extinction of the lives of
| the lower animals linvn more than
once met persons, not srictly insane,
| but in morbid states of mind. who
nave looked ON Ii" lrtllal easy death
as Il prospect of trrlrnsc from life SO
invitingly pleasant that il such mode
ot death We're to he adopted as the
national plan of capital murder they
would not hesitate in some of their
wors! moods to kill that they might
l,e killed, since the srvcrcst fate that
could happen would be Il death
brought To the painlessness of pleas
urc. Death hy HE electric shock
would convey to minds of this stamp
tn" Same anticipation, but wouldnot
necessarily produce the same certain
result. In som" researches ontheap-
plicn'ion of he electric discharge for
the painless extinction of the lives of
animals to b" used as food. the de-
tails of which recorded in the Mctli-
cal Times and Gazette for the year
1869. this mode of death was any
thin" l,u! certain in ITS effects.
Sheep stricken apparently into ill
stant and i.lrvocable death by elec.
triritv after IL few minutes showed
sign, of life, and if they had not been
dispatched! in the ordinary way by
.lt hitli' NoHit 1.-Two Dcen restored 10
consciousness. The same fact has
been observed mattenlpts tokill dogs
| hy the electric shock, and once pub
lishrd an instance in which u large
do", struck into perfect unconscious
ness Ivy the stroke from ~ powerful
batt"ry, was submitted to II surgical
operation Which living, to all appear
anccs dead, and was rs vet so little
affected ns to- make an easy and
sound recovery. 1t need not be i'll
trirc'l from such f,cts as these that
thu electric shock will not kill at one
discharge: III most cases it will; but,
exceptionally. instead of killing out
right, ii will simply stun. and may
induce the srmllancc of death i'll
stead of the real death.