The Opelousas courier., 1889-04-06
DEATH Az ELECTRICITY.
WY LIS to Be Preferred 20 Exee,.,.,s n,
Hanging:

Hanging:
Now that New York officials may be
called upon to execute the law reouir-
hg that condemned criminals shall be
put 10 death by electricity a storm of
opposltlon threatens, and all sorts of
oolectlons are urged, some of them i'm
peachlng the constitutionality of the
statute. Complaint is made that the
shefin can not carry out the law. be.
cause ne Is not an expert electrician.
anu that those who are enrasea III
electrical purs its will not make this
proper machinery for the occasion:
tina the plans suggested are faulty
inasmuch as they contemplate causing
death by applying the electrical cur
rent 10 the brain instead of the heart.
that the fortunes of the condemned
oy q e method will be SO horrible
That, by comparison, slow strangula-
tlon by a rope is ecstacy.
Those who projected this reform
probably anticipated just s,ich Spno-
sitlon. Even in an enlightened and
progressive country like our own, it is
impossible to rid the public of a bar
barous and unsightly custom, about
which clihgs the eobwebs of aees.
without mourning prejudice, ignorance
and a little of the old spirit which lin
gers In every community long after it
mas ceased to be a live and potential
factor. There may be difficulties to
overcome in enforcing the low. In
dealing with a matter like electricity,
about which there is much to learn,
the lawmakers may not have gone in
to details as deliberately as would have
been prudent, but that therashouldgSe
such uncomfortable obstacles as is pre-
tended Gems p~reposterous:
The sheriff need not be an expert in
the first place. Hangmen in America
are never experts, and yet they per-
form their duties as a~cceptably as their
brethren Z the water. A button
will serve the purpose of a spring, and
can be manipulated as easily. The
numerous electrical Companies in New
York will provide all the parapher-
MALTA if offered sufficient inducements.
The felon is not executed for his own
pleasure or convenience. but to deter
others from committing crime, and the
object of the Law will be accomplished
aJ the same, whether the current
passes through his brain or his heart.
AS to the tortures, they are purely
illusory. No one who has died by
electricity has returned to give an &C
count of his ~sufferings and certainly
during the brief space Intervening
between contact with the current and
dissolution the victim has not beer
able to give much satisfactory data or
the subject. Those who have recov.
cred from an electric shock, like those
who have been resuscitated after being
in the water or being hanged, say thai
the process of coming to is infinitely
more painful than that OF dying.
But every large city in the worli
has had numerous illustra#nsof deatf
by electricity. A Workman climbs
pole and absently touches a wire
Down he drops as dead as a door-nail
without even the fraction ofa momen
to think of torture. In the same way
a citizen drifts against a wire left care
lessly hanging near the sidewalk, ant
lies on the pavement a mass cf mani
mate clay. He may or may not hav'
tried to shrek, but If he did it prove
nothing except his amazement at tn
blow which hurled him into eternity
Such momentary pain can scarcely b.
compared with the writings of one
who is hanged. II the New York Off
l cials are cornered they can use tn
electric light wires. Onelof the latte
can be conducted into the felo1s cell
and if they are as efficient in the case
of condemned murderers as when the.
tackle innocent and unsuspecting vic
tins on the sidewalks the felons vii
scarcely have time to write out thei
sensations for the newspapers. -Balti
more American.
~