The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-04-07
a r: |! " 0 Tin G. SIGHT,

s y ~ = - \
a. a .,R n .T'IlN2g SIS SIGHT,
SO SAYS PROFESSOR ANT HoNY or
& DEATH BY ELECTRICAL EXECUTION. i
H = Says That tho Chief Claiin For Thu
Method of Capital Punishment Has
. Been Disproved- Other Means That Are
BY Far Superior to tho Chair.
1t Is difficult to conceive of q much
moro revolving spectacle under the old
regime than is presented at electrical
executions. A number of eminent ply
sicians are gathered in the death cham
ber not only to witness, but to take Off
cial part In the execution. The con-
demned man is brought in, strapped Sc
ourely BY strong leather straps into the
death chair and the electrodes fitted to
the head and legs. At given signal
the current ia turned on, there Is most
violent muscular contraction that would,
except for the secure bindings, have
thrown the man from the chair, Then
follow smoke and smell Of burning
deah. The current is turned of, the
body: becomes limp, one Of the ply
stc1ans tears open the shirt and listens
for the heart beats. He exclaims that
the heart ia still beating. The wires are
again hastily connected, and the current
turned ON second time. There is more
muscular contraction, more burning
flesh; This time the several physicians
IN turn liaten for the heart beats and
pronounce the man dead. The body is
taken from the chair, laid upon a rough
table and cut up, according to law.
These a1s the details as given in the
daily papers, III one of which the report
or writes over his own signature They
may be exaggerated, but there can be
no doubt that death by electricity is
anything bat the calm and peaceful
death that che authors of the law were
seeking 10 provide for the condemned
murderer.
Why was electricity chosen as the
agent? Why not any one of several other
means Of causing death?I can conceive
OF no reason except that the effects of
electricity were least understood and
there was the least actual knowledge Of
bow best to set about it to kill man
by this means. No.one even now knows
exactly how electricity kills. Recent
experiments by Dr.. Belle of Columbus,
O., remarkable for the ingenious and
thoroughly scientific methods by which
all the effects have been studied, have
thrown new light upon the subject, but
even today we are very far from know
ing, with the precision with which other
causes of death are known, just how
death is caused by the electric shock
Neither do we know how to apply the
current. Certainly if there is no less
cumbersome apparatus and no less clum-
81 method available than that in use at
Sing Sing this of itself is sufficient rea-
son for abandoning this mode Of execut-
ing criminals.
It is often claimed in behalf of cleo
trical executions that death is install
taneous and painless. In no report that
I have ever seen is there any evidence
of instantaneous death. All the evidence
that can DO gathered from reports of 40
cidental shocks goes to show that resus-
citation is possible if the exposure to
the current is of short duration.
Painless no doubt it is, but so would
be tine effect OF pistol shot through the
brain. And why not use pistol shot
for executing criminal? He might be
strapped to a mattress, semicircle of
pistols arranged around his head termi-
mating at the temples, and, if desirable,
another group could be placed over the
region Of the heart. If electricity must
be used, arrange to fire the pistols 81
multaneously by pressing button. Why
not? Would it, be more uncertain?
Would it be less humane? Would it be
moo blood curdling? Would it be less
instantaneous" But perhaps there
would be too little mystery about it and
too little complicated apparatus requir-
cd. There would be no need Of cutting
man up to see what killed him or
whether he was really dead.
If we must infict the death penalty
and wish to be really humane about it,
there are surely many ways by which
death can be brought swiftly and GER
tainly without inducing muscular con-
tortions, or burning the flesh, or mutt
lating the body. The criminal could be
given sleeping draft and then laid out
in a glass case, which could then be fill
ed with the fumes Of burning charcoal.
see no reason why we should seek
to make death particularly easy to the
criminal. Hook upon the whole scheme
Of capital punishment as hideous blot
upon our civilization, but If man must
be punished with death it is certainly
not upon the theory that he must be put
out Of the way in the easiest possible
manner for him. 1t is assumed that the
dread Of the death penalty will pre-
vent crimes that otherwise might be
committed. The penalty, if it is. to be
inflicted, should come in form. to be
dreaded, yet there is no excuse for tor
ture or for the semblance Of torture
The criminal should come to his fate
with a full knowledge of what awaits
him. The execution Of the sentence
should be by a method that is swift and
sure, without mystery, and about the
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