Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-12-11
Does the Electric Chair Kill?

chair for the gallows, as a means of
public executions. was undoubtedly
made in the name of humanity. 1t
was intended to do away with the
painful scenes about the gibbet. and
provide quicker and less painful
death to the condemned. Whether or
not these results have been fully at
tanned has been an open question
upon which there has been a wide
difference of opinion. So good, an
authority as Thomas A. Edison has
| been quoted as expressing the opinio.,
that death in the electric chair is at
tended with excruciating torture
however brief may be the period of its
duration On the other hand linemen
and others who have been rendered
unconscious by heavy shocks OF cleo
tricity, have asserted that they were
conscious of little physical pain. Some
physicians go so far as to claim that
the electric chair does not kill its
victims at all-that it simply renders
them unconscious. AS no man has
ever been resuscitated after being in
the chair. there never having been so
far as is known any attempt to accom-
plish such a result, there has been thus
far no strong evidence to settle the
moated question of whether or not the
electric chair has produced death or
whether as is claimed by some
scientists it has come later while the
victim was really in a state of sus-
pended animation. Those who make
the latter claim assert that it is borne
out by autopsies held upon the bodies
of executed criminals.
This whole question will, shortly, be
of December 21st a murdered will be
electrocuted at the State prison
at Trenton, New Jersey. When
he has been officially declared
dead his body will be turned
over to County Physician Frank G.
ScammeIl who will make every effort
known to science to bring him back to
life Discussing his life restoring
tests Dr. Scammell says:
Il am not doing this thing for the
sake of getting notoriety nor for the
purpose of creating sensation. but l
am required by my official oath to in
form the Coroner of the county the
nature of all violent deaths. Now that
New York experts have raised doubt
as to electrocutions, declaring that the
victims are only stunned and are later
killed either by the knife of the
surgeon conducting the autopsy or by
the quicklime in which their bodies are
buried, l feel that it is my duty to
settle the matter once and for all if it
is possible to do SO. | do not yet
know whether or not DR.. Thomas Fl.
Mackenzie the prison physician and
myself will see the electrocution.
I'VE shall secure Mantasanna's body
as soon as the executioners are
through with him. and will apply to it
the most thorough life restoring tests
known to science. We shall observe
every feature and effect of our expert
ments and carefully preserve the data
for the sake OF science. If we fail to
restore life we shall then conduct
careful autopsy, and we believe in this
way we shall be able to ascertain the
exact effect of the electric current on
the human organs and to tell whether
or not electrocution produces instant
and painless death"
Leading legal authorities express the
opinion that, inasmuch as the law de-
mands the life OF criminal the sue
mean another execution of the criminal
Several lawyers take exception to
this view asserting the belief that a
condemned man is dead when the
exccutioner officially declares him
dead This point DR.. Scammell says
is a matter for the legal authorities to
decide He expresses the opinion how
ever that if his subject should be
brought back to life. as a result of his
experiments, it would be the height of
inhumanity to return him to the death
chamber, and again subject him to the
electric current.
The subject is at best a gruesome
one. but if the experiments of DR..
Scammell and those who will be as
sociated with him in his tests, shall
serve to set at rest all questions that
have been raised regarding electrocu-
the public.
Co. educational "Don'ts."
1t is generally claimed that the prob