Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1890-05-10 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY.  -- - _ Under date Auburn (New York), April 29, a Dilziel's telegram states : "To-day, almost at the eleventh hour, William Kernmler, the eonvicted murderer, who was to have been the first man to suffer death by electricity, according to the new law of the State of New York was granted • reprieve by the Supreme Court of the United States upon the application of his counsel, who will make another attempt to save his client's life and again teat the validity of the new law. The crime for which Kemmler was to be executed was the murder of his paramour, Mrs. Tillie Ziegler, on March 29, IEIS9, Buffalo, State of New York. Nemmler and the woman with whom he was living eloped from Philadelphia about two years previous to the date of the murder, Kemmler leaving a young wife behind him, and Mre. Ziegler deserting her husband. Kemmler was &huckster by occupation, and drank heavily. The couple had frequent quarrels, and Nemmler in addition became violently jealous of • man who was his partner in business. Finally, in a fit of drunken jealous rage. be murdered the woman who had deserted her home for him. The trial of the murderer commenced in May, 1885, at Buffalo. liemmler was found guilty, : and sentenced to be hanged on June 24 of the same  year. Then began a !mg legal battle. On Jan. 1, 109, the law providing for the execution of criminals went into effect, and Kemmler's counsel appealed from the sentence on the ground that death by electricity was a cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore forbidden by the Constitution of the United States. Eventually a commission was appointed to take evidence on this point, and it sat daily for weeks during July and August, at Bu (leo, listening to the evidence and reports of electricians, physicians, and other experts who were summoned to give their views upon the death penalty by elec. trinity. Finally, Judge Day decided against Kemmler but the murderer's counsel, Mr. Bourke Cockburn, was not yet beaten, for he managed to bring his client's case before the general term. Here, again, the decision was against Feremler, and it was also decided by the same Court that the punishrnent of death by electricity was legal. The prisoner's counsel, even after this decision, would not give up the contest, and Kemmler's case was brought before the Court of Appeals, only, however, to suffer another defeat. On March 21, 1850, in the case of Ex rel, William Keirmler, appellant, Charles I'. Dora., Warden of Auburn Prison, respondent,' the Court of Appeals handed down • decision affirm. ing the judgment of the lower Court. "This last decision seemed to nettle the matter ; but Mr. Cockburn has now managed to bring this remarkable case before the Supreme Court of the United States, and will again renew his arguments to the effect that the death penalty by electricity is a cruel and unusual punishmentand therefore forbidden by the Constitution," The apparatus for execution by electricity is described briefly as follows: The condemned man is seated in a chair, shaped something like a steamer or deck chair used on ocean steamships ; into this chair the prisoner is strapped, and a metal cap is fitted over his head, which it half covers. The electric wire comes through the cap, and an electrode rests on the crown of the man's head. His feet are fastened upon a rest something like that used with a barber's chair, and the circuit is completed by the wire confleeting with metal plates applied to the feet. The wires pass through the partition of the executionchamber into the adjoining room, where stands the dynamo. At a given Menai the executioner turns • lever similar to a telegraph key, closes the circuit, and the death current passed through the condemned