• DOI:10.1126/science.ns-14.349.254-e
• Corpus ID: 29910181

Execution by Electricity

@article{ExecutionBE,
  title={Execution by Electricity},
  author={},
  journal={The Hospital},
  volume={22},
  pages={348 - 348}
}

• Published 11 October 1889
• History
• The Hospital

tradiction that the penalty of death is a very much less severe one than the penalty which so many in the States are now unjustly made to suffer, namely, the penalty of death by torture. The following account of an execution by electricity, taken from the Medical Record of New York, will show what we mean, and it is by no means a solitary instance : "An Italian was put to death at Auburn on June 22nd, for the murder of a fellow-countryman eighteen months ago. He was placed in the chair, and five shocks with a current of eighteen hundred and forty volts, each of about one minute duration, were made at intervals. The poor creature was not pronounced dead until eight minutes had elapsed after the first contact was made. The five shocks were necessary because of the imperfect contact of the electrode on the man's leg. The smell of burning flesh was quite distinct in the chamber after the first shock had been