Tennessee used its electric chair for the first time in 47 years on Wednesday to execute a man who killed his three sons and their half-sister.
Electrocution was first introduced in New York in 1888 as a more humane method of execution than hanging, but there have been horrific instances of inmates catching on fire, multiple jolts being needed to kill, and bones being broken by convulsing limbs.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 there have been 153 inmates executed in the electric chair, most recently a condemned murderer in Virginia in July 2006. Holton's was the 1,097th U.S. execution since 1976.
Holton was the second person executed by Tennessee this year and the 40th U.S. execution so far in 2007.
The electric chair is now the sole method of execution only in Nebraska, while nine other states have it as an option or for crimes committed before a certain date.
How can it be that this nation was shocked and outraged when we learned that Michael Vick electrocuted dogs, but we turn around and do the same thing to a human being in our names?
