A YouTube video provides an in-depth look at the mechanics of the electric chair.
Though it’s a grim choice most hope never to confront, selecting an execution method is sometimes a reality for certain individuals.
Now, a video dissects the true process behind executions carried out using the electric chair.
The inaugural electric chair was constructed in 1888 in New York, proposed as a more merciful alternative to hanging.
According to Death Penalty Information, since 1976, there have been 163 executions via the electric chair.
While numerous states authorize the electric chair, it is considered a ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ by others, conflicting with their state constitutional prohibitions.
So, how does this method function?
Zack D Films returns with a new video, moving away from simulations like a woman being consumed whole by a python or crafting shrunken heads.
This time, the animator delivers an educational exploration of the electric chair execution method.
The video describes: “If you’re strapped into an electric chair, saline soaked sponges are placed underneath electrodes all over your skin.
“Once the chair is activated, a powerful electric current flows through the electrodes and the sponges help focus this energy, ensuring that the current quickly passes through your body.
“Inside your body this powerful current causes an electrical surge, making your muscles contract violently and this makes your heart beat erratically until it finally stops altogether.”
Death Penalty Info elucidates further.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blQPrfY68IA
It mentions that, before the sponges and electrodes are affixed, the person is ‘usually shaved’ and ‘strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms’.
Why do the sponges need to be moistened?
“A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline,” the explanation continues.
“The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a portion of the prisoner’s leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity.”
The individual is then typically ‘blindfolded’ while the execution team moves to an observation room to operate the switch and connect the power.
An electric current ranging ‘between 500 and 2000 volts’ is activated for ‘about 30 seconds’, after which the power is switched off, the body ‘appears to relax,’ and doctors wait ‘a few seconds’ for the ‘body to cool down’ before checking for a heartbeat.
If the heart continues to beat, the procedure is repeated until death is confirmed.
Afterward, it is noted: “The prisoner’s hands often grip the chair and there may be violent movement of the limbs which can result in dislocation or fractures. The tissues swell. Defecation occurs.”