Modern electrocutions.
149 men and 2 women have been electrocuted in the U.S.A. since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1977, up to the end of 2003, making it the second most common method (after lethal injection). It is still a legal method in seven states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and Virginia. It is only mandatory now in Nebraska and it is doubtful whether it will ever be used there.
On the of April 26th 2002 the state Governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, signed a law making lethal injection the primary method of execution there providing that from July 1st 2002 condemned inmates in Alabama will be executed by injection unless they choose the electric chair. Alabama carried out the first electrocution of the new millennium when it put David Ray Duren to death for the robbery murder of a young girl on January 7th 2000. The "Yellow Momma", as its chair is known (pictured left) was last used on the May 10th 2002 for the execution of Lynda Lyon Block.

Virginia electrocuted 61 year old Earl Conrad Bramblett on April 9th 2003. Bramblett who had been convicted of the murders of a family of four had elected to die this way as a protest against the death penalty. He was strapped into the oak chair and given an initial burst of 1,800 volts for 30 seconds. Bramblett's body tensed against the leather and nylon straps, his hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists, his knees slowly opened and his skin turned bright red around the leather face mask. The first jolt was followed by 240 volts for 60 seconds, and then the entire cycle was repeated. A small stream of smoke wafted up from his right leg during the second cycle. He was certified dead 5 minutes later.
Georgia abandoned the electric chair in October 2001. 441 people had been put to death in it since the abolition of hanging there in 1924.
Kentucky has carried out one electrocution since 1977, Nebraska 2, and there have been none in Tennessee although this state has prisoners on death row, including Christa Gail Pike, the youngest woman under sentence of death in the US, 19 at the time of her crime.

On January 6th, 2000 the Florida Senate passed a bill by a vote of 102-5 to give death row inmates the option of lethal injection rather than the electric chair. Apparently they have all elected lethal injection. The electric chair was not used at all in 2001 although John Byrd had elected it in Ohio to protest against what he claimed was the cruelty of capital punishment . His execution was stayed and in the meantime (11/21/01) Ohio altered its law to allow only lethal injection. Georgia's highest court struck down the state's use of the electric chair on October 5th 2001 on the basis that death by electrocution "inflicts purposeless physical violence and needless mutilation that makes no measurable contribution to accepted goals of punishment.''
Execution procedure.

After being led into the execution chamber, the prisoner is strapped into the chair with leather belts across the chest, thighs, legs, and arms. The electrodes are then attached - one or two to the leg(s), where a patch will have been shaved bare to improve conductivity, and the other contained within a helmet, to the shaved head. Some states use helmets with a copper mesh screen covered with 5/8 thick artificial sponge to improve conductivity mesh. All this is attached with a 1/4" x 20 Machine brass screw to the turret electrode on the top. The sponge is usually soaked in brine or treated with gel (Electro-Creme) to increase conductivity and reduce burning. Some states use lead for the leg electrode(s) as it is more easily formed around the leg.

A leather face mask or black face cloth is applied. The prisoner, whether male or female, will also be wearing a diaper.
The executioner presses a button on the control panel to deliver a first shock of between 1700 and 2,400 volts, which lasts for between thirty seconds and a minute. This is automatically timed and controlled. The current must be under 6 amps to ensure the body does not cook. Smoke usually comes from the prisoner's leg and head where the electrodes are in contact with the skin. A doctor then examines the prisoner, who if not dead is given a further shock. (In some states this is done automatically by the control gear)

A third and fourth are given if necessary. (It took five jolts to kill Ethel Rosenberg)
On average the process takes 2 min 10 seconds and two shocks are given.
The first shock runs for up to one minute and normally destroys the brain and central nervous system. It also causes complete paralysis due to every muscle in the body contracting and staying contracted while the current is flowing. This makes heartbeat and respiration impossible. The second shock continues the process to ensure the heart beat does not resume. The prisoner is supposed to be rendered unconscious in 1/240th of a second.
After electrocution the body temperature rises to about 138 degrees F and is initially too hot to touch. Heating destroys the body's proteins and "bakes" the organs.
Physical reactions include heaving chest, gurgles, foaming at the mouth, bloody sweat, burning of the hair and skin, and release of urine and faeces.
The body has to be allowed to cool before an autopsy can be performed.