| Show EXECUTION BY electricity after this month persons condemned to death in yew york will not be hung but will bo put to death by the electric current this change in the mode of execution has been accomplished with bat little difficulty considering the radical nature of the chanse and the tenacity of custom and tradition there was but one serious objection to he change an J nothing but experience can determine ita ical weight it is a serious matter to dispense with all the shame and terror that are associated with the gibbet among some classes of citizens these elements of the death penalty were undoubtedly a powerful deterrent they may not have been influential with the confirmed criminal class but with the community at large they were powerful influences doubtless it was the fact that capital punishment by hanging was associated with gross abuses in the way of management and publicity that mado the public mind so ready to try some other method provisions for complete seclusion and secrecy in the application of the new method together with decent regulations for the disposition of mhd re mains added very greatly to its acceptability hereafter there will be no public announcements no scenic displays no drunken wakes no disgusting funerals our enterprising dailies which make the reputation of living brutes in the shape of prize fighters will have less opportunity to celebrate their favorites after they have been struck to death by artificial lightning much nonsense is printed in regard to capital punishment not being a deterrent it is reiterated have not prevented lighter crimes in former ages capital punishment ceases to be effective whenever and wherever it ceases to be enforce dIt is the certainty as much as the severity of punishment which makes it powerful as a deterrent when the law and the courts are so administered that not one in ten cases of capital crime receive the full penalty of course tle penalty ceases to be a powerful pre tentative renta tive every intelligent person knows that in new york city within a few years a single case of capital punishment has had an evident effect in checking the class of crimes in the cage of which it was administered when the car hook murderer said that hanging was played out he revealed the secret of his drunken ferocity his own execution in the face of indefatigable efforts to cave him from the gallows had a powerful effect on the brutal element of that city for several years in italy where there is general repugnance against execution by the law there is r KU ti y fuifui of private assassination in michigan murderers are the only class in tho community whose lives are held so sacred that all the constitutional power of the state is exhausted in their protection having killed a person in cold blood tho criminal is entitled to live the rest of his daya at the expense of the government by hiding him within prison walls he is protected from the vengeance of the relatives of the person whom he has murdered in italy and in the southern states the vendetta undertake the work which the state era if capital punishment by electricity results in executions being prompt and decent so that the law is more surely and effectively administered there will be no regret at the changeux capt among the class of whom it is always true that no logaa eer felt halter draw walli good opinion of the law it is not to be expected that those who settle their difficulties with the knife me revolver or the bludgeon will have any better opinion of the deadly electricity tri city until last week however the amount and character of the current required to make death certain and instantaneous had not been determined experiments on dogs last summer by harold P brown electrical engineer wag criticized criticised because tho weight of the animal was less than that of a man and it was supposed a stronger current would be required to kill a human being on that account last week however brown waa given an opportunity to make a demonstration before eldridge T gerry author of the electrical execution law and a committee appointed by the medico legal society to report on the best means of putting the law into effect experiments wore mada at Edi sons laboratory and the fla victim was a calf weighing pounds the hair was cut kofl on the forehead andon the spine behind the forelegs fore legs and covered with platea and moistened in a solution of sulphate of zinc were fastened in each place the resistance of the animal was ohms an alternating current of volts was applied for thirty five seconds and the animal was dead it was at once dissected by doctors ingram and blefere Bl eyere bat the brain heart and lungs were found to be in a normal condition and the meat was pronounced fit for food the second calf weighed pounds and had a resistance rei istance of 1300 ohms the deadly alternating current at volts pressure was applied for five seconds and produced death to settle perrean antly the weight question a horse weighing pounds was next killed by passing the alternating current at volts from one foreleg to the other the res stance of this animal was cams the experiments proved the alternating terna ting cur be thy most deadly dorco known to science and that lees than half the pressure used in new york for electric lighting by this system is sufficient to cause instant death |
