2/10/2016
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BEARINGDRIFT
VIRGINIA'S CONSERVATIVE VOICE
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In 1908, Virginia legislators patted
themselves on the back for
“progressive” law #398, introduced by
Henrico Delegate Throckmorton,
titled “An Act to establish a
permanent place in the State
penitentiary at Richmond Virginia for
the execution of felons upon whom
the death penalty is to be imposed,
and to change the mode of execution
so that the death sentence shall be by
electricity,” and passed March 16 of
that year.
The new law modernized capital punishment in the Commonwealth. By
eliminating the barbaric spectacles of hangings, and installing an electric chair
in the basement of the State Penitentiary on Spring Street, death sentences
would forever after be carried out in secret, seen only by a handful of
handpicked witnesses. There would be no photography or filming, and no
media coverage.
Prior to #398, criminals from across Virginia were sometimes transported to
Richmond to be “hanged from the neck until dead, dead, dead” or put to death
in their own localities or where the crime occurred. To the dismay of prison
officials, huge crowds sometimes flocked to the gallows to witness these public
performances, One of those hanged in 1787 was a slave named Clem, who had
been convicted of two murders. Clem was 12 years old.
Those convicted of grand larceny in the 1700s, however, were not killed; they
were released after having their hands doused with coal oil and horribly burned.
While the hangings did not upset the crowds, the burnings certainly did, and
citizens successfully petitioned the courts for solitary confinement for these
convictions instead of “torture” by burning.
Hanging was unreliable. In two instances in 1902 and 1905 the drop failed to
break the prisoners’ necks, and instead they strangled to death, pitching and
kicking. One took 14 minutes to die.
While in 1908 the electric chair was considered progressive; in 2016 it is a
medieval torture device, best relegated to the museums. Instead, it has found
new life in the 2016 General Assembly with House Bill 815, a bill to change
the default method of execution back to the chair if lethal injection drugs are
Brumfield: Execute Like It's 1908 | Bearing Drift
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13,
2/10/2016 Brumfield: Execute Like It's 1908 | Bearing Drift
not available. This Bill just passed the House February 10 on a vote of 62-33. weaee
ETO
Virginia’s chair currently at Greenville Correctional in Jarratt is the same ERO Vinal NIA
straight-back oak armchair built by penitentiary inmates in the summer of 1908,
and wired by the Adams Electric Company of Trenton New Jersey at an
appropriated cost of $1,000. Although its original wiring has been upgraded,
the brutality of its killing is unchanged.
On August 10, 1982, it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Frank J.
Coppola. The second jolt set his head and legs on fire, filling the death chamber
from floor to ceiling with rancid smoke.
Recent Comments
On October 17, 1990, when Wilbert Lee Evans was hit with the first burst of \Warmac9999 on NEW HAMPSHIRE TAKE-
electricity, blood spewed from the right side of the mask on his face, drenching AWAYS [UPDATED]
his shirt. Evans continued to moan before a second jolt of electricity was
, ay ye . Peacemaker on IOWA AND NH TO AMERICA:
required to kill him. The autopsy concluded that the voltage surge elevated his WE WANT RADICAL CHANGE
high blood pressure.
‘The Derecho on IOWA AND NH TO AMERICA:
Two cycles of electricity, applied four minutes apart failed to kill Derick Lynn WE WANT RADICAL CHANBE
Peterson on August 22, 1991. Prison physician Dr. David Barnes inspected
Peterson with a stethoscope, announcing each time “He has not expired.” Seven
minutes after the first attempt to kill Peterson, a second cycle of electricity had
to be applied. ‘Amercian Samurai on FORBES RELEASES
FIRST INTERNAL POLL
on IOWA AND NH TO
WANT RADICAL CHANGE.
It is perplexing that Virginia considers herself progressive in so many areas yet
wishes to apply the death penalty the same way she did 108 years ago. We may LE USSR Facenook:
as well step back just one more year, to 1907, and strip away the veils of
secrecy behind electrocutions and make them public again. Allow all three -— ———_ - -o
news channels to cover the execution in all its violent, lurching glory and put
the event on prime time. Stream it live online so that everyone gets a taste of
what is going on down in Jarratt. Pack a sandwich. If we are going to do it, we
need to do it right.
And, as for live witnesses to the executions, I suggest the 62 House members
who voted yes on HB 815.
Dale Brumfield is an author and Digital Archaeologist from Doswell,
Virginia.
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