In the late 1800s, most people were convinced that the wonders of modern science could improve everyone's lives.
Two events that occurred around the same time in the 1880s - a three-times botched hanging in England that received
worldwide attention, and the hanging of a pretty young woman in New York State caused a considerable increase in
the "anti-gallows movement."
On August 7,1881, a drunk man in Buffalo, NY accidentally killed himself by touching the generator in the Brush
Electric Light Company. A local dentist, Alfred P. Southwick, became fascinated with reports of the man's
instantaneous death. Southwick became a vocal advocate for the use of electricity when instant death is warranted.
Southwick brought his ideas to the head of the Buffalo SPCA, and began experimenting on "euthanizing" animals with
electricity. He kept careful records of his experiments and published them in scientific journals.
Some members of the State legislature feared that the public outcry over the barbarity of hangings would doom
capital punishment in NY State. In 1886, Gov. David Hill established a Commission to Investigate and Report the
Most Humane and Practical Method of Carrying into Effect the Sentence of Death in Capital Cases -- the Gerry
Commission, also known as the Death Commission. Alfred Southwick, the leading proponent of electrocution, was
appointed to the three-member commission.
The commission's final report recommended electrocution as the official method of capital punishment. Instead of
each county doing its own executions, the State should build execution chambers in the prisons in Auburn, Sing Sing
and Dannemora. The commission further recommended that the bodies of the executed be given to scientists; after
the scientists were through, the bodies be buried with quick lime, and the press be banned from witnessing
executions -- an attempt to stop the outcry which followed newspaper accounts of each hanging. In June 1888, the bill
making death by electricity New York State's official method of execution was signed into law.
On March 29,1889, William Kemmler killed his lover Tillie Ziegler with a hatchet He went to trial in Buffalo in May
1889 and was convicted of murder in the first degree On May 13, Judge Henry Childs sentenced Kemmler to die by
electricity.
The death chamber at Auburn Prison.
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During the 1880s, electric service was just beginning to be sold to towns and cities. Thomas Edison and his
companies used direct current (DC). George Westinghouse and his companies used alternating current (AC). Both
Edison and Westinghouse tried to convince potential customers of the superiority of their systems. Edison and his
staff used an AC generator to electrocute dozens of dogs, cats, even cows and horses in an attempt to demonstrate
that Westinghouse's equipment was dangerous. Edison's lobbying was successful and the Medico-Legal Society,
charged by NY Department of Prisons with designing the "electric chair," recommended alternating current. Edison
suggested calling the new method of execution "Westinghousing."
Westinghouse did not want his name associated with death. He financed appeals on Kemmler's behalf all the way to
the Supreme Court. One appeal argued that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment, outlawed by the Constitution. The Supreme Court
decided that how to carry out a death sentence was a state decision.
The Auburn execution chamber was built in the basement of the Administration Building. All the state and federal appeals were ended by June
1890. The first week of August, hundreds of visitors began arriving in Auburn to be there when the execution occurred. Reporters, electrical
engineers, legal scholars, doctors, even politicians came to the big event.
Kemmler was brought into the execution chamber early on the morning of August 6. The current was turned on, and Kemmler was subjected to
17 seconds of electricity. All the witnesses thought he was dead. "There is the culmination of ten years' work and study," said Southwick. "We
live in a higher civilization from this day." Then Kemmler's slumped body started to moan and wheeze. "Turn on the current! This man is not
dead!" yelled the doctor. The cry to turn on the current was picked up by all. "Keep it on, keep it on," yelled the warden.
When the current was finally on again (it took some time to build up in the generator room l000 feet away), no one wanted to turn it off
prematurely. The official report was that it was on for 70 seconds, but some witnesses said as long as 4 minutes. Smoke rose from Kemmler's
head and the room filled with the stench of burning flesh. At 6:40 a.m. the current was finally turned off. Kemmler had been in the death chamber
for 8 minutes.
Within minutes of the official announcement, the news of Kemmler's execution flashed all over the world. A temporary telegraph office had been
set up in the New York Central station across the street from the prison. Coverage of the death varied widely; even the eyewitnesses' reports
were inconsistent. Those who had a stake in the execution continued to claim that Kemmler died instantly and painlessly. Other witnesses said
he survived the first attempt to electrocute him and the second jolt was the most gruesome thing they had ever seen.
Between 1890 and 1916 when the state concentrated all capital punishment at Sing Sing, 55 people were electrocuted in Auburn Prison. In all,
686 men and 9 women died in the electric chair in New York between 1890 and 1963 when the use of the electric chair was discontinued.
