TN Uses Electric Chair - 1st Time Since 1960

[One2Snoop]

updated 3:13 a.m. EDT,
Wed September 12, 2007
State uses electric chair for first time since 1960

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A man convicted of murdering four children with an assault rifle was executed Wednesday, becoming the first Tennessee inmate put to death by electrocution since 1960.


Daryl Holton confessed to killing his three sons and their half-sister with an assault rifle.

1 of 2 Daryl Holton, 45, had confessed to shooting his three young sons and their half-sister in 1997 in the town of Shelbyville, about 50 miles south of Nashville.

Holton told police he killed the children because his ex-wife had refused to let him see them. He said he intended to kill her and himself, but instead turned himself in.

As the hours ticked away Tuesday night, a group of attorneys petitioned the state Supreme Court to stop the electrocution, saying the execution method was cruel and unusual punishment. But the court rejected the petition.

Holton chose the electric chair over the state's preferred execution method, lethal injection. Under Tennessee law, death row inmates can choose between the electric chair and lethal injection if their crimes were committed before 1999.

Holton, a Gulf War veteran, confessed to the 1997 killings, saying he lined up the children at his uncle's auto repair garage and shot them.

snip
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/12/tenn.execution.ap/index.html

[accordn2me]

Years ago, I saw a documentary-type program of the man who went all over the United States making sure that the various mechanisms used for the death penalty were properly maintained. The reporter asked this man, if he were convicted of a capital crime and allowed to choose his method of execution, what would he choose? Guess what he said....hands down, the electric chair. He said although it seemed much more gruesome, it was a lot faster than lethal injection. Within the second of the first jolt, a convict is rendered unconscious so it is virtually painless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair
The head and legs of the condemned person are shaved and the prisoner is strapped into the chair. A moist sponge is placed on the head to aid conductivity. One electrode is attached to the head and a second attached to the leg to provide a closed circuit. At least two jolts of an electrical current are applied with the time and current depending on the physical state of the condemned person. Typically an initial voltage of around 2,000 volts is applied for up to 15 seconds to attempt both to induce unconsciousness and to stop the heart. The voltage is then lowered to reduce current flow to approximately 8 amps. The body of the person may heat up to approximately 138 °F (59 °C), and the electric current will generally cause severe damage to internal organs.

In theory, unconsciousness occurs in a fraction of a second.

ETA: Louisiana's electric chair is called Old Sparky.....

[Sturgeon_Moon]

I'll choose the guillotine.

imo

[accordn2me]

I'll choose the guillotine.

imoAre you French?

[WarmNCozy]

I'll choose the guillotine.

imo

Me too! But I think it has been retired!

[packy]

I would've thought lethal injection was more humane but in view of so much information that's been out there, it seems that isn't what it seems either. This article discusses how Tookie Williams' execution was botched. OMG!

It does mention Tennessee regarding lethal injection too.

http://www.isreview.org/issues/52/rep-deathpenalty.shtml

"His feet and part of his body started contorting and distorting. And I went from praying that God would take him now, because I could see he was in trouble…. Stanley Tookie Williams died a horrible, excruciatingly painful death, where he not only woke up to the horror of his lungs paralyzed, so he was being slowly smothered to death, but the drug that makes your heart stop makes your veins feel like they’re on fire at the same time as it causes a massive heart attack, so it’s as if someone picked up a Mack truck and put it on your chest."

[certoceto]

Why oh why, do people express such sympathy for the convicted murderers that are executed. So, they suffer a little before they die, but do the sympathizers give any thoughts to the children that are brutally slaughtered for no reason whatsoever. It's not the childs fault that deranged parents kill them simply because their ex-partner will not allow him access to them. Any adult that murders, especially children and defenceless old people, should die, and if the method of death is painful, then hard luck, they get just what they deserve. After all, they did not care about the sickening fear and pain their innocent victims underwent as they died!
For goodness sake don't go soft in the U.S. like we have in the U.K.. We have prisons full of maniac murderers, who now live a life of ease in their centrally heated cells...! It would open your eyes, if the life style of a British convicted child killer was shown to you in the U.S.
Please don't fall into the same trap as the British Public, who are not even allowed a referendum on the subject!

[Chocoholic]

According to every religion and law that I know of on this planet, killing another human being is wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Killing a person because s/he killed another human being, no matter how gruesome the crime, doesn't bring the victim(s) back.

On top of that there is the risk that the person convicted of the crime may not be guilty, it's an even greater game of Russian Roulette. I for one would not wish to be on a jury where a person were committed to death. What if there was the slightest possibility that that person was actually innocent. Think of all the people that have been released from prison because DNA evidence proved they were not the perpetrator of the crime that took place.

I had hoped that human kind had grown higher than the level of "an eye for an eye".

[maryhaze]

letting them live lives of leisure with 3 hots, a cot, no work & medical care doesn't bring victims back either. not only would i want to be on the jury of someone like couey, i'd push the plungers. sorry, i have more care for the victims than the dirtbags who killed them. JMO

[certoceto]

It seems that the "Might be innocent" brigade, don't want to stand up and protect children from a savage, premature death. They seem to think that instead of executing the perpetrators of such crimes, that they should be locked away in comfort, and possibly released by a committee of "Do Gooders" who are more interested in finding a place in heaven, and sleeping soundly at night, rather than protecting the children of this world. As one who has witnessed the terrible evil of these perpetrators, i have no doubt that they should die. Yes, mistakes are made, but with the savage death of a child, the police usually give a little more effort in catching the correct person, after all, the police have children too, and it's not in their interest to "Fit Up" the wrong person for child murder.
Yes, it is true, executing a murderer does not bring the victim back, but it removes the chance of the killer ever being released, and it does brings a measure of comfort to parents, not satisfaction, but the comfort that the killer is not laughing about it behind bars, in the comfort of a cell whilst the parents try to live some sort of life afterwards. A parents grief is terrible thing, something i hope most people will not experience, but that grief lasts a lifetime, and a decent night sleep is something they never have, or ever will have again!

[accordn2me]

According to every religion and law that I know of on this planet, killing another human being is wrong. <snipped>Really? :confused: Then I must be seriously misinformed. One of us is, that's for sure!

[wind149]

I am totally for the DP and always will be. I would like to watch the executions of the following people and the form would be the chair. John Couey, Joseph Duncan, Joseph Smith, David Westerlake, the immigrant that killed Zina Linik, The Edenfield's, the ones that horribly brutalized and murdered Christopher Barrios, Bobby Cutts, Bin Forgotten, Michael Addison, this black career criminal who killed Officer Michael Briggs of the Manchester NH, PD, and every other maggot out there that have killed innocent people. I don't give a rat's ass if they feel that juice going through them, they should. As for LI, A:) :) :) w Gee, I feel so bad Tookie Williams died a horrible death, I hope it was. He killed 4 white people and laughed about it, so it is only fitting he died painfully. I hate bleeding hearts. They are the reason for getting some states to change their mind on capital punishment, forgetting the agony the victims felt. I was on another board for awhile and just got totally disgusted with the ped lovers, you know, the ones that think we are blood thirsty vigilantes for wanting the likes of Couey to die painfully. They, and the ACLU are quick to blame other factors instead of the dirtbag himself. Their Mama beat him, Daddy molested them, their addictions,, they are misunderstood and are victims themselves. Enough to make you puke, so that is why I shifted directions to here and so far have found intelligent, sane, reasonably minded people. If you can't freely say what you have to say, no point in posting. And the one thing I loathe is anyone who supports a pedophile in any way, shape, or form. They chose to be the twisted freaks they are. I had to barf when Couey made the statement that if the Lunsford's dog had barked, he would not have taken Jessie. Two. He claims his sister did not love him enough, hell I would say she did in their twisted white trash mentality. He hopped on about every female relative including her own daughters, and they in turn did not seem to mind either and thank the Good Lord the daughters of that trashy, low-life niece were taken by CPS and the niece had the audacity to whine about it on a Tampa TV interview. Yeah, kids, gone, no welfare check, equals no crack! So yes, I am for the DP and I am for bringing back the chair, and kudos to TN for frying that POS!!!

[Charon]

I read the article (There are 2 Parts) on CARL PANZRAM last night. He was something like 35 when he was hung and by then he's already spend 20 years of his natural life in jail or reform.

Repeatedly released and/or escaped, he murdered 20+ people and raped way more than that in a couple of different countries.

If you are anti-dp, I suggest you get into this guy's story.

[Sharon]

Why oh why, do people express such sympathy for the convicted murderers that are executed. So, they suffer a little before they die, but do the sympathizers give any thoughts to the children that are brutally slaughtered for no reason whatsoever. It's not the childs fault that deranged parents kill them simply because their ex-partner will not allow him access to them. Any adult that murders, especially children and defenceless old people, should die, and if the method of death is painful, then hard luck, they get just what they deserve. After all, they did not care about the sickening fear and pain their innocent victims underwent as they died!
For goodness sake don't go soft in the U.S. like we have in the U.K.. We have prisons full of maniac murderers, who now live a life of ease in their centrally heated cells...! It would open your eyes, if the life style of a British convicted child killer was shown to you in the U.S.
Please don't fall into the same trap as the British Public, who are not even allowed a referendum on the subject!

I agree....otherwise we are just going in cirles and everyone is a `victim` needing to be saved!

[Sharon]

I am totally for the DP and always will be. I would like to watch the executions of the following people and the form would be the chair. John Couey, Joseph Duncan, Joseph Smith, David Westerlake, the immigrant that killed Zina Linik, The Edenfield's, the ones that horribly brutalized and murdered Christopher Barrios, Bobby Cutts, Bin Forgotten, Michael Addison, this black career criminal who killed Officer Michael Briggs of the Manchester NH, PD, and every other maggot out there that have killed innocent people. I don't give a rat's ass if they feel that juice going through them, they should. As for LI, A:) :) :) w Gee, I feel so bad Tookie Williams died a horrible death, I hope it was. He killed 4 white people and laughed about it, so it is only fitting he died painfully. I hate bleeding hearts. They are the reason for getting some states to change their mind on capital punishment, forgetting the agony the victims felt. I was on another board for awhile and just got totally disgusted with the ped lovers, you know, the ones that think we are blood thirsty vigilantes for wanting the likes of Couey to die painfully. They, and the ACLU are quick to blame other factors instead of the dirtbag himself. Their Mama beat him, Daddy molested them, their addictions,, they are misunderstood and are victims themselves. Enough to make you puke, so that is why I shifted directions to here and so far have found intelligent, sane, reasonably minded people. If you can't freely say what you have to say, no point in posting. And the one thing I loathe is anyone who supports a pedophile in any way, shape, or form. They chose to be the twisted freaks they are. I had to barf when Couey made the statement that if the Lunsford's dog had barked, he would not have taken Jessie. Two. He claims his sister did not love him enough, hell I would say she did in their twisted white trash mentality. He hopped on about every female relative including her own daughters, and they in turn did not seem to mind either and thank the Good Lord the daughters of that trashy, low-life niece were taken by CPS and the niece had the audacity to whine about it on a Tampa TV interview. Yeah, kids, gone, no welfare check, equals no crack! So yes, I am for the DP and I am for bringing back the chair, and kudos to TN for frying that POS!!!

My thoughts exactly.

My pet peeve are the religious people who think that peds and other POS will get their `punishment` in the next world. Well, I think that that might be fine.....but I for one dont really want to take that risk. The punishment needs to happen now...in this lifetime. And if it means we need to send these POS to meet their maker......or just die and thats it....well so be it. If the death is horrible and painful then I think my tax dollars are being well spent, something extra in the bargain.

Im also partial to letting the inmates have their way with child offenders. Even the worst of the worst have more morals than a child molester. Hurting children is considered the lowest form of crime possible in anyones book.

[wind149]

I wish every pedophile in prison was in gen pop until the day they walk the green mile. I want them to feel fear, pain, agony, wondering if they are gonna get raped or gang raped, or worse, castrated as that does happen, you just don't hear about it as much, as prison walls don't talk. It makes me sick to know Couey and Smith are in private cells on DR so no one can get to them as the poor parents of those angels Carlie and Jessie have to wait years now before those babyraping maggots get theirs. When I said things like this on another board, people freaked out. I am a realist, I see things with clarity, I don't sugarcoat anything and I am not going to. I had some of the bleeders as I call them up in arms because I posted a scenario involving the agony of being Couey when he is placed in a room full of bikers and Mark Lunsford. It spoke of the anger I feel towards this maggot and others like him, how true justice would not be served as he is still breathing and what better person to meter out the justice than a family member??? Oh, My God! I just love the folks that live where marshmallow clouds and lolli-pop trees abound. The ones that live in their own smug, pious, heads, thinking that they are immune to crime such as child rape and murder, and it could never happen to their children, and feel righteous to tell me I am a bad person because I want Couey to die in agony, not be coddled. They are the types that feel sorry for these mutts, they are poor, misunderstood people and we should not hate them because they can't help themselves!!! I am a blood thirsty killer in my own right for supporting the death penalty. These people make me sick. God forbid if anything ever happened to their kids and what in hell would they do then? Either (GAG) forgive them for raping and murdering their child or become total hypocrites in the sense, well if it happens to your kid and you want the puke to die, then you are a vigilante, but if it happens to their kid, they want them hung in the town square with every network there to document it! This is one reason I have chosen to not go on that other board anymore, you cant' say what you feel, you feel you have to walk on eggshells, wondering if what you just posted pissed somebody off , And I can't be bothered to answer a post from La La Land. So thanks to you guys I get real people with real feelings, and live in the moment and not in your head.:patriot: