Does Electricity Kill? (Nov. 21, 1894)

Gov. Flower says in an interview that he will aid in an effort to determine whether electricity actually kills condemned persons, if he can legally do so. The murderer, Wilson, soon to be executed at Auburn, has been selected for the experiment of resuscitation. No fault can be justly found with the attitude of Gov. Flower in the premises. There is a reasonable doubt as to the efficacy of the electrical current as an agent of death; and that doubt should be removed as soon as possible, if electrical shock is to continue the legal method of execution in this State.

The law which provides for electrocution was framed by the friends of the method, and contained provisions that rendered death certain after all the formalities had been observed, whether the victim succumbed to the shock or not. After the electrical current has done the work expected, the body must be legally cut up by physicians, thus ending all chance of a return to consciousness. It has been repeatedly claimed that but for this cutting the person subjected to shock would revive. The great electrical expert, Tesla, is very positive and speaks from his own experience. It is chiefly through his confident assertions that the attention of the governor has been called to the matter in such a forcible way as to impress him deeply.

There is no necessity for questioning too closely the means which the governor may employ to allow the experiment of resuscitation. A suggestion has been made that some act of clemency be exercised at an opportune time to prevent the execution of that part of the law which requires an autopsy. It would seem best to delay the autopsy until the experiment of resuscitation be made. If it succeed, the man is not legally dead, and a mitigation of sentence may then intervene to prevent another experience in the chair.

Something will be gained, if the killing method be thoroughly tested, although the mere mention of such experiment with a human being is most revolting. The press of the State accomplished much when it stopped the secret killing which was originally provided for by the statute. Again, a useful purpose may be served by encouraging the governor in his determination to know if electricity actually kills. — Rochester Democrat.