Killer picks electric chair over needle

[Janice]

That guy is a real nut, besides a murderer. Who would want to fry instead of just going to sleep. He must love pain......


A death row inmate set for execution next week for the rape and murder of a young mother has chosen to die in the electric chair, the Virginia Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

Barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Brandon Hedrick, 27, would be the first person in the United States to die by electrocution in more than two years.

The federal government and most states that allow capital punishment use lethal injection rather than electrocution because it is considered more humane.

A 2005 study raised serious questions about whether a painkiller used in the executions can wear off before the prisoner dies. The U.S. Supreme Court last month also made it easier for death row inmates to contest lethal injections by allowing them to make special federal court claims that is cruel and unusual punishment.

Inmates on Virginia's death have the option of choosing to die by injection or electrocution. Earl Bramblett, convicted of murdering a Roanoke couple and their two young daughters, was the last Virginian to die in the electric chair, in 2003.

Hedrick is to be electrocuted July 20 for the 1997 slaying of Lisa Crider, 23, in Appomattox County.

He was sentenced to death in 1998 after being convicted of abducting, raping and shooting Crider in the face with a shotgun on a remote bank of the James River.

A co-defendant, Trevor Jones, was sentenced to life in prison.

[george_r_1961]

Yes there was something in the news here about that. When Virginia moved the electric chair from the old State Penitentiary in Richmond to Greensville in 1994 they installed a new generator, transformer, and control panel but the chair is the same one built in the early 1900's. Old. And if im correct when the chair is no longer servicable the Department of Corrections will ask that the option of electrocution no longer be available. Not to get too off topic here Janice but id rather we have a clean sanitary execution than a mess. Dead is dead.

[Regit]

There was a story in the news a few months back that summarized a study showing that lethal injection is extremely painful and could be more painful than electrocution. The inmate in this story may have read a summary of that study.

Or he could just be bonkers.

[george_r_1961]

There was a story in the news a few months back that summarized a study showing that lethal injection is extremely painful and could be more painful than electrocution. The inmate in this story may have read a summary of that study.

Or he could just be bonkers.

I think the issue here is that the first drug typically given, sodium pentothal..supposedly wears off quickly. Well having had pentothal a few times before surgery I can attest this isnt true at all.

[Cookiely]

How can you tell if one is or isn't more painful than the other since the people involved are dead and can't give you an opinion. Its not like we can ask the dearly departed to describe their pain on a scale of one to ten. The lethal injection victim appears more at peace to witnesses but we have no idea what the victim is feeling since he is paralyzed prior to his heart stopping. Electrocution appears more painful since the person is moving and jerking and making sounds. Why don't we give people an injection to put them to sleep and then put them in a freezer, seems more humane to me.

[Derek Ortt]

hanging would be the quickest and post pain free way to die

but it is a punishment, so a little pain may give them one last chance to repent before facing Christ

[brunota2003]

what about Firing Squad? They got rid of that though...

[george_r_1961]

what about Firing Squad? They got rid of that though...

Well assuming the heart is pierced it should be almost painless. Friend of mine took a bullet in the chest a few years ago and he said it felt like someone kicked him but there wasnt any pain..probably due to shock. He hurt like the dickens after he woke up in ICU after surgery though.

[Skywatch_NC]

what about Firing Squad? They got rid of that though...

I believe the last one executed here in the USA with that method was Gary Gilmore on January 17th, 1977.

Is a movie about him called "Executioner's Song" with Tommy Lee Jones and Rosanna Arquette.

***********

I stand corrected:

The most recent execution by this method was that of John Albert Taylor. By his own choosing, Taylor was executed by firing squad in Utah on January 26, 1996.

[Regit]

Idaho allows a firing squad if lethal injection is "impractical." In Nebraska, the electric chair is the only method. In Washington state, hanging can be chosen. Lethal injection/electrocution is the choice in several states. Some states have more complicated laws.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=245#state