The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American HistoryMcFarland, 25. 9. 2009 - Počet stran: 285 This book provides a history of the electric chair and analyzes its features, its development, and the manner of its use. Chapters cover the early conceptual stages as a humane alternative to hanging, and the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse that was one of the main forces in the chair's adoption as a mode of execution. Also presented are an account of the terrible first execution and a number of the subsequent gruesome employments of the chair. The text explores the changing attitudes toward the chair as state after state replaced it with lethal injection. |
Obsah
Preface | 1 |
1 The Genie of the Gilded Age | 7 |
2 The Hangmans Terrible Legacy | 25 |
3 The Death Commission | 47 |
4 The Battle of the Currents | 67 |
5 The People v William Kemmler | 89 |
6 Westinghouses Counterattack | 106 |
7 Cruel and Unusual Punishment | 134 |
8 The Human Experiment | 160 |
A Thrill of Indignation | 181 |
18921974 | 205 |
19761998 | 244 |
Notes | 259 |
269 | |
275 | |
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