Today’s Undetectable Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The possibility of undetectable pain in the electric chair was raised by experts from George Westinghouse to Nikola Tesla. Dr. Harold Hillman, an English physiologist specializing in electrical burns, provided the most detailed view of this possibility during testimony before a 1990 investigation of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals into the constitutionality of Louisiana’s electric chair. “Although it is widely believed that the person being electrocuted loses consciousness and the sensation of pain immediately, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support this belief. The massive electric current stimulates all the muscles to full contraction. Thus the prisoner cannot react by any further movement, even when the current is being turned off for a short period and the heart is still beating, as has been documented in numerous cases… It is usually thought that the failure of the convict to move is a sign that he cannot feel. He cannot move because all his muscles are contracting maximally.”
Culled from: The Last Face You’ll Ever See: The Culture of Death Row