August 6, 2009
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Profile America — Thursday, August 6th. The electric chair was used for the first time on this date in 1890 in Auburn, New York, to carry out a death sentence. William Kemmler of Buffalo was the first person to be electrocuted, having been convicted of the murder of his common law wife the year before. This first attempt did not go well and George Westinghouse Jr. called it a “brutal affair.” Now, most states have selected other, more humane methods to carry out such sentences, primarily lethal injections. Since 1930, a total of 4,958 prisoners have been executed under civil authority, 43 of them women. Across the country, there are just over 3,200 prisoners currently under sentence of death. Profile America is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau, now preparing for the 2010 Census.
Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2009, p. 393
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009, t. 339, 338
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2009edition.html
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