Old Sparky - Florida

Florida

It was the sole means of execution in Florida from 1924 until 2000, when the Florida State Legislature, under pressure from the U.S. Supreme Court, signed lethal injection into law. Although no one has been executed in this manner since 1999, prisoners awaiting execution on Florida's death row may still be electrocuted at their request. It is currently located in Florida State Prison on the outskirts of Starke. It was notorious for frequent malfunctions in the 1990s, namely in the cases of Jesse Tafero (executed May 4, 1990), Pedro Medina (executed March 25, 1997) and Allen Lee Davis (executed July 8, 1999). Reportedly, six-inch flames shot out of Tafero's head and 12-inch flames shot out of Medina's head, raising the question whether use of the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment. After the Medina execution, Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth commented, "People who wish to commit murder, they'd better not do it in the state of Florida because we may have a problem with the electric chair."

The malfunctions probably were due to practices of the prison staff and not because of the electric chair itself. The wooden chair had been replaced in early-1999 to accommodate Davis' girth. The electrical components remained the same for the system.

To assure proper contact between the inmate's head and the electrode, a saline-soaked sponge stuffed between the two was necessary. In the Tafero incident, a natural sponge was replaced with a synthetic sponge that caught fire during the execution. In the Medina incident, prison officials apparently did not properly soak the sponge in saline and it caught fire as well. Photographs that surfaced after Davis' execution clearly showed that his nose had been severely compressed by a misfitted head strap.