Problems With The Yellow Mama
Alabama has experienced several problematic executions involving Yellow Mama. First, on April 22, 1983, the first post-Furman prisoner to be executed by Alabama, John Louis Evans was hit with the first jolt of electricity, which lasted 30 seconds. John’s body tensed up, causing the electrode on his left leg to snap off. Soon there was smoke and flames that shot out from under the hood that covered his head. When two physicians entered the death chamber they found him still alive. Ignoring John’s lawyer’s plea, a third jolt of electricity was applied and he died. The execution took a total of 14 minutes and his body was left charred and smoldering. In 1989 the state executed Horace Dunkins, who had an IQ of 69. Dunkins was convicted of murdering Lynn McCurry, a 26-year old mother of four. She was found tied to a tree behind her home and stabbed 66 times. In Dunkins’ execution the first jolt of electricity only knocked him unconscious. Charles Jones, the warden at the time, said that because the jacks connecting the electricity to the chair had been reversed, there was not enough voltage to kill him on the first try. Therefore, it took 19 minutes for Horace to die.
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Famous quotes containing the words problems with, problems, yellow and/or mama:
“I was a wonderful parent before I had children. I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own.”
—Adele Faber (20th century)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
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“The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare,
For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air;
Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood;
But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood
Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.”
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“My Mama has made bread
and Grampaw has come
and everybody is drunk
and dancing in the kitchen”
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