Old Smokey is a euphemistic name given to the state prison electric chair in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The term has sometimes been used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not the one used in any specific state.
New Jersey's Old Smokey is on display at the New Jersey State Police Museum. The chair's most notorious target was Richard Hauptmann, the man behind the Lindbergh kidnapping. [1]
The chair at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton was used in the electrocution of 159 men for capital punishment in New Jersey, starting with Saverio DiGiovanni on December 11, 1907, [2] [3] : 296 and ending with Ralph Hudson on January 22, 1963, [4] which also was the final execution carried out in New Jersey. [5] Hauptmann was executed on April 3, 1936. [6]
After the death penalty was abolished nationwide in 1972 following Furman v. Georgia , the chair was moved to storage and the chamber was converted to a visitor's center. In the 1980s, the chair was put on exhibit at the now-defunct Capital Punishment Museum, housed in a building at the New Jersey State Corrections Academy; [7] after its curator died in 1995, [8] the chair was sent to the New Jersey State Museum and later was transferred to the New Jersey State Police Museum in Ewing Township, [7] [9] where it remains on display. [10] New Jersey abandoned electrocution in favor of lethal injection in 1983, [11] [12] then abolished capital punishment altogether in 2007. [13] [14]
The Pennsylvania electric chair was used in the electrocution of 348 men and two women for capital punishment in Pennsylvania at what is now SCI Rockview, [15] starting with the execution of John Talap on February 15, 1915, [16] and ending with the execution of Elmo Smith on April 2, 1962. [17]
The chair was placed into storage in 1971 and reassembled in 1985, [18] but never was used again after Pennsylvania abolished electrocution in 1990 as an execution method, in favor of lethal injection. [15] [19] It is stored at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, [18] and has never been displayed. [15]
The electric chair at the Tennessee State Prison in Nashville also was nicknamed "Old Smokey", [20] and was used to execute 125 people for capital punishment in Tennessee between July 13, 1916 (Julius Morgan) [21] and November 7, 1960 (William Tines). [22] [23]
After switching its primary method of execution to lethal injection in 2000, [24] Tennessee has given prisoners sentenced to capital punishment before then a choice between lethal injection or electrocution; the chair was moved to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and refurbished by Fred A. Leuchter. [25] In 2014, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill making the electric chair a backup method of execution if the drugs used in a lethal injection are not available. [26]
Since the chair was refurbished, Tennessee has executed six prisoners by electrocution:
The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, conceived this execution method in 1881. It was developed over the next decade as a more humane alternative to conventional executions, particularly hanging. First used in 1890, the electric chair became symbolic of this execution method.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 19 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 8, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.
The list of people executed by the U.S. state of Texas, with the exception of 1819–1849, is divided into periods of 10 years.
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey is the nickname of the electric chairs used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. "Old Sparky" is sometimes used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not one of a specific state.
Yellow Mama is the electric chair of the United States state of Alabama. It was used for executions from 1927 to 2002.
The State Correctional Institution – Rockview is a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections prison located in Centre County, Pennsylvania, 5 miles (8.0 km) away from Bellefonte. The facility is mostly in Benner Township, while a portion of the prison grounds extends into College Township.
Daryl Keith Holton was a convicted child murderer who was executed by electrocution by the state of Tennessee on September 12, 2007, in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.
Robert Charles Gleason Jr. was an American serial killer who was sentenced to death and executed in Virginia for two separate murders of two of his cellmates. Gleason, who was already serving a life sentence for another murder, was an execution volunteer who vowed to continue killing in prison if he was not put to death. Capital punishment was abolished in Virginia on March 24, 2021, officially making Gleason the last person to be executed in Virginia by electrocution.
Edmund George Zagorski was an American convicted murderer from Michigan who was executed by the state of Tennessee for the 1983 murders of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter in Robertson County. Zagorski lured the two men into a wooded hunting ground under the pretense of selling them 100 lb (45 kg) of marijuana before shooting them and slitting their throats.
On May 20, 1981, in Knoxville, Tennessee, 23-year-old Lee Standifer, who was two days short of her 24th birthday, was murdered by her boyfriend David Earl Miller, who dragged her into the woods and killed her by beating and stabbing. Standifer's body was found the day after her death, and Miller was charged with murdering her after he was arrested in Ohio on May 29, 1981.
On March 17, 1986, a mother-daughter pair, 51-year-old Wanda Lou Romines and 15-year-old Sheila Ann Romines, were held hostage in their home by two men in Union County, Tennessee. The Romines were subsequently murdered by their kidnappers, who both tortured the victims to death and even raped Sheila Romines. The murderers – Stephen Michael West and Ronald David "Ronnie" Martin – were arrested the following day and charged with the double murder.