Method of Executions
Florida used public hanging under a local jurisdiction, overseen and performed by the sheriffs of the counties where the crimes took place. However, in 1923, the Florida Legislature passed a law replacing hanging with the electric chair and stated that all future execution will be performed under a state jurisdiction inside prisons.
A total of 223 people were electrocuted through 1964, all of whom were men. Before that, 117 were hanged. In addition, 44 were electrocuted after 1979.
Until 1941, sheriffs of the counties where the crimes were committed would perform the executions. Later, a black-hooded executioner, a private citizen who is paid $150 per execution, took over. This gave anonymity to the actual executioner.
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Florida
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“The method of authority will always govern the mass of mankind; and those who wield the various forms of organized force in the state will never be convinced that dangerous reasoning ought not to be suppressed in some way.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
““I have usually found that there was method in his madness.”
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—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
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—Phil Donahue (b. 1935)