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
Famous quotes containing the words method of, method and/or executions:
“Argument is conclusive ... but ... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.... For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns ... his hearers mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it ... that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.”
—Roger Bacon (c. 12141294)
“The method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode in which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (182595)
“[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldnt executions be public?”
—Phil Donahue (b. 1935)