Jerry White (February 12, 1948 – December 4, 1995) was executed by electric chair by the state of Florida in 1995 for the murder of James Melson, a shopper in a grocery that White robbed in Orange County in 1981. Mr. Melson was shot in the back of the head.
In 1999, the state of Florida heard a petition from Thomas Harrison Provenzano, another Death Row inmate, that argued that the electric chair was a cruel and unusual punishment. During the proceedings, Michael Minerva, who had witnessed White's execution, said that "White's body stiffened and was thrust upward and backward to the back of the electric chair" after the current had been switched on to the chair. He also said that he heard air moving through White's lips and throat, though he could not tell whether the air was going in or out.
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