Old Sparky (eBook)

The Electric Chair and the History of the Death Penalty

Anthony Galvin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015
280 Seiten
Carrel Books (Verlag)
978-1-63144-029-8 (ISBN)

Infos

A shocking exploration of Americas preferred method of capital punishment.In early 2013, Robert Gleason became the latest victim of the electric chair, a peculiarly American execution method. Shouting Pg mo thin (Kiss my ass in Gaelic), he grinned as electricity shot through his system. When the current was switched off, his body slumped against the leather restraints, and Gleeson, who had strangled two fellow inmates to ensure his execution was not postponed, was dead. The execution had gone flawlesslynot a guaranteed result with the electric chair, which has gone horrifically wrong on many occasions.Old Sparky covers the history of capital punishment in America and the current wars between Edison and Westinghouse that led to the development of the electric chair. It examines how the electric chair became the most popular method of execution in America before being superseded by lethal injection. Famous executions are explored, alongside quirky last meals and poignant last words.The death penalty remains a hot topic of debate in America, and Old Sparky does not shy away from that controversy. Executions have gone spectacularly wrong, with convicts being set alight or needing up to five jolts of electricity before dying. There have been terrible miscarriages of justice, and the death penalty has not been applied even-handedly. Historically, African Americans, the mentally challenged, and poor defendants have been likely to get the chair, an anomaly which led the Supreme Court to briefly suspend the death penalty. Since the resumption of capital punishment in 1976, Texas alone has executed more than five hundred prisoners, and death row is full.

Autor

Anthony Galvin is a highly experienced crime journalist. His account of the Limerick (Ireland) drug war, Family Feud: Gangland Limerick Exposed, was Ireland’s top selling non-fiction book of 2004, and the most shoplifted book in Irish publishing history. He is also the author The Great Polar Fraud as well as a dozen other books on a variety of subjects, many in the true crime genre. He spent a decade working as a crime reporter for a daily newspaper and now writes full-time. He lives in southern Ireland.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.6.2015
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Öffentliches Recht ► Verfassungsrecht
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Strafverfahrensrecht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: 1400 • 1880s • America • beheading • books on 1880s • books on beheadings • books on criminal justices • books on criminals • books on death penalty cases • books on death rows • books on gaines • books on meals • books on moratoria • books on particularly britains • books on quotients books on h • books on research data • books on societies • books on sparky • books on tempers • books on textbooks • books on volts • botched • Britain • bull • Capital punishment • Civilizations • civilized countries • Condemned • criminal justice • criminals • death penalty cases • Death Row • dispassionate tone • Ditto • Edison • electrical dissuade • executes • executioner • executions • execution styles • factors affect • firing squad • gaines • gallows humour • galvin • Gentility • Guillotine • Humane • lethal injection • light-hearted • Meals • Moratorium • morbid curiosity • narrows • particularly britain • perfecting • quarrels • quickly travels • Quotient • reinstatement • research data • row inmates • sentenced • Societies • sparky • swayed • tempers • Textbook • unbiased • uniquely american • United States • volts • wrongly convicted
• ISBN-10: 1-63144-029-2 / 1631440292
• ISBN-13: 978-1-63144-029-8 / 9781631440298