William Kemmler: Execution By Electricity

William Kemmler
Execution by electricity has always been debatable since the time it was first used with the first victim, William Kemmler, to today. Many people around the world in 1890 did not have electricity. Because of this, the electric chair was new to almost all humans. During this time, many people had only heard of the little electrical things such as power streetcars and street lights. Murders were also a very uncommon thing to happen during this time. The crimes people do can never be explained, and some can never be forgiven, like William Kemmler, the first to be sentenced to death by the electric chair. Kemmler is a huge part in history. Being the first to get legally killed will always be a huge part in history, not only because

Crowds were disgusted at the foaming of the mouth, bloody sweat, and the twisting of man, moaning in pain. This meant the execution did not work. Not only did it not work the first time, but to finish Kemmler off, they basically fried his body by giving too much electricity than what was needed. Pathologists that reviewed Kemmler’s body said the reason he was burnt so bad is because he was not nervous at all (Kemmler’s Death). Not being nervous is not the problem, but the fact that he did not sweat made the electricity run through his body very slowly and only near the spots the electricity was placed. The autopsy on William Kemmler’s body was not a pleasurable site. “The rigor mortis (muscle stiffening after death) was so pronounced that Kemmler’s body remained fixed in a sitting position, even when laid on the dissecting table” (Ruddick). Many people say he deserved to get burnt to death, and some people say it would have been better to execute him in a different way such as hanging or beheading him. Also, an innovator of elctricity, George Westinghouse said, “They would’ve done better using an axe” (Kemmler’s Death). This was hard on the city of Auburn, New York. The huge debate on whether to legally kill someone was a huge part in all of the arguments that occurred in 1889-1890. The religious people were against this not only because it was killing someone, but the fact that they

Some people like Kemmler are never sorry for their mistakes. Kemmler showed no remorse for his killing. This action showed many people that not everyone will learn from their mistakes, which changed many aspects to the minds of the people against criminals. William Kemmler made many mistakes in his lifetime, but his last one, killing his wife, will never be forgiven or forgotten. The family of Matilda Zeigler will never forgive the terrible thing that William Kemmler did. Because Kemmler had a ghastly reputation, the family of Kemmler was very embarrassed by his actions. There were many terrible outcomes of the execution, which were very gruesome. The electric chair killed Kemmler in a very terrifying way. Many hope criminals learn from this mistake and will stop committing