Damn it’s my last three minutes alive and couldn’t control my bladder. I am angry with myself but try to rationalize that I am hardly the first to soil myself. I try to breathe deeply, savoring air while I still can but the tight thick straps about my neck and ribs make breathing difficult. All the straps are cinched painfully tight convincing me when I am electrocuted my body will involuntarily buck violently. The neck strap prevents me from lowering my head to hide my face from witnesses and cameras while all the straps relentless press me into the thick wood of the chair. The head electrodes press painfully against my skull.
To my left is the stainless steel gurney waiting for my soon-dead body. As I look at the wheeled table when the guard’s question ‘What happens if her eyes pop out’ rings in my head and I wonder if that will happen to me. I feel bile raising in my throat and I barely choke bake the vomit.
I can’t say I don’t deserve this- being executed that is; I did murder Joan Tree in premeditated cold blood- but I was prepared not for the prolonged ritual of mounting me to the chair nor the humiliation Jane Tree inflicted upon me. I sit strapped in the implement of my death as nearly cold air sweeps my bare breast. I may deserve to die but that offers no solace as the last seconds of my life tick away. My bowels churn and I squeeze my bottom tight trying to contain the eruption when I hear over the speaker “Miss Barbara Moore, you have convicted of the murder in the first degree of Joan Tree and have been sentenced to death for your crime. You waived your rights to all appeals. The governor of this great state has just affirmed the death sentence for your heinous crime. Execution team, perform your duty.
“Oh, God, no” I whimper.
Jane Tree looks the clock and at 1:00:50 AM commands “Fry the bitch!”
I hear the heavy copper switch as it glides down to complete the circuit. I jerk as I feel the current course over and through my body!
Barbara’s fingers and toes curl reflexively. For ten seconds electricity tortures her body and mind before the switch is opened. The first pull should have rendered her unconscious even if doesn’t stop her heart the first pull. When the switch is opened Barb slumps but instead of being unconscious she groans “Crap, is it over?”
Jane raises an eyebrow and says “pull it again.”
He does and leaves the circuit on for 30 seconds before opening it again yet Barb is only dazed but still conscious! While Jane doesn’t mind watching Barb suffer she knows something isn’t right. She rushes to the breaker box. Her eyes widen as she peers in and sees there is only one 120 volt breaker instead four 240 volt breakers. Barb is being hit with only 1/8 the voltage and amperage she is supposed to receive! Jane spots a second breaker lying in the bottom of electric box. As she works to place the breaker in the other leg of the circuit while Barb moans “Stop it! Please stop it!”
Jane slams the box door and pulls the switch again. Barb’s body strains against the straps and though the voltage and amperage is double what the first two served it was still only one fourth the electricity the chair was designed for. At one point Barb raises her head and opens her eyes. She looks to the window in the steel door and sees Siss looking back hopelessly.
Forty seconds into the order she begins to froth at mouth and drool.
Her head rolls to the right and she looks over at the witness room and sees the 12 official witnesses with their heads down knowing something has gone horribly wrong.
At a full minute Jane stops the third shock. She lifts Barb’s chin and finds Barb’s eyes open but unresponsive to light shown into them. She places the stethoscope on Barb’s chest and detects only weak but very irregular heartbeat. Joan pulls the switch down again and again Barb bucks in the straps but it is more from the electric stimulation of her muscles. Jane leaves the current flowing for well past a minute until smoke waifs from Barb’s head and from the back of her leg where the second electrode is strapped. Jane cuts the current and listens again for Barb’s heartbeat and finds none.
She presses the intercom button and announces “At 1:06:30 the prisoner is dead.”
The curtains are drawn over the chamber’s windows. Jane goes back to switch and pulls it one more time. She leaves the circuit one until she fears Barb’s body will begin to flame.
Tree
All done but the epilog…