- October 5

Georgia Court Rules Electric Chair Unconstitutional

By Paul Simao

 ATLANTA  - Georgia's highest court on Friday ruled that the use of the electric chair to execute condemned inmates was unconstitutional and ordered the state to use lethal injection in all future executions.

 In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Georgia said that death by electrocution inflicted needless physical violence and mutilation on inmates, violating protections against cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S. and Georgia constitutions.

 ``We hold that death by electrocution, with its specter of excruciating pain and its certainty of cooked brains and blistered bodies, violates the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment...'' Justice Carol Hunstein wrote in the ruling.

 The decision was a victory for lawyers who earlier this year had argued before lower courts in Georgia that the electric chair was barbaric and should be abolished.

 But in a strongly worded dissent, Justice Hugh Thompson said that the ruling did not represent any change in the standards of decency of the Georgia public, but instead reflected the evolving opinions of a majority of the members of the court.

 ``However tempted, however much they may dislike a law, courts should not use judicial power to transform their preferences into constitutional mandates,'' Thompson said in his dissent.

 The court, however, acknowledged that its decision did not have any impact on the constitutionality of capital punishment in Georgia, where support for the death penalty is strong among both Republicans and Democrats.

 Georgia, which has not carried out an execution since 1998, recently abolished the use of the electric chair for capital crimes committed after May 1, 2000, substituting lethal injections.

 There are 128 prisoners currently on Georgia's death row.

 The ruling on Friday left Alabama and Nebraska as the only states that still rely solely on electrocution to execute inmates. The other 35 states with the death penalty use lethal injection or give the inmate a choice in deciding the method of execution.