Prisoner 3189: 22 years old, 5ft 10in tall, 160lbs. Execution by electric chair.
For 2013 the State has reintroduced the original style electric chair, in which the death cap is replaced by an electrode against the condemned man's back, making contact through a slit cut in the back of the prison overalls.
The new State Governer was elected on the slogan 'Punishment Means Punishment'. He expressed his anger that electric chair execution had become too humane, since it was believed that the electric current through the head caused almost instant unconsciousness. He persuaded the public that such an easy death was too good for the criminal scum that filled up the prisons.
The revised chair is intended to ensure that the prisoner will be fully conscious until his heart fails and that he will feel all the cramps and spasms as the voltage reacts against his muscles. Special computer control of the current is designed to prolong the process of execution. The absence of a hood and mask also allows the onlookers, including a prime-time TV audience, to see the expressions of fear and agony on the dying man's face.
The Governor believes that the changed execution protocol will enhance the deterrent effect of the punishment and achieve his promise of crime reduction.
Prisoner 3189 is to be executed at 00:05. He was strapped into the chair at 23:45. It is part of the process that the prisoner should have time to contemplate his crime, to feel his helplessness, and to imagine the pain that is to come.
The straps hold him fast. That around his chest is so tight he can only take shallow breaths. The electrodes, and their pads soaked with saline solution, are cold against his back and his shaved left calf. He is looking across at the executioner, who grins as he readies the control panel. The generator is humming smoothly. Beside the executioner is a wall phone, where any message of reprieve would be received. The phone is conspicuously unplugged.
In just over three minutes the executioner will throw the switch.
The computer will begin its programme with pulses of electricity. Initially these are synchronous with the prisoner's heartbeat. They are designed to create pain, rather than to kill. Prisoner 3189 will feel sensations like those of being alternately whipped and beaten, together with deep muscle cramps throughout his body. His body will jerk and strain against the straps uncontrollably. At first he will be able to draw breath, and will scream repeatedly, his sweat-slick face contorted with pain,
After five minutes, a one minute break is written into the programme. Prisoner 3189 will still be conscious at this point. Trembling and bathed in sweat, he will have time to feel his whole body aching and bruised, will see the trickles of blood where the tight straps have abraded his wrists, and will sense the skin burns at the electrodes. He will have a chance to look around at the audience, and he may beg for the release of death.
The audience are likely to note a bulge in the prison overalls. Almost all men so far executed in the new chair have developed a powerful erection. The Governor expressed some concern that the punishment might be diminished by sexual pleasure. A volunteer, however, was found to take a ride on the chair for the first, non lethal, stage. He reported that the erection seemed to be a side-effect of the current flows. Far from being pleasurable, he said it was an added torture, his over-inflated cock a searing pain and his balls aching like they'd been hit by a baseball bat.
The next jolts of electricity are more powerful. They paralyse the chest muscles so the prisoner cannot breathe while the current flows. He cannot scream. There is an eerie silence but for the hum of the generator and the creak of the chair as the quivering body strains against the unforgiving straps. The prisoner stares wildly, his face a rictus of agony, fully conscious yet consumed by an unimaginable pain. Under computer control the process is finely tuned to cease just before consciousness is lost. Sensors built in to the back electrode monitor the heart and provide stimulating shocks to keep it functioning.
The chair provides for a cycle of punishment shocks, programmed according to the seriousness of the crime and the strength of the condemned man, up to half an hour.
At the end of the cycle, the frequency of the current is changed to enhance its heating effect, for final execution. The prisoner experiences a burning sensation strongest at the electrodes, and also, for some physiological reason not yet fully understood, in the region of his groin. During this final segment of the execution, the prisoner's face darkens and his eyes bulge, but it is clear that he is still aware of the destruction of his body. He can feel himself being fried alive. It is said that some men, even in their terminal horror and agony, have been seen to look down at first the smoke, and then the flames, that are destroying their manhood, before slumping back.
Death comes soon after the body begins to combust.
The Governor likes to say, at the after-execution party, how good it is to see criminals being given a first taste of the Hell fire they are to endure for eternity.
Nice chap, the Governor.
