The upright jerker was an
execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...
method and device intermittently used in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
during the 19th and early 20th century. Intended to replace
hanging
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
s, the upright jerker did not see widespread use and was phased out in the 1930s.
As in a hanging, a cord would be wrapped around the neck of the condemned. However, rather than dropping down through a trapdoor, the condemned would be violently jerked into the air by means of a system of weights and pulleys. The objective of this execution method was to provide a swift death by breaking the condemned's neck.
The warden of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield, Jabez L. Woodbridge, obtained , issued on June 18, 1895, for one such "automatic gallows".
Executions of this type took place in several U.S. states, notably
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
, where among others murderer and gang member
Gerald Chapman was put to death by the method. The upright jerker was never very efficient at breaking the condemned's neck. Instead, the condemned would often be strangled. In one such case, a man by the name of
James Stephens was left contorting and gurgling for minutes until he finally died of asphyxiation.
See also
*
Capital punishment in Connecticut
Capital punishment in Connecticut formerly existed as an available sanction for a criminal defendant upon conviction for the commission of a capital offense. Since the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision in ''Gregg v. Georgia'' until Conne ...
References
Execution methods
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