Aaron Mahnke

He was also illiterate and may have had intellectual disabilities.

In short, he was an easy scapegoat.

After two days of violent interrogation, Jackson confessed to the crime.

He later recanted that confession, and his lawyers even produced an alibi, but it didn't matter.

It took only an hour for the all-white jury to seal his fate.

On May 29th of 1928, Jackson was led to D.C.

's brand new electric chair.

Accompanied by a reverend, Jackson muttered the Lord's Prayer, continuing to pray even as his words were muffled by a leather mask.

The electricity surged to life, Jackson shuddered, and the chair was turned off.

And then, just like Kemmler, Jackson continued to breathe.

It took six total tries before Philip Jackson was finally dead.

One man who had been present for nearly 60 executions by hanging pronounced it, and I quote, "...the most horrible death he had ever seen a man die."

And the story repeated itself over and over again.

A corrupt justice system, the false promise of a humane death for a marginalized person who may or may not be guilty in the first place, a defective torture machine straight out of a horror movie...

And still, the electric chair has remained in use for over a century.

In December of 1955, two Black brothers, Willie and Clay Daniels, were executed via electric chair in South Carolina.

Willie's death went as planned, Clay's not so much.

Again, the articles that followed cried for reform, for humanity and mercy.

And one newspaper in particular believed that it had the answer to painless executions.

South Carolina, the headline read, needs a gas chamber.