Yes, the electric chair is still used in the United States, though barely. Nine states keep electrocution on the books as a legal method of execution, but almost no one is put to death that way anymore. The last electrocution in the country was Nicholas Todd Sutton’s execution in Tennessee on February 20, 2020.1Death Penalty Information Center. Botched Executions
The Nine States That Still Authorize Electrocution
Electrocution remains a legally authorized method of execution in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.2Death Penalty Information Center. Authorized Methods by State All nine are in the South. Louisiana is the newest, having added electrocution alongside lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia effective July 1, 2024; the state’s corrections secretary chooses which method to use.3Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:569 – Method of Execution
Appearing on this list doesn’t mean the chair is interchangeable from state to state. In some places an inmate has to affirmatively pick it. In others it only activates if another method fails. In one state, it’s the default.
How the Chair Actually Functions in Each State
States Where the Inmate Chooses
In Alabama and Florida, lethal injection is the default. An inmate can request electrocution instead by submitting a written request to the warden within 30 days of the court’s judgment affirming the death sentence. Alabama also offers nitrogen hypoxia. Silence from the inmate means lethal injection.2Death Penalty Information Center. Authorized Methods by State
Kentucky and Tennessee use a cutoff date. In Kentucky, anyone convicted after March 31, 1998, gets lethal injection; anyone whose offense predates that date can pick the chair, with a 20-day window before the scheduled execution.2Death Penalty Information Center. Authorized Methods by State Tennessee’s line is January 1, 1999; inmates whose offenses came before that date can waive lethal injection and choose electrocution.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection The number of inmates eligible to make that choice shrinks every year.
States Where the Chair Is a Backup
Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee treat electrocution as a fallback. In Arkansas, the chair takes over if lethal injection is invalidated by a final court order that can no longer be appealed.5Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-617 – Method of Execution Mississippi and Oklahoma put it third in line, behind lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia, available only if the first two are ruled unconstitutional or become unavailable.2Death Penalty Information Center. Authorized Methods by State Tennessee also allows the chair as a backup when the corrections commissioner certifies that lethal injection cannot be carried out despite reasonable efforts.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection
South Carolina, Where the Chair Is the Default
South Carolina is the only state where electrocution is the primary method. Under S.C. Code ยง 24-3-530, a person sentenced to death is executed by electrocution unless they affirmatively choose a firing squad or lethal injection (and lethal injection is only available if the drugs are on hand). An inmate who waives the choice gets the chair.6South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty Methods of Execution
The legislature put this scheme in place in 2021 to end a decade-long pause in executions. The state could not obtain lethal injection drugs, and under the previous framework inmates could effectively block their own execution by selecting a method the state had no way to carry out. Making the chair the default and adding a firing squad option guaranteed that at least one method would always be available.
Why the Chair Hasn’t Gone Away
The electric chair’s continued presence in state law has less to do with any revival of enthusiasm for electrocution and more to do with lethal injection breaking down. The European Union banned the export of execution drugs, and American pharmaceutical companies stopped manufacturing them for that use. States that wanted to carry out court-ordered death sentences had to find another way.
Several states added nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama used it for the first time in January 2024. Other states kept the chair operational as insurance, and South Carolina went further and made it the default. The chair survives because lethal injection became unreliable, not because states prefer it.
The shortage also shapes constitutional challenges. Under the Supreme Court’s framework in Glossip v. Gross, an inmate challenging an execution method has to identify a known and available alternative that would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain.7Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Glossip v. Gross, 576 U.S. 863 (2015) When drugs are not available and nitrogen hypoxia isn’t on the state’s books, that alternative is hard to come up with.
How Often It’s Actually Used
Rarely. Nicholas Todd Sutton’s February 20, 2020 execution in Tennessee remains the most recent in the country. For context, more than 4,370 electrocutions were carried out in the United States between 1890 and 2010, but the vast majority happened before lethal injection became the dominant method in the 1980s and 1990s.1Death Penalty Information Center. Botched Executions Today the chair functions mostly as a legal backstop.
Has Any Court Struck It Down?
Not at the federal level. The U.S. Supreme Court has never held that electrocution violates the Eighth Amendment. Under Baze v. Rees (2008), an execution method is unconstitutional only if it presents a substantial or objectively intolerable risk of serious harm,8Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008) and Glossip adds the requirement that the inmate propose a feasible alternative.7Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Glossip v. Gross, 576 U.S. 863 (2015) That is a high bar.
State courts can go further under their own constitutions. The Nebraska Supreme Court did exactly that in State v. Mata (2008), finding that electrocution “unnecessarily inflicts unacceptable pain and suffering” and striking it down under the state constitution.9Justia. State v. Mata At the time, Nebraska was the last state where electrocution was the only authorized method; the governor then signed a bill replacing it with lethal injection.10Death Penalty Information Center. Nebraska Governor Signs Bill Changing Method of Execution to Lethal Injection No other state supreme court has followed, which is why the chair is still a lawful option in the nine states that keep it on the books.