Nine states still use the electric chair as an authorized method of execution: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In most of them, electrocution is a backup or an option the condemned person can choose rather than the primary method. South Carolina is the exception. The last person actually executed in the chair was Nicholas Todd Sutton, put to death in Tennessee on February 20, 2020.
Three Roles the Electric Chair Plays
The nine states don’t use electrocution the same way, and the differences decide whether the chair ever gets switched on.
- In Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the condemned person can elect electrocution over lethal injection. Kentucky and Tennessee limit that choice to older cases.
- In Arkansas and Oklahoma, electrocution is a pure fallback that activates only if a court strikes down lethal injection. Mississippi gives its corrections commissioner discretion to pick among several methods.
- South Carolina makes electrocution the default. The inmate has to opt out.
- Louisiana, which added the chair in 2024, lets its corrections secretary choose among lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, and electrocution with no ranking among them.
States Where the Condemned Person Can Choose Electrocution
Four states offer the chair as an elective. Each sets its own deadline, and missing it waives the choice.
Florida
Every person sentenced to death in Florida gets one opportunity to elect electrocution. The election must be in writing and delivered to the warden within 30 days after the Florida Supreme Court issues the mandate affirming the death sentence.1Florida Legislature. Florida Code 922.105 – Execution of Death Sentence Miss the window and the right is permanently waived; the execution proceeds by lethal injection.
Alabama
Alabama works similarly, except the condemned person is choosing among three methods. The written election of electrocution or nitrogen hypoxia must reach the warden within 30 days after the Alabama Supreme Court issues its certificate of judgment affirming the sentence.2Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-18-82.1 – Methods of Execution; Election of Method; Constitutionality Without a timely election, the method is lethal injection.
Kentucky
Kentucky restricts the choice sharply. Only people sentenced to death before March 31, 1998, may choose between lethal injection and electrocution. Everyone sentenced after that date gets lethal injection with no alternative. For those who qualify, the choice must be made at least 20 days before the scheduled execution, and refusing to choose defaults to lethal injection.3Justia. Kentucky Code 431.220 – Execution of Death Sentence
Tennessee
Tennessee draws a similar line but around a different date. Only people whose offense was committed before January 1, 1999, may elect electrocution by signing a written waiver of their right to lethal injection.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection – Election of Electrocution Everyone else is executed by lethal injection. The pool of eligible inmates shrinks every year.
South Carolina: Electrocution as the Default
South Carolina reverses the usual arrangement. Under a 2021 law, electrocution is the default method of execution. The condemned person may elect firing squad or lethal injection instead, but only by filing a written election at least 14 days before the execution date. Anyone who waives the choice or misses the deadline is executed in the chair.5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty; Methods of Execution
Lethal injection carries a catch under the same statute: it’s available only “if it is available at the time of election.”5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty; Methods of Execution If the corrections director certifies that drugs can’t be obtained, or a court invalidates the method, the execution proceeds by electrocution unless the person has chosen the firing squad. In 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the law, rejecting arguments that electrocution and firing squads violate the state constitution’s ban on cruel punishment.
States Where Electrocution Is a Fallback
Three states keep the chair on the books only as a contingency. The condemned person has no say; something else has to go wrong first.
Arkansas
Arkansas authorizes electrocution only if lethal injection is “invalidated by a final and unappealable court order.”6Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-617 – Method of Execution A temporary drug shortage doesn’t trigger the switch. The provision is one of the narrowest among the nine states.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma lays out a three-step hierarchy by statute. Lethal injection is primary. If an appellate court holds it unconstitutional, the method shifts to electrocution. If both are struck down, execution proceeds by firing squad.7Oklahoma Legislature. Oklahoma Code 22-1014 – Punishment of Death Like Arkansas, the trigger is a court ruling, not a supply problem.
Mississippi
Mississippi hands the choice to the state’s corrections commissioner, who may select lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, or firing squad. State policy calls lethal injection the “preferred” method, but the statute doesn’t require the commissioner to exhaust other options before turning to the chair.8Justia. Mississippi Code 99-19-51 – Manner of Execution of Death Sentence
Louisiana: The Newest to Add the Chair
Louisiana became the most recent state to authorize electrocution when it amended its execution statute effective July 1, 2024. The law gives the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections discretion to choose among lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, and electrocution “with no preference to the method of execution.”9Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:569 – Method of Execution Before the amendment, the state authorized only lethal injection.
Why the Electric Chair Is Still Authorized
The reason a 19th-century technology remains on the books in nine states is pharmaceutical supply. Major drug manufacturers have restricted distribution to prevent their products from being used in executions. European Union export regulations limit the sale of key chemicals to American corrections departments. Many compounding pharmacies refuse to fill execution orders.
The shortages have real consequences. South Carolina went 13 years without carrying out an execution, partly because it couldn’t obtain the drugs, and that drought directly led to the 2021 law making electrocution the default. Other states have passed secrecy laws shielding the identity of drug suppliers to protect their supply chains. As long as lethal injection drugs remain hard to obtain, states have little reason to repeal their backup methods.
How Often the Electric Chair Is Actually Used
Rarely. The last electrocution in the United States was Nicholas Todd Sutton’s in Tennessee in February 2020. Since 2000, electrocutions have been carried out only a handful of times, almost always because the condemned person chose the method over lethal injection. States that authorize the chair solely as a fallback have generally not had to invoke that provision, because courts have not struck down lethal injection.
Rarity doesn’t mean the equipment is retired. States that keep electrocution authorized keep the equipment operational, with scheduled testing and staff training built into their protocols. The handful of states that still authorize the chair have made a deliberate choice to keep it ready rather than let it quietly lapse.
Where the Courts Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court has never squarely ruled that electrocution violates the Eighth Amendment. Its modern guidance on execution methods comes from lethal injection cases, which require a challenger to identify a known, available alternative that substantially reduces the risk of serious pain. That is a high bar for anyone challenging the chair, especially where the condemned person chose it. At the state level, the most significant recent ruling is the South Carolina Supreme Court’s 2024 decision upholding electrocution and the firing squad under the state constitution. No state supreme court has struck down electrocution as unconstitutional in recent years.