Jerry White (criminal)
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Jerry White (February 12, 1948 – December 4, 1995) was executed by electric chair by the state of Florida in 1995 for the murder of James Melson, a shopper in an Orange County grocery store that White was robbing. Melson was shot in the back of the head. According to the state of Florida, White committed this crime on March 8, 1981; he was sentenced on May 4, 1981, and he entered prison on May 4, 1982, where he spent thirteen years before his death.
In 1999, the state of Florida heard a petition from Thomas Harrison Provenzano, another Death Row inmate, that argued that the electric chair was a cruel and unusual punishment. During the proceedings, Michael Minerva, who had witnessed White's execution, said that "White's body stiffened and was thrust upward and backward to the back of the electric chair" after the current had been switched on to the chair. He also said that he heard air moving through White's lips and throat, though he could not tell whether the air was going in or out.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Execution list of the State of Florida from 1976 to the present
- Floridians for alternatives to the death penalty: list of executions
- August 3, 1999 Order Upholding Constitutionality of the Electric Chair
- Florida Executes Molester-Killer of a Young Boy. The New York Times (1995-12-06). Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
