Chapter 115. To prescribe the method of capital punishment in the District of Columbia
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CHAP. 115.— An Act To prescribe the method of capital punishment in the District of Columbia. January 30, 1925.[[S. 387](/us/bill/68/s/387).][[Public, No. 348](/us/pl/68/348).] *Be it enacted by the, Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * District of Columbia.Electrocution to be mode of capital punishment in. That hereafter the mode of capital punishment in the District of Columbia shall be by the process commonly known as electrocution.
The punishment of death shall be inflicted by causing to pass through the body of the convict a current of electricity of sufficient intensity to cause death, and the application of such current shall be continued until such convict is dead. 799 Sec. 2. That the Commissioners of the District of Columbia are Death chamber, apparatus, etc., to be provided.*Post*, p. 1322.authorized and required, on the approval of this Act by the President, to provide a death chamber and necessary apparatus for inflicting the death penalty by electrocution, to pay the cost thereof out of any funds hereafter appropriated, to designate an executioner and necessary assistants, not exceeding three in number, and to fix the fees thereof for services, which shall be paid out of any funds hereafter appropriated.
Sec. 3. That upon the conviction of any person in the District Sentence to be in writing.of Columbia of a crime the punishment of which is death, it shall be the duty of the presiding judge to sentence such convicted person to death according to the terms of this Act, and to make such sentence in writing, which shall be filed with the papers in the case against such convicted person, and a certified copy thereof shall be Transmission to superintendent of the jail.transmitted, by the clerk of the court in which such sentence is pronounced, to the superintendent of the District Jail, not less than ten days prior to the time fixed in the sentence of the court for the execution of the same.
Sec. 4. That at the execution of the death penalty as herein prescribed Limitation of persons to be present at the execution.there shall be present the following persons, and no more, to wit: The executioner and his assistant; the physician of the prison and one other physician if the condemned person so desires; the condemned person’s counsel and relatives, not exceeding three, if they so desire; the prison chaplain and such other ministers of the Gospel, not exceeding two, as may attend by desire of the condemned; the superintendent of the prison, or, in the event of his disability, a deputy designated by him; and not fewer than three nor more than five respectable citizens whom the superintendent of the prison shall designate, and, if necessary to insure their attendance, shall subpoena to be present.
The fact of execution shall be certified by the prison Certificate to be filed.physician and the executioner to the clerk of the court in which sentence was pronounced, which certificate shall be filed by the clerk with the papers in the case. Sec. 5. That all Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act Inconsistent laws repealed.Vol. 31, p. 1379, repealed.are hereby repealed. Approved, January 30, 1925.