NC Lawmaker Calls For Return Of Electric Chair

North Carolina Rep. Justin Burr says he thinks that the electric chair should once again be used in death penalty cases.

The Republican congressman shared his thoughts on the execution method through his Facebook page on Aug. 29, according to Spectrum News:

North Carolina’s Electric Chair from death row. The chair was originally used to put inmates to death by electrocution. After North Carolina switched to executing inmates by lethal gas, the chair was converted and put to use in the gas chamber until the late 1990s. Justice was served to nearly 200 convicted murders in this chair. The chair has been in the possession of our state history museum since 2000. I think it’s time to put it back to work.

Burr reported that he has been hard at work on legislation that would bring the death penalty back to North Carolina. There has not been an execution in the state for more than a decade.

“I want the death penalty to be used again in North Carolina, to stop the attempts to delay justice for victims and their families,” said Burr, according to News Observer.

Burr is also an outspoken supporter of a controversial North Carolina House bill that, in certain cases, would grant civil immunity to drivers who injure people demonstrating in roadways, according to Truthout. House Bill 330, originally passed in April, drew renewed criticism after a protester was killed and 19 others were injured during an Aug. 12 vehicular attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A group of North Carolina lawmakers, including Burr, released a statement on the bill on Aug. 14:

It is intellectually dishonest and a gross mischaracterization to portray North Carolina House Bill 330 as a protection measure for the act of violence that occurred in Charlottesville this past weekend. Any individual who committed a deliberate or willful act, such as what happened this weekend in Charlottesville, would face appropriately severe criminal and civil liabilities. The one-page bill is tightly tailored to protect innocent drivers exercising due care from individuals from blocking a public street or highway while respecting the right to protest according to the 1st Amendment.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been largely critical of HB 330.

“It’s saying that somebody who’s driving who hits a protester wouldn’t be civilly liable for that action if the protester is in the street without a permit,” said Susanna Birdsong, a representative of the North Carolina ACLU. “That has the potential to do a lot of damage to people’s inclination to protest.”  

Sources: News Observer, Truthout, Spectrum News / Featured Image: North Carolina National Guard/Flickr / Embedded Images: Mr.TinDC/Flickr, Government & Heritage Library, State Library of NC/Flickr