Free to choose how they will die

Will: [My father] used to just put a belt, a stick and a wrench on the kitchen table and say, "Choose."
Sean: Well, I gotta go with the belt there.
Will: I used to go with the wrench.
Sean: Why?
Will: 'Cause fuck him, that's why.
--Good Will Hunting

RECENTLY, THE Commonwealth of Virginia killed Larry Bill Elliott. Virginia offers prisoners a choice between lethal injection and electrocution as their method of execution, and Elliott chose the electric chair. Virginia is one of small number of states, all in the South, that still use the electric chair.

Most states began to abandon the practice in the late 1980s as a series of botched and gruesome executions fueled legal efforts to challenge the practice as "cruel and unusual." Incidents like Florida's 1990 burning of Jesse Tafero created the fear among death penalty advocates that the U.S. Supreme Court might put a halt to electrocutions. Soon, even states that strung people from the gallows or poisoned them with gas were adopting lethal injection.

Some states, like Maryland and Arizona, grandfathered in their previous use of the gas chamber, making prisoners sentenced under the old law choose which form of death they prefer. Both Ricky Sanderson and Walter LeGrand chose the gas chamber in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Delaware allowed prisoners convicted before 1986 to choose hanging, and so, in 1996, the state hung Bill Bailey.

States like Virginia, Alabama and Florida continue to give prisoners a "choice" between electrocution and lethal injection--and Illinois keeps its electric chair operational as insurance against any ruling that might make lethal injections illegal.

Of course, lethal injection has not been without problems. Innovators in killing, Texas and Oklahoma adopted lethal injections in 1977 and began trying out the new method in 1982. Following their lead, states simply mapped established protocols without much thought or review--until, again, a series of botched lethal injections, most notably, the 2006 torture death of Florida's Angel Diaz, drew national attention to this supposedly "humane" method of killing.

In 2006, Virginia prisoner Brandon Hedrick opted to die by the state's electric chair. Reports at the time indicated Hedrick was concerned he might be subjected to undue suffering if he chose lethal injection. Following suit, Tennesee's Daryl Holton chose electrocution in 2007, as did South Carolina's James Earl Reed in 2008.

Why would Elliott, or any prisoner for that matter, willfully choose uglier and more violent methods of execution? Some are volunteers for the death chamber, filled with guilt and self-hatred, and the state is simply providing an elaborate form of assisted suicide. Others suffer severe mental illness, and it isn't clear if they understand the consequences of their actions.

Finally, others make this terrible choice, because to paraphrase to quote the movie character Will Hunting: "Fuck 'em."