Tennessee conducts first execution by electric chair in 47 years News
Tennessee conducts first execution by electric chair in 47 years

[JURIST] Tennessee [JURIST news archive] executed a condemned man by electric chair [Wikipedia backgrounder] on Wednesday, the first execution by electrocution in the state since 1960. Daryl Holton, who confessed to the 1997 murder of his three sons and their half-sister, chose to be electrocuted [Shelbyville Times-Gazette report] rather than to receive a lethal injection, Tennessee's usual method of execution. Tennessee law allows inmates to choose their method of death if their crime occurred before 1999 [TDC backgrounder].

According to a fact sheet [PDF text] distributed by the Death Penalty Information Center [advocacy website], 153 executions by electrocution have taken place in the US since 1976, with only 10 occurring since the turn of the century. Ten states currently authorize the use of electrocution [DPIC backgrounder], Nebraska being the only state that requires it. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.