Dispute Over Fiery Death Idles Florida Electric Chair : Capital punishment: A May execution required three jolts. Defense attorneys have taken the matter to court, halting use of ‘Old Sparky.’

“Old Sparky,” the three-legged, oaken electric chair that Florida has used since 1924, is itself now on trial as an alleged instrument of torture.

For nearly three months, the lethal appliance has been inactive as courts hear evidence about whether Sparky kills instantaneously--or rather torments the condemned.

Impatient at the delays, corrections officials today will gather experts to test the chair’s voltage at Florida State Prison near the town of Starke.

However the matter is resolved, the result concerns each of the 13 states using the devices. It is not uncommon for electrocution to require two or even three flips of the switch.

Sparky’s efficiency came into question after it took its 218th life on May 4. Smoke and flames lifted from cop killer Jesse Tafero’s head as he sighed and quivered. The punishment required three jolts and seven minutes.

Florida officials have since insisted that the cause of the protracted death was the mistaken use of a brine-soaked synthetic sponge to conduct the electricity into the chair’s head gear. Usually, natural sponge is employed.

But defense attorneys claim that the fiery electrocution was not the only instance of the chair’s malfunction--only the worst. They blame a faulty electrode and say the ghastly burning will inevitably be repeated.

“Even if it doesn’t happen in the next case, it’s bound to happen again,” said Larry Spalding, a lawyer with a state agency that represents indigent Death Row inmates. “The evidence is that the first voltage doesn’t do the job. We think Tafero got 200 volts instead of the needed 2,000.

“Why don’t they just fix the thing? Even if their position is that it isn’t a problem, they ought to simply replace the electrode and then we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.”

Among experts brought in to testify is Fred Leuchter, a Boston electrician who builds and repairs the chairs. “The first jolt is supposed to destroy all the pain centers and it ought to work 24 times faster than the central nervous system can record pain,” he said.

“But Florida has needed a new electrode for a long time, and their chair is not giving off enough juice for brain death. For at least a half minute, Mr. Tafero felt excruciating pain. There can be no question of that.”

The chair does not have an affixed headpiece, as electric chairs are often pictured. The condemned wears a detachable leather skull cap with wire mesh underneath. A sponge soaked in conductor is sewn to the mesh. The cap is then linked to a power source with a nut and bolt.

Just before execution, the condemned is strapped tightly to the chair; a gag is inserted in the mouth. A second electrode is fastened to the right calf. With the power surge, there is slight burning at the points of connection. Red spots on the corpse’s scalp and leg are expected.

But now the Tafero death has provoked renewed interest in the mechanics of capital punishment, attention usually reserved for questions of morality and fairness. The matter has prompted state Sen. Larry Plummer, a Miami funeral director, to review the autopsy photos of 20 men among Sparky’s toll.

“In all cases there was torture,” Plummer concluded. “If what we’re trying to do is take the barbarians out of society, do we, too, have to show that we’re barbarians? Why don’t we just cut off their heads like Genghis Khan and play polo with them?”

Plummer, who supports the death penalty, is chairman of the Senate Corrections, Parole and Probation Committee. He has proposed that Florida change its method of execution to lethal injection.

“I don’t know that the bill has much chance,” he said. “Frankly, the news that the electric chair actually hurts is an appealing thought to a lot of people. They probably think that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.”