Killer Dies in Florida’s Controversial Electric Chair

A killer who stabbed, raped and robbed a woman was executed Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected claims that Florida’s electric chair was not working properly.

The execution of Anthony Bertolotti, 38, was the first since the chair malfunctioned in May. It was carried out without any sign of problems, Gov. Bob Martinez’s office reported.

The Supreme Court rejected Bertolotti’s last appeal about 30 minutes before he died. The nation’s highest court had upheld a ruling earlier in the day by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which agreed with an Orlando federal judge’s ruling that the chair’s 2,000 volts “are sufficient to cause painless termination of life.”

“It is gratifying that the courts concluded Florida’s electric chair does in fact work as it is designed to. That fact was borne out by extensive testing earlier this week, and the completion of this execution proves it conclusively,” Martinez said in Tallahassee.

The courts have delayed executions for five other Florida inmates because of claims by death penalty opponents and the inmates’ lawyers that the chair was a malfunctioning torture device that burned its victims alive. It was not clear what impact Bertolotti’s execution would have on their appeals.

In a botched May 4 execution, fire, smoke and sparks rose from Jesse Tafero’s head as the state’s executioner applied three surges of power before the inmate was declared dead.

Bertolotti was sentenced to die for the Sept. 27, 1983, murder of Carol Ward. She was working in her yard in Orange County, Fla., when Bertolotti asked to use the phone, and she let him in her home.