Yes, they still use the electric chair, though rarely. Nine states currently authorize electrocution as an execution method, and in every one of them lethal injection is the default; the electric chair is available only when the condemned person chooses it or when lethal injection is unavailable. The most recent electrocution in the United States was Nicholas Todd Sutton’s on February 20, 2020, in Tennessee.
Which States Still Authorize the Electric Chair
Nine states keep electrocution on the books: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The statutes fall into two groups depending on how a person ends up in the chair.
States Where the Condemned Person Can Choose It
Alabama lets a condemned person elect electrocution instead of lethal injection. The choice has to be made in writing to the warden within 30 days after the Alabama Supreme Court affirms the death sentence. Silence means lethal injection.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-18-82.1 – Methods of Execution; Election of Method; Constitutionality
Florida works the same way. A single written request to the warden, filed within 30 days after the Florida Supreme Court issues its mandate, is the only path to the electric chair. Otherwise, lethal injection.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 922.105 – Execution of Death Sentence
Kentucky restricts the choice to people whose crimes were committed before March 31, 1998. Those individuals can pick between lethal injection and electrocution; without a choice at least 20 days before the execution, the default is lethal injection.3Justia. Kentucky Revised Statutes 431.220 – Execution of Death Sentence
Tennessee draws a similar line. Anyone whose capital offense predates January 1, 1999, may sign a written waiver choosing the electric chair.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection – Election of Electrocution – Electrocution as Alternative Method
States Where It Is the Fallback
South Carolina flipped its default in 2021 after drug companies refused to sell lethal injection chemicals to the state. Under current law, electrocution is used unless the condemned person affirmatively picks a firing squad or lethal injection (when available), with the choice submitted in writing 14 days before the execution date.5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty; Methods of Execution
Arkansas allows electrocution only if a final, unappealable court order invalidates lethal injection.6Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-617 – Method of Execution
Oklahoma puts the chair third in line. Lethal injection is the first method; nitrogen hypoxia is the fallback if lethal injection is unconstitutional or unavailable; electrocution is reached only if both of those are also unavailable or ruled out.7Justia. Oklahoma Code 22-1014 – Manner of Inflicting Punishment of Death
Tennessee’s statute also has a fallback that operates independently of inmate choice. If a court declares lethal injection unconstitutional, or if the commissioner of correction certifies that the drugs cannot be obtained despite reasonable efforts, electrocution becomes the method for all condemned prisoners regardless of offense date.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection – Election of Electrocution – Electrocution as Alternative Method
Mississippi gives its corrections commissioner discretion to choose from lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, or firing squad. Lethal injection is the preferred method under state policy.8Justia. Mississippi Code 99-19-51 – Manner of Execution of Death Sentence
Louisiana added electrocution as an authorized method effective July 1, 2024, alongside lethal injection and nitrogen hypoxia.
Why the Electric Chair Is Still on the Books
Lethal injection drugs have become extremely hard to obtain. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have increasingly blocked sales for use in executions, and state legislatures have responded by keeping older methods available as insurance.
South Carolina is the clearest example. For years the state could not carry out any executions because it had no drugs and no inmate would voluntarily choose the electric chair. In 2021 the legislature flipped the default so that electrocution would be used unless the condemned person picked something else.5South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 24-3-530 – Death Penalty; Methods of Execution
Other statutes address the same problem directly. Tennessee triggers a switch to electrocution once the corrections commissioner certifies that lethal injection drugs cannot be procured.4Justia. Tennessee Code 40-23-114 – Death by Lethal Injection – Election of Electrocution – Electrocution as Alternative Method7Justia. Oklahoma Code 22-1014 – Manner of Inflicting Punishment of Death6Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-617 – Method of Execution Alabama’s law goes one step further: if electrocution, nitrogen hypoxia, and lethal injection are all ruled unconstitutional, the corrections commissioner can pick any constitutional method.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-18-82.1 – Methods of Execution; Election of Method; Constitutionality
Have Courts Ended Electrocution
Not nationally. The U.S. Supreme Court has never held that electrocution violates the Eighth Amendment, and its 2019 decision in Bucklew v. Precythe makes challenges to any single method difficult: the inmate has to identify a feasible and readily implemented alternative that would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain, and show the state has refused to adopt it without a legitimate reason.9Supreme Court of the United States. Bucklew v. Precythe, No. 17-8151 (2019)
Two state supreme courts have struck down the electric chair under their own constitutions. Georgia did so in Dawson v. State in 2001.10Justia. Dawson v. State, 2001 Nebraska followed in 2008 in State v. Mata, holding that electrocution “inflicts intense pain and agonizing suffering” and violates the state constitution.11Justia. State v. Mata, 2008 Because both decisions rest on state constitutional grounds, they bind only Georgia and Nebraska.
How Often It Actually Happens
Rarely. Electrocutions have been unusual since 2000. Nicholas Todd Sutton’s execution in Tennessee on February 20, 2020, was the most recent, and he had chosen electrocution over lethal injection. The other electrocutions in recent decades have almost all involved inmates who elected the method.
The gap between legal authorization and actual use is wide. Most of the nine states with electrocution statutes have not used the chair in years, and some have never used it under their current laws. South Carolina made electrocution its default in 2021, but as of early 2025 no one had been executed by electric chair under that framework. Virginia, which had used the chair as recently as 2013, abolished the death penalty entirely in March 2021.
The electric chair now occupies an unusual place in American law: kept alive on statute books as a hedge against drug shortages and court rulings, but almost never the method actually used to carry out a death sentence.