After years of legal wrangling, the pace of executions quickens
One way or the other, it was bound to be Alpha Otis Stephens' last night. First he tried killing himself, during his last lonely hours in a cell, by slashing at one wrist with a safety razor. He bled only a little. Then, just after midnight, the state of Georgia undertook to kill him. The 39-year-old murderer, looking scared, was strapped into the electric chair, electrodes fastened to his shaved head and shaved right leg. Superintendent Ralph Kemp counted to three, a volunteer executioner pushed a button, and 2,080 volts, 20 times...
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