Terrifying simulation shows how an electric chair actually works

A YouTube video has offered an insight into how the electric chair actually works.

You hope you'd never have to choose which execution method to die by, but in some cases, this decision has become a reality.

And a video has broken down what really happens to people who end up being executed by the method of the electric chair.

The electric chair execution method

The first electric chair was built in 1888 in New York, it being seen as a more humane method of execution when compared to hanging.

Since 1976, 163 executions have taken place using the electric chair method, Death Penalty Information reports.

The electric chair is authorized as an execution method by more than a handful of states, however, it's viewed as a 'cruel and unusual punishment' by others, who've ruled it as violating their state constitutional prohibitions.

But how does it work?

You may've heard of the electric chair, but do you know how it actually works? ( Mike Simons/Getty Images)

How the electric chair works

Zack D Films is back at it again and this time the YouTuber isn't sharing a simulation revealing how a woman was swallowed whole by a python or how shrunken heads are made.

Instead, the animator has revealed an educational insight into what it's really like to die by the electric chair method.

The video explains: "If you're strapped into an electric chair, saline soaked sponges are placed underneath electrodes all over your skin.

"Once the chair is activated, a powerful electric current flows through the electrodes and the sponges help focus this energy, ensuring that the current quickly passes through your body.

"Inside your body this powerful current causes an electrical surge, making your muscles contract violently and this makes your heart beat erratically until it finally stops altogether."

And Death Penalty Info breaks this down even further.

It adds that, prior to the sponges and electrodes being placed on, the person being executed is 'usually shaved' and 'strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms'.

And why the sponges have to be moistened?

"A met­al skull­cap-shaped elec­trode is attached to the scalp and fore­head over a sponge moist­ened with saline," it continues.

"The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-cir­cuits the elec­tric cur­rent, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resis­tance. An addi­tion­al elec­trode is moist­ened with con­duc­tive jel­ly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a por­tion of the pris­on­er’s leg that has been shaved to reduce resis­tance to elec­tric­i­ty."

The person is then typically 'blindfolded' and the team conducting the execution go back to an observation room to pull the handle and connect the power supply.

An electric current measuring 'between 500 and 2000 volts' is turned on for 'about 30 seconds' and the power is then turned off, the body 'seen to relax,' and doctors check to see if the person's heart is still beating after a 'few seconds' of waiting for the 'body to cool down'.

If the heart is still beating, the process is repeated until the prisoner is dead.

And after? Well, it notes: "The pris­on­er’s hands often grip the chair and there may be vio­lent move­ment of the limbs which can result in dis­lo­ca­tion or frac­tures. The tis­sues swell. Defecation occurs."