Florida’s electric chair was a terribly real threat. Only five days before, Florida had proved that it would carry out its death sentences. On May 25, John Spenkelink, convicted of the 1973 murder of a fellow ex-con in a Tallahassee motel room, had been executed. It was the first execution in the United States since Gary Gilmore had gone before the firing squad in Utah on January 19, 1977, at his own request.
