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This post refers to the execution of a woman by electric chair in the United States on 20 March 1899. Shared solely for historical education and to honour the victim of the crime, Ida Place.
The First Woman Executed by Electric Chair – Martha Place, Sing Sing Prison, 20 March 1899
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On the morning of 20 March 1899, at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, 49-year-old Martha Place became the first woman in history to be executed by electric chair.
Martha had been convicted of the murder of her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Ida Place, in Brooklyn on 7 February 1898. Driven by intense jealousy, she attacked Ida with acid and then suffocated her. She also seriously injured her husband with an axe when he returned home. Arrested the same day, she was found guilty of first-degree murder after a short trial and sentenced to death.
The case drew enormous attention because no woman had ever been executed by electricity. Appeals for clemency reached Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who refused to intervene.
On execution day, Martha walked calmly to the chair wearing a black dress she had sewn herself. Because of her long hair and skirt, technicians had to cut her hair short and slit the dress to attach the electrodes properly while preserving modesty. At 11:00 a.m., a current of 1,760 volts was applied. She was pronounced dead within seconds.
The execution was reported as quick and without complication, unlike the botched first male electrocution (William Kemmler, 1890).
Martha Place remains one of only four women ever executed by electric chair in U.S. history.
We remember Martha Place today not to revisit the details of her crime, but to honour the memory of her victim, Ida Place; to recognise that capital punishment, no matter the method, always carries profound moral weight; and to mark a sombre milestone in the long and difficult history of the death penalty in the United States.
Official & reputable sources
New York State Archives – Sing Sing execution records, 1899
The New York Times & Brooklyn Daily Eagle – reports of trial and execution, 1898–1899
Brandon, Craig – The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History (1999)
Shipman, Marlin – “Martha M. Place: First Woman to Die in the Electric Chair” (Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 2005)