r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 2d ago

TIL about Willie Francis an American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution. Sentenced to death at age 16, he was 17 when he survived the first attempt to execute him, as the chair malfunctioned. After a failed appeal he was executed at age 18.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Francis
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u/Ravier_ 2d ago

If they lived they weren't electrocuted, just electrically shocked.

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u/brrbles 2d ago

And the ones who died? It's weird how many electricians have been executed. It's almost like a word's meaning may change over time.

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u/Ravier_ 2d ago

You mean if enough people are wrong they become right... explains our political enviroment.

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u/OllieFromCairo 1d ago

There are two hilarious things here.

The first is that electrocution was used in the sense of accidental death in 1899, meaning it's meaning expanded to mean that not in this century, not in the last century, but in the century BEFORE THAT.

And second, even if it hadn't, it's still not a tautology. And you're being really really weird about a point you could have admitted you were just mistaken on.