Edwin Davis (executioner)

{{Short description|American executioner (1846–1923)}}

{{Other people|Edwin Davis}}

{{infobox person

|name = Edwin F. Davis

|birth_date = {{birth date|1846|05|28}}

|death_date = {{death date and age|1923|05|26|1846|05|28}}

|known_for = Executioner

}}

Edwin F. Davis (May 28, 1846 – May 26, 1923), of Corning, Steuben County, New York, United States, was the first "state electrical engineer” (executioner) for the state of New York. In 1890, Davis finalized many features of the first electric chair used.{{cite book |first=Stuart |last=Banner |author-link=Stuart Banner |title=The Death Penalty: An American History |pages=194–195 |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=March 2003 |isbn=0-674-01083-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FzayhpsWJ5oC&pg=PA194}} Davis performed 240 executions between 1890 and 1914, including the first person to be executed by electric chair, William Kemmler, and the first woman, Martha M. Place, as well as William McKinley's assassin, Leon F. Czolgosz.

Davis held a patent on certain features of the electric chair. He received U.S. Patent No. 587,649 for his "Electrocution-Chair" on August 3, 1897.

He died two days before his 77th birthday, and is buried in Barnard Cemetery in Corning, New York.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1923/05/27/archives/ef-davis-inventor-of-death-chair-dies-state-electrician-for-25.html |newspaper=The New York Times |title=E.F. DAVIS, INVENTOR OF DEATH CHAIR, DIES; State Electrical for 25 Years, He Presided at Over 300 Electro- cutions at Sing Sing. |date=27 May 1923 |access-date=6 September 2022 |page=6 }}