Execution by electrocution , performed using an electric chair , is a method of execution originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg . Although the electric chair has long been a symbol of the death penalty in the United States , its use is in decline due to the rise of lethal injection , which is widely believed to be a more humane method of execution . Although some states still maintain electrocution as a method of execution , today it is only maintained as a secondary method that may be chosen over lethal injection at the request of the prisoner , except in Tennessee where it may be used if the drugs for lethal injection are not available , without input from the prisoner . They allow the prisoner to choose lethal injection as an alternative method .
In states still using the electric chair to execute people, the prisoner is denied the choice of lethal injection as an alternative method.