NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Electric Chair Tested, Used in Execution

Anthony Bertolotti, 38, was executed in Florida’s electric chair for the 1983 stabbing death of a housewife, the state’s first execution since Jesse Tafero went to the electric chair two months ago and the apparatus malfunctioned, requiring three surges of electricity before he was pronounced dead. Bertolotti was put to death in Starke, Fla., after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay. The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals previously halted three Florida executions because of arguments that the electric chair was possibly not in good working order. But the state tested the chair and sent the results to the appeals panel, which also denied Bertolotti’s stay request.