<P> The United Kingdom performed its last execution in 1964, and abolished capital punishment for murder the following year, thereby rendering any debate over method moot . </P> <P> A number of states still allow the condemned person to choose between electrocution and lethal injection . In all, twelve inmates nationwide - seven in Virginia, three in South Carolina, and one each in Arkansas and Tennessee - have opted for electrocution over lethal injection . The last use of the chair was on January 16, 2013, when Robert Gleason, Jr., decided to go to the electric chair in Virginia . </P> <P> After 1966, electrocutions ceased for a time in the United States, but the method continued in the Philippines . A well - publicized triple execution took place in May 1972, when Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda and Edgardo Aquino were electrocuted for the 1967 abduction and gang - rape of the young actress Maggie dela Riva . </P> <P> Serial killer Lizzie Halliday was the first woman sentenced to die in the electric chair, in 1894, but governor Roswell P. Flower commuted her sentence to life in a mental institution after a medical commission declared her insane . A second woman sentenced to death in 1895, Maria Barbella, was acquitted the next year . Martha M. Place became the first woman to receive the deadly current in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899, for the murder of her 17 - year - old stepdaughter, Ida Place . </P>

When did the united states stop using the electric chair