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130-544: Dyer County is a county located in the westernmost part of the U.S. state of Tennessee . As of the 2020 census , the population was 36,801. The county seat is Dyersburg . Dyer County comprises the Dyersburg, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area . Dyer County was founded by a Private Act of Tennessee, passed on October 16, 1823. The area was part of the territory in Tennessee that was previously legally recognized as belonging to

260-1054: A city , town , or village . A few counties directly provide public transportation themselves, usually in the form of a simple bus system. However, in most counties, public transportation is provided by one of the following: a special district that is coterminous with the county (but exists separately from the county government), a multi-county regional transit authority, or a state agency. In western and southern states, more populated counties provide many facilities, such as airports, convention centers , museums, recreation centers , beaches, harbors, zoos, clinics, law libraries , and public housing . They provide services such as child and family services, elder services, mental health services, welfare services, veterans assistance services, animal control , probation supervision, historic preservation, food safety regulation, and environmental health services. They have many additional officials like public defenders , arts commissioners, human rights commissioners, and planning commissioners. There may be

390-446: A consolidated city-county or independent city exists, a city council usually governs city/county or city affairs. In some counties, day-to-day operations are overseen by an elected county executive or by a chief administrative officer or county administrator who reports to the board, the mayor, or both. In many states, the board in charge of a county holds powers that transcend all three traditional branches of government. It has

520-542: A camera into the death chamber and photographed her in the electric chair as the current was turned on. It remains one of the best-known examples of photojournalism . A record was set on July 13, 1928, when seven men were executed consecutively in the electric chair at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville , Kentucky. On June 16, 1944, an African-American teenager, 14-year-old George Stinney , became

650-446: A competition between Thomas Edison 's direct current power system and George Westinghouse 's alternating current based system. The two companies had been competing commercially since 1886 and a series of events had turned it into an all-out media war in 1888. The committee head, neurologist Frederick Peterson , enlisted the services of Harold P. Brown as a consultant. Brown had been on his own crusade against alternating current after

780-424: A county fire department and a county police department – as distinguished from fire and police departments operated by individual cities, special districts, or the state government. For example, Gwinnett County, Georgia , and its county seat, the city of Lawrenceville , each have their own police departments. (A separate county sheriff's department is responsible for security of the county courts and administration of

910-517: A dentist who had a technical background, thought some application could be found for the curious phenomenon. Southwick joined physician George E. Fell and the head of the Buffalo ASPCA in a series of experiments electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs. They ran trials with the dog in water and out of water, and varied the electrode type and placement until they came up with a repeatable method to euthanize animals using electricity. Southwick went on in

1040-460: A few counties bear names of Native American , French, or Spanish origin. Counties are most often named for people, often political figures or early settlers, with over 2,100 of the 3,144 total so named. The most common county name, with 31, is Washington County , for America's first president, George Washington . Up until 1871, there was a Washington County within the District of Columbia , but it

1170-534: A hatchet. An appeal on Kemmler's behalf was made to the New York Court of Appeals on the grounds that use of electricity as a means of execution constituted a " cruel and unusual punishment " and was thus contrary to the constitutions of the United States and the state of New York. On December 30, 1889, the writ of habeas corpus sworn out on Kemmler's behalf was denied by the court, with Judge Dwight writing in

1300-400: A land area of 20,057 square miles (51,947 km ). The least extensive county is Kalawao County, Hawaii , with a land area of 11.991 square miles (31.058 km ). The least extensive county equivalent in the 50 states is the independent city of Falls Church, Virginia , with a land area of 1.999 square miles (5.177 km ). If U.S. territories are included,

1430-453: A large number of counties, and many Western states were sparsely populated when counties were created by their respective state legislatures. The five counties of Rhode Island and eight of the 14 counties of Massachusetts no longer have functional county governments, but continue to exist as legal and census entities. Connecticut abolished county governments in 1960, leaving its eight counties as mere legal and census entities. In 2022,

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1560-635: A law allowing the use of the electric chair if lethal injection drugs were unavailable. On February 15, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court declared execution by electrocution to be "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Nebraska Constitution. The last judicial electrocution in the U.S. prior to Furman v. Georgia took place in Oklahoma in 1966. The electric chair was used quite frequently in post- Gregg v Georgia executions during

1690-674: A law forcing inmates to be executed by electrocution if lethal injection were not available. The law also mandated electrocution if an inmate refused to select their execution method, between South Carolina's options of lethal injection, the electric chair, and a firing squad. In 2022, a judge in Richland County , declared that the firing squad and electrocution were both in violation of the South Carolina State Constitution, which bans methods that are "cruel, unusual, or corporal." The court, in their decision, stated that there

1820-514: A lengthy ruling: We have no doubt that if the Legislature of this State should undertake to proscribe for any offense against its laws the punishment of burning at the stake , breaking at the wheel , etc., it would be the duty of the courts to pronounce upon such attempt the condemnation of the Constitution. The question now to be answered is whether the legislative act here assailed is subject to

1950-882: A matter of U.S. state law , so the specific governmental powers of counties may vary widely between the states, with many providing some level of services to civil townships , municipalities , and unincorporated areas . Certain municipalities are in multiple counties ; New York City is uniquely partitioned into five counties, referred to at the city government level as boroughs . Some municipalities have been consolidated with their county government to form consolidated city-counties , or have been legally separated from counties altogether to form independent cities . Conversely, counties in Connecticut and Rhode Island , eight of Massachusetts's 14 counties , and Alaska's Unorganized Borough have no government power, existing only as geographic distinctions. The United States Census Bureau uses

2080-653: A median income of $ 31,182 versus $ 21,605 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 16,451. About 13.00% of families and 15.90% of the population were below the poverty line , including 21.00% of those under age 18 and 17.60% of those age 65 or over. There are two K-12 school districts in the county: Dyer County School District and Dyersburg City School District . State Gazette – 3 days/week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday); general news. The paper has served Dyersburg and Northwest Tennessee since 1865. Burks Broadcasting - 100 Jack-FM / Eagle 97.3 / WTRO Interstate 155 (Missouri–Tennessee) connects Dyersburg and

2210-541: A more humane means of execution. The commission members surveyed the history of execution and sent out a fact-finding questionnaire to government officials, lawyers, and medical experts all around the state asking for their opinion. A slight majority of respondents recommended hanging over electrocution, with a few instead recommending the abolition of capital punishment. The commission also contacted electrical experts, including Thomson-Houston Electric Company 's Elihu Thomson (who recommended high voltage AC connected to

2340-479: A new electrocution protocol in 2004, which called for the administration of a 15-second application of current at 2,450 volts; after a 15-minute wait, an official then checks for signs of life. In April 2007, new concerns raised regarding the 2004 protocol resulted in the ushering in of a different Nebraska protocol, calling for a 20-second application of current at 2,450 volts. Prior to the 2004 protocol change, an initial eight-second application of current at 2,450 volts

2470-415: A population over 100,000; 137 counties have a population over 500,000; 45 counties have a population over 1,000,000; and 14 counties have a population over 2,000,000. At the other extreme, 35 counties have a population under 1,000; 307 counties have a population under 5,000; 709 counties have a population under 10,000; and 1,492 counties have a population between 10,000 and 50,000. At the 2000 U.S. Census ,

2600-495: A severe weather system passed through Dyer County, producing tornadoes that killed 16 in the county and 24 in Tennessee. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 527 square miles (1,360 km), of which 512 square miles (1,330 km) is land and 14 square miles (36 km) (2.7%) is water. The county is drained by the Mississippi River , which forms its western boundary. The confluences of

2730-676: A station for the new terminus. A 54 mile railroad gap between Trimble and Covington (in Tipton County) continued to exist until 1882, when the Chesapeake, Ohio, & Southwestern Railroad finished construction on the line to give Dyersburg a rail connection. This line was leased to the Newport News & Mississippi Valley Railroad to operate two years later. In 1897, the line was deeded to the Illinois Central Railroad, who leased it to

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2860-541: A way to restrain the condemned, a device that from then on would be called the electric chair . After a series of botched hangings in the United States, there was mounting criticism of that form of capital punishment and the death penalty in general. In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member death penalty commission, which was chaired by the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale and Southwick, to investigate

2990-428: Is Lake . Words from Native American languages, as well as the names of Native American leaders and tribes, lend their names to many counties. Quite a few counties bear names of French or Spanish origin, such as Marquette County being named after French missionary Father Jacques Marquette . The county's equivalent in the state of Louisiana, the parish (Fr. paroisse civile and Sp. parroquia ) took its name during

3120-564: Is 343 sq mi (890 km ), whereas in Utah it is 2,427 sq mi (6,290 km ). The most extensive county or county equivalent is the Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska , with a land area of 145,505 square miles (376,856 km ). All nine of the most extensive county equivalents are in Alaska. The most extensive county is San Bernardino County, California , with

3250-435: Is an administrative or political subdivision of a U.S. state or other territories of the United States which consists of a geographic area with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term " county " is used in 48 states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes and boroughs , respectively. Counties and other local governments exist as

3380-400: Is an unusual case because it encompasses multiple entire counties in one city. Each of those counties is coextensive with one of the five boroughs of the city: Manhattan (New York County), The Bronx (Bronx County), Queens (Queens County), Brooklyn (Kings County), and Staten Island (Richmond County). Electric chair Closely linked to capital punishment in the United States ,

3510-500: Is either done at the state level or at the municipal level. In Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, regional councils have been established to partially fill the void left behind by the abolished county governments. The regional councils' authority is limited compared with a county government—they have authority only over infrastructure and land use planning, distribution of state and federal funds for infrastructure projects, emergency preparedness, and limited law enforcement duties. In

3640-399: Is greater than the populations of 41 U.S. states, and is only slightly smaller than the combined population of the 10 least populous states and Washington, D.C. It also makes the population of Los Angeles County 17.4 times greater than that of the least populous state, Wyoming. The second most populous county is Cook County, Illinois , with a population of 5,275,541. Cook County's population

3770-455: Is larger than that of 28 individual U.S. states and the combined populations of the six smallest states. The least populous county is Loving County, Texas , with 64 residents in 2020. Eight county equivalents in the U.S. territories have no human population: Rose Atoll , Northern Islands Municipality , Baker Island , Howland Island , Jarvis Island , Johnston Atoll , Kingman Reef , and Navassa Island . The remaining three islands in

3900-713: Is no formal level of government (municipality, public education, or otherwise) existing below that of the county in the state. In most Midwestern and Northeastern states, counties are further subdivided into townships or towns , which sometimes exercise local powers or administration. Throughout the United States, counties may contain other independent, self-governing municipalities . In New England, counties function at most as judicial court districts and sheriff's departments (presently, in Connecticut only as judicial court districts—and in Rhode Island , they have lost both those functions and most others but they are still used by

4030-410: Is rarely a county responsibility, execution of capital punishment is never a county responsibility, and the state's responses to prisoners' appeals are the responsibility of the state attorney general , who has to defend before the state appellate courts the prosecutions conducted by locally elected district attorneys in the name of the state. Furthermore, county-level trial court judges are officers of

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4160-557: Is simultaneously a city, which is a municipality (municipal corporation), and a county, which is an administrative division of a state, having the powers and responsibilities of both types of entities. The city limit or jurisdiction is synonymous with the county line, as the two administrative entities become a non-dichotomous single entity. For this reason, a consolidated city-county is officially remarked as name of city – name of county (i.e., Augusta–Richmond County in Georgia). The same

4290-501: Is true of the boroughs of New York City , each of which is coextensive with a county of New York State. For those entities in which the city uses the same name as the county, city and county of name may be used (i.e., City and County of Denver in Colorado). Similarly, some of Alaska 's boroughs have merged with their principal cities, creating unified city-boroughs. Some such consolidations and mergers have created cities that rank among

4420-634: The Alaska Constitutional Convention wanted to avoid the traditional county system and adopted their own unique model with different types of boroughs varying in powers and duties. In some states, these powers are partly or mostly devolved to the counties' smaller divisions usually called townships , though in New York, New England and Wisconsin they are called "towns". The county may or may not be able to override its townships on certain matters, depending on state law. The newest county in

4550-630: The Chicago, Memphis, & Gulf Railroad in 1909. On February 1, 1916, a black man named Julius Morgan was accused of raping a white woman in Dyer County. In order to avoid a lynching at the hands of a local mob, Sheriff C.C. Dawson had Morgan sent to the jail in Jackson for safety, and again to jails in Union City and Nashville . His attorneys were able to secure a change in venue to Memphis for his trial. He

4680-763: The Chicago, St. Louis, & New Orleans Railroad , who operated it as their "Louisville Division" (Elizabethtown, KY to Memphis via Paducah). In Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi , Twain reported seeing a steamboat at the mouth of the Obion River bearing his name. He notes this is the first time he encountered something named after him. In 1904, the Dyersburg Northern Railroad was chartered. This line connected Dyersburg to Tiptonville in Lake County and began operating in 1910. The company changed their name to

4810-604: The Chickasaw Native Americans as "Indian Lands". The county was named for Robert Henry Dyer (circa 1774–1826). Dyer had been an army officer in the Creek War and War of 1812 , and a cavalry colonel in the First Seminole War of 1818 before becoming a state senator. He was instrumental in the formation of the counties of Dyer and Madison County, Tennessee . Around 1823, Louis Philippe I stopped briefly near

4940-454: The City and County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; City and County of San Francisco, California ; and Lynchburg-Moore County, Tennessee A consolidated city-county may still contain independent municipalities maintaining some governmental powers that did not merge with the rest of the county. For example, the government of Jacksonville–Duval County, Florida , still provides county-level services to

5070-649: The Forked Deer River into the Obion River , and the Obion into the Mississippi are located in the county. It is in the part of Tennessee called the "Mississippi bottomland" or the Mississippi Alluvial Valley . Dyer County is bisected by U.S. Route 51 , the older major highway connecting Memphis with Chicago from south to north. When upgraded to interstate standards, this road will become Interstate 69 . To

5200-597: The Mid-Atlantic and Midwest , counties typically provide, at a minimum, courts, public utilities , libraries, hospitals, public health services, parks, roads, law enforcement, and jails. There is usually a county registrar, recorder, or clerk (the exact title varies) who collects vital statistics , holds elections (sometimes in coordination with a separate elections office or commission), and prepares or processes certificates of births, deaths, marriages, and dissolutions (divorce decrees). The county recorder normally maintains

5330-552: The New York City Borough of Manhattan), with 72,033 persons per square mile (27,812 persons/km ) in 2015. The Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska , is both the most extensive and the least densely populated county or county equivalent with 0.0380 persons per square mile (0.0147 persons/km ) in 2015. In the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia), a total of 981 counties have a population over 50,000; 592 counties have

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5460-504: The Province of Maine founded York County . Massachusetts followed in 1643. Pennsylvania and New York delegated significant power and responsibility from the colony government to county governments and thereby established a pattern for most of the United States, although counties remained relatively weak in New England . When independence came, the framers of the Constitution left

5590-437: The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands ( Midway Atoll , Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island ) have small non-permanent human populations. The county equivalent with the smallest non-zero population counted in the census is Swains Island, American Samoa (17 people), although since 2008 this population has not been permanent either. The most densely populated county or county equivalent is New York County, New York (coextensive with

5720-569: The USGS counts Guam's election districts (villages) as county equivalents. The U.S. Census Bureau counts the 3 main islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands as county equivalents, while the USGS counts the districts of the U.S. Virgin Islands (of which there are 2) as county equivalents. Common sources of county names are names of people, geographic features, places in other states or countries, and animals. Quite

5850-671: The United States Census Bureau and some other federal agencies for some federal functions), and most of the governmental authority below the state level is in the hands of towns and cities . In several of Maine's sparsely populated counties, small towns rely on the county for law enforcement, and in New Hampshire several social programs are administered at the state level. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of Massachusetts, counties are now only geographic designations, and they do not have any governmental powers. All government

5980-466: The county seat ("parish seat" in Louisiana, "borough seat" in Alaska, or " shire town " in several New England counties). The county seat usually resides in a municipality. However, some counties may have multiple seats or no seat. In some counties with no incorporated municipalities, a large settlement may serve as the county seat. The power of county governments varies widely from state to state, as does

6110-473: The median land area of U.S. counties was 622 sq mi (1,610 km ), which is two-thirds of the median land area of a ceremonial county of England , and a little more than a quarter of the median land area of a French département . Counties in the western United States typically have a much larger land area than those in the eastern United States. For example, the median land area of counties in Georgia

6240-514: The "state electrician" was Edwin Davis. The first 17-second passage of 1,000 volts AC through Kemmler caused unconsciousness, but failed to stop his heart and breathing. The attending physicians, Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos Frederick MacDonald , came forward to examine Kemmler. After confirming Kemmler was still alive, Spitzka reportedly called out, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay." The generator needed time to re-charge, however. In

6370-470: The 1967 abduction and gang-rape of the young actress Maggie de la Riva . The last electric chair execution in the Philippines was in 1976 and was later replaced with lethal injection when executions resumed in that country. Martha M. Place became the first woman executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 20, 1899, for the murder of her 17-year-old stepdaughter, Ida Place. Leon Czolgosz

6500-458: The 1980s, but its use in the United States gradually declined in the 1990s due to the widespread adoption of lethal injection. A number of states still allow the condemned person to choose between electrocution and lethal injection, with the most recent U.S. electrocution, of Nicholas Todd Sutton , taking place in February 2020 in Tennessee. In 2021, South Carolina's governor Henry McMaster passed

6630-589: The 1990s, starting with the 1990 execution of Jesse Tafero . His case generated significant controversy, as with the first administration of electricity, Tafero's face and head caught fire. Tafero's execution ultimately required three shocks over the course of seven minutes. The error was blamed on prison officials replacing Florida's old natural sea sponge with a kitchen sponge. The 1997 execution of Pedro Medina in Florida created controversy when flames burst from his head. An autopsy found that Medina had died instantly when

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6760-451: The 50 states and District of Columbia. There are an additional 100 county equivalents in the territories of the United States . The average number of counties per state is 62, with a range from the three counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas . Southern and Midwestern states generally tend to have more counties than Western or Northeastern states, as many Northeastern states are not large enough in area to warrant

6890-454: The 50 states and the District of Columbia. If the 100 county equivalents in the U.S. territories are counted, then the total is 3,244 counties and county-equivalents in the United States. The idea of counties originated with the counties of England . English (after 1707, British ) colonists brought to their colonies in North America a political subdivision that they already used in

7020-548: The AC used was half the voltage used in the power lines over the streets of American cities. Westinghouse criticized these tests as a skewed self-serving demonstration designed to be a direct attack on alternating current and accused Brown of being in the employ of Edison. At the request of death penalty commission chairman Gerry, Medico-Legal Society members; electrotherapy expert Alphonse David Rockwell, Carlos Frederick MacDonald , and Columbia College professor Louis H. Laudy, were given

7150-714: The Alamo but failed and also was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge , and Henry who served in the Texas Rangers and married into the Ashby family of True Women fame. In 1869, three, possibly five, white men were lynched under suspicion of horse thievery . In May 1874, the Paducah & Memphis Railroad extended it's line from Troy to the Dyer/Obion county line. The town of Trimble was started as

7280-973: The British metropole : the counties. Counties were among the earliest units of local government established in the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States. Virginia created the first counties in order to ease the administrative workload in Jamestown . The House of Burgesses divided the colony first into four "incorporations" in 1617 and finally into eight shires (or counties) in 1634: James City , Henrico , Charles City , Charles River , Warrosquyoake , Accomac , Elizabeth City , and Warwick River . America's oldest intact county court records can be found at Eastville, Virginia , in Northampton (originally Accomac) County , dating to 1632. Maryland established its first county, St. Mary's in 1637. In 1639,

7410-610: The Chicago, St. Louis, & New Orleans Railroad had abandoned the rail line to the small town, which was describes as "almost abandoned." Musician Noah Lewis was said to have named his song " Minglewood Blues " after the town of Menglewood. During World War 2, an auxiliary field of the Dyersburg Army Airbase , named for the town but located south in Lauderdale County, was constructed south of Dyersburg. On April 2, 2006

7540-453: The Commission recommended electrocution using Southwick's electric chair idea with metal conductors attached to the condemned person's head and feet. They further recommended that executions be handled by the state instead of the individual counties with three electric chairs set up at Auburn , Clinton , and Sing Sing prisons. A bill following these recommendations passed the legislature and

7670-504: The Internet. An investigation concluded that Davis had begun bleeding before the electricity was applied and that the chair had functioned as intended. Florida's Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment". The use of the electric chair has declined since the 1979 advent of lethal injection, which is now the default method in all U.S. jurisdictions that authorize capital punishment. As of 2024,

7800-644: The U.S. Census Bureau began to also count Connecticut's Councils of Governments , which took over some of the regional powers from the state's former county governments, as county equivalents. Territories of the United States do not have counties; instead, the United States Census Bureau also divides them into county equivalents. The U.S. Census Bureau counts American Samoa 's districts and atolls as county equivalents. American Samoa locally has places called "counties", but these entities are considered to be " minor civil divisions " (not true counties) by

7930-473: The U.S. Census Bureau recognized the state's nine Councils of Governments as replacement for the state's eight legacy counties for all statistical purposes; full implementation was completed in 2024. The average U.S. county population was 104,435 in 2019, while the median county, which is Nicholas County, West Virginia , had a population of 25,965 in 2019. The most populous county is Los Angeles County, California , with 10,014,009 residents in 2020. This number

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8060-475: The U.S. Census Bureau treats American Samoa's three districts and two atolls as county equivalents). American Samoa's counties are treated as minor civil divisions. Most territories are directly divided into municipalities or similar units, which are treated as equivalent of counties for statistical purposes: The U.S. Census Bureau counts all of Guam as one county equivalent (with the FIPS code 66010), while

8190-683: The U.S. Census Bureau. The number of counties per state ranges from the three counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas . County populations also vary widely: in 2017, according to the Census Bureau, more than half the U.S. population was concentrated in just 143 of the more than 3,000 counties, or just 4.6% of all counties; the five most populous counties, ordered from most to least, are Los Angeles County, California ; Cook County, Illinois ; Harris County, Texas ; Maricopa County, Arizona ; and San Diego County, California . As of 2022 , there are 3,144 counties and county-equivalents in

8320-578: The U.S. Constitution. On May 3, 1946, an African-American teenager named Willie Francis became the first person known to have survived the electric chair in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish , Louisiana. His appeals to the death penalty failed, and was executed again on May 9, 1947, at age 18. His trial has claimed to be unfair, which the trial also violated his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteen Amendment rights to

8450-639: The U.S. Constitution. On May 25, 1979, in Florida, John Spenkelink became the first person to be electrocuted after the Gregg v. Georgia decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1976. He was the first person to be executed in the United States in this manner since 1966. The last person to be executed by electric chair without the choice of an alternative method was Lynda Lyon Block on May 10, 2002, in Alabama. The most recent execution by electric chair

8580-484: The United States is the city and county of Broomfield, Colorado , established in 2001 as a consolidated city-county , previously part of four counties. The newest county equivalents are the Alaskan census areas of Chugach and Copper River , both established in 2019, and the Alaskan boroughs of Petersburg established in 2013, Wrangell established in 2008, and Skagway established in 2007. A consolidated city-county

8710-402: The age of 18 living with them, 53.20% were married couples living together, 13.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.10% were non-families. 25.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.97. In the county, the age distribution of

8840-402: The board. These positions may include county clerk , county treasurer , county surrogate, sheriff , and others. District attorneys or state attorneys are usually state-level as opposed to county-level officials, but in many states, counties and state judicial districts have coterminous boundaries. The site of a county's administration, and often the county courthouse , is generally called

8970-410: The city and the county at least nominally exist, they are properly classified as counties in their own right. Likewise, the boroughs of New York City are coextensive with counties and are therefore by definition also not county equivalents. There are technically no counties in U.S. territories. American Samoa has its own counties , but the U.S. Census Bureau does not treat them as counties (instead,

9100-633: The communities of Lenox and Big Boy Junction with the Missouri Bootheel via the Caruthersville Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River at Boothspoint. This is also how U.S. Route 412 enters Tennessee from Missouri. Tennessee State Route 78 connects Dyersburg with Nauvoo and Bogota before moving north to Lake County. U.S. Route 51 bisects Dyer County, connecting Trimble, Newbern, Dyersburg, Fowlkes, and Bonicord with Obion county to

9230-421: The county (which merely implements state law). A typical criminal defendant will be arraigned and subsequently indicted or held over for trial before a trial court in and for a particular county where the crime occurred, kept in the county jail (if he is not granted bail or cannot make bail), prosecuted by the county's district attorney, and tried before a jury selected from that county. But long-term incarceration

9360-458: The county in 1968 and Nixon defeated George McGovern three-to-one in 1972. Since then the county has become increasingly Republican except when Southerners Jimmy Carter and Clinton headed the presidential ticket. 36°04′N 89°25′W  /  36.06°N 89.41°W  / 36.06; -89.41 County (United States) In the United States , a county or county equivalent

9490-457: The county jail.) In several southern states, public school systems are organized and administered at the county level. As of 2024 , there were 2,999 counties, 64 Louisiana parishes , 19 organized boroughs and 11 census areas in Alaska, 9 Councils of Government in Connecticut, 41 independent cities , and the District of Columbia for a total of 3,144 counties and county equivalents in

9620-522: The county. The population density was 73 people per square mile (28 people/km). There were 16,123 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile (12/km). The racial makeup of the county was 85.40% White , 12.86% Black or African American , 0.22% Native American , 0.33% Asian , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 0.43% from other races , and 0.73% from two or more races. 1.16% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 14,751 households, out of which 32.90% had children under

9750-426: The dignity of man", and stated, "Even if an inmate survived only fifteen or thirty seconds, he would suffer the experience of being burned alive—a punishment that has 'long been recognized as manifestly cruel and unusual.'" The ruling led to a permanent injunction being issued against both methods of execution, preventing the state from subjecting death row inmates to death by firing squad or electrocution. In July 2024,

9880-407: The early 1880s to advocate that this method be used as a more humane replacement for hanging in capital cases, coming to national attention when he published his ideas in scientific journals in 1882 and 1883. He worked out calculations based on the dog experiments, trying to develop a scaled-up method that would work on humans. Early on in his designs he adopted a modified version of the dental chair as

10010-444: The electric chair dispute whether the first jolt of electricity reliably induces immediate unconsciousness as proponents often claim. The electric chair has been criticized because of several instances in which the subjects were killed only after being subjected to multiple electric shocks . This led to a call for ending of the practice, as being a " cruel and unusual punishment ". Trying to address such concerns, Nebraska introduced

10140-556: The electric chair to those sentenced before a certain date. Inmates not selecting this method or convicted after the specified date face lethal injection. Arkansas currently has no death row inmates sentenced before their select date. These three states also authorize electrocution as an alternative if lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional. The electric chair remains an accepted alternative in Louisiana , Mississippi , and Oklahoma if other execution methods are ruled unconstitutional at

10270-508: The electric chair was also used extensively in the Philippines . It was initially thought to cause death through cerebral damage, but it was scientifically established in 1899 that death primarily results from ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest. Despite its historical significance in American capital punishment, electric chair use has declined with the adoption of lethal injection which

10400-486: The electrodes to the head and the middle of the back. Brown did take on the job of finding the generators needed to power the chair. He managed to surreptitiously acquire three Westinghouse AC generators that were being decommissioned with the help of Edison and Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company , a move that made sure that Westinghouse's equipment would be associated with

10530-506: The first execution. The electric chair was built by Edwin F. Davis , the first " state electrician " ( executioner ) for the State of New York. The first person in line to die under New York's new electrocution law was Joseph Chapleau, convicted for beating his neighbor to death with a sled stake, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The next person scheduled to be executed was William Kemmler , convicted of murdering his wife with

10660-459: The first surge of electricity had destroyed his brain and brain stem. A judge ruled that the incident arose from "unintentional human error" rather than any faults in the "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry" of Florida's electric chair. In Florida, on July 8, 1999, Allen Lee Davis , convicted of murder, was executed in the Florida electric chair " Old Sparky ". Davis' face was bloodied, and photographs were taken, which were later posted on

10790-399: The four independent municipalities within its borders: Atlantic Beach , Baldwin , Jacksonville Beach , and Neptune Beach . The term county equivalents is used by the United States Census Bureau to describe divisions that are comparable to counties but called by different names: Consolidated city-counties are not designated county equivalents for administrative purposes; since both

10920-461: The general law of the state or by a charter specific to that county. States may allow only general-law counties, only charter counties, or both. Generally, general-law local governments have less autonomy than chartered local governments. Counties are usually governed by an elected body, variously called the county commission , board of supervisors , commissioners' court , county council , county court , or county legislature . In cases in which

11050-622: The geographically largest cities in the world, though often with population densities far below those of most urban areas. There are 40 consolidated city-counties in the U.S., including Augusta–Richmond County; the City and County of Denver, Colorado; the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii ; Indianapolis–Marion County, Indiana ; Jacksonville–Duval County, Florida ; Louisville–Jefferson County, Kentucky ; Lexington–Fayette County, Kentucky ; Kansas City–Wyandotte County, Kansas ; Nashville–Davidson County, Tennessee ; New Orleans–Orleans Parish, Louisiana ;

11180-407: The head and the spine) and the inventor Thomas Edison (who also recommended AC, as well as using a Westinghouse generator). They also attended electrocutions of dogs by George Fell who had worked with Southwick in the early 1880s experiments. Fell was conducting further experiments, electrocuting anesthetized vivisected dogs trying to discern exactly how electricity killed a subject. In 1888,

11310-403: The individual's body in order to cause lethal damage to the internal organs. The first, more powerful jolt (between 2,000 and 2,500 volts) is intended to cause immediate unconsciousness, ventricular fibrillation, and eventual cardiac arrest. The second, less powerful jolt (500–1,500 volts) is intended to cause lethal damage to the vital organs. After the cycles are completed, a doctor checks

11440-412: The inmate for any signs of life. If none are present, the doctor reports and records the time of death, and prison officials will wait for the body to cool down before removing it to prepare for autopsy . If the inmate exhibits signs of life, the doctor notifies the warden, who usually will order another round of electric current or (rarely) postpone the execution such as with Willie Francis . Critics of

11570-405: The judicial branch of the state government rather than county governments. In many states, the county controls all unincorporated lands within its boundaries. In states with a township tier, unincorporated land is controlled by the townships. Residents of unincorporated land who are dissatisfied with county-level or township-level resource allocation decisions can attempt to vote to incorporate as

11700-560: The least extensive county equivalent is Kingman Reef , with a land area of 0.01 square miles (0.03 km ). In some states, a municipality may be in only one county and may not annex territory in adjacent counties, but in the majority of states, the state constitution or state law allows municipalities to extend across county boundaries. At least 32 states include municipalities in multiple counties . Dallas , for example, contains portions of five counties, while numerous other cities comprise portions of four counties. New York City

11830-416: The legislative power to enact laws for the county; it has the executive power to oversee the executive operations of county government; and it has quasi-judicial power with regard to certain limited matters (such as hearing appeals from the planning commission if one exists). In many states, several important officials are elected separately from the board of commissioners or supervisors and cannot be fired by

11960-674: The matter to the states. Subsequently, state constitutions conceptualized county governments as arms of the state. Louisiana instead adopted the local divisions called parishes that dated back to both the Spanish colonial and French colonial periods when the land was dominated by the Catholic Church . In the twentieth century, the role of local governments strengthened and counties began providing more services, acquiring home rule and county commissions to pass local ordinances pertaining to their unincorporated areas . In 1955, delegates to

12090-445: The mid-1980s when lethal injection became widely accepted for conducting judicial executions. Other countries appear to have contemplated using the method, sometimes for special reasons. The Philippines also adopted the electric chair from 1926 to 1987. A well-publicized triple execution took place there in May 1972, when Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda, and Edgardo Aquino were electrocuted for

12220-432: The mouth of the Obion River and killed a bald eagle . One of the earlier settlers to Dyer County was McCullouch family. Alexander McCullouch, a War of 1812 veteran who served as aid-de-camp under John Coffee at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , moved his family in the late 1820's to a plantation west of Dyersburg from northern Alabama . McCullouch's children were also involved with the development of Dyer County and

12350-667: The nation at large. His youngest daughter, Adelaide, married Albert Pierce, a prominent steamboat agent on the Forked Deer and Mississippi Rivers in the Reconstruction era. McCullough also had multiple sons that served in the American Civil War; Alexander Jr. who served as a colonel and head of the Dyer County Militia, Benjamin , who (according to family lore) learned to hunt bears from Davy Crockett and tried to follow him

12480-514: The next most common source of county names are geographic features and locations, with some counties even being named after counties in other states, or for places in other countries, such as the United Kingdom (the latter is most common in the area of the original Thirteen Colonies in the case of the United Kingdom, or in places which had a large number of immigrants from a particular area for other countries). The most common geographic county name

12610-466: The north and Lauderdale county to the south. A bypass in Dyersburg, constructed in the 1970s, diverts traffic around the downtown core. The Canadian National Railway's Gulf Division runs through Trimble, Newbern, and Dyersburg to connect with Memphis to the south and the wider CN rail network to the north. The TennKen Railroad connects Dyersburg with the communities in the western part of the county, like Lenox and Miston, and travels through Lake County to

12740-500: The north to terminate at Hickman, KY on the Mississippi River. Dyer County holds one of two active passenger stations in Tennessee (the other being in Memphis). Amtrak's City of New Orleans stops at the historic Illinois Central Railroad depot in Newbern twice a day. Like most of the rural South, Dyer County is presently overwhelmingly Republican. The last Democrat to carry this county

12870-424: The official record of all real estate transactions. Other key county officials include the coroner / medical examiner , treasurer , assessor , auditor , comptroller , and district attorney . In most states, the county sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county. However, except in major emergencies where clear chains of command are essential, the county sheriff normally does not directly control

13000-413: The only places that still reserve the electric chair as an option for execution are the U.S. states of Alabama , Arkansas , Florida , Kentucky , Louisiana , South Carolina and Tennessee . Electrocution is also authorized in Florida if lethal injection is found unconstitutional. Mississippi and Oklahoma laws provide for its use should lethal injection ever be held to be unconstitutional. Inmates in

13130-434: The other states must select either it or lethal injection. In Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, inmates sentenced before a certain date can choose to be executed by electric chair. Arkansas currently doesn't have any death row inmates sentenced before their select date. Electrocution is also authorized in the three aforementioned states in case lethal injection is found unconstitutional by a court. In May 2014, Tennessee passed

13260-448: The police departments of city governments, but merely cooperates with them (e.g., under mutual aid pacts). Thus, the most common interaction between county and city law enforcement personnel is when city police officers deliver suspects to sheriff's deputies for detention or incarceration in the county jail. In most states, the state courts and local law enforcement are organized and implemented along county boundaries, but nearly all of

13390-418: The population shows 25.70% under the age of 18, 8.70% from 18 to 24, 28.60% from 25 to 44, 23.50% from 45 to 64, and 13.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 92.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 32,788, and the median income for a family was $ 39,848. Males had

13520-524: The press, members of the Medico-Legal Society including Elbridge Gerry who was also chairman of the death penalty commission, and Thomas Edison looking on. Brown used alternating current for all of his tests on animals larger than a human, including 4 calves and a lame horse, all dispatched with 750 volts of AC. Based on these results the Medico-Legal Society recommended the use of 1000–1500 volts of alternating current for executions and newspapers noted

13650-504: The range of 3000–6000 volts, was followed by one story after another in newspapers about how the high voltages used were killing people, usually unwary linemen; it was a strange new phenomenon that seemed to instantaneously strike a victim dead without leaving a mark. One of these accidents, in Buffalo, New York, on August 7, 1881, led to the inception of the electric chair. That evening a drunken dock worker named George Lemuel Smith, looking for

13780-578: The relationship between counties and incorporated cities. The powers of counties arise from state law and vary widely. In Connecticut and Rhode Island , counties are geographic entities, but not governmental jurisdictions. At the other extreme, Maryland counties and the county equivalent City of Baltimore handle almost all services, including public education , although the state retains an active oversight authority with many of these services. Counties in Hawaii also handle almost all services since there

13910-406: The same condemnation. Certainly, it is not so on its face, for, although the mode of death described is conceded to be unusual, there is no common knowledge or consent that it is cruel; it is a question of fact whether an electric current of sufficient intensity and skillfully applied will produce death without unnecessary suffering. Kemmler was executed in New York's Auburn Prison on August 6, 1890;

14040-429: The second attempt, Kemmler received a 2,000 volt AC shock. Blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and the areas around the electrodes singed; some witnesses reported that his body caught fire. The entire execution took about eight minutes. George Westinghouse later commented that, "They would have done better using an axe", and The New York Times ran the headline: "Far worse than hanging". The electric chair

14170-609: The shoddy installation of pole-mounted AC arc lighting lines in New York City had caused several deaths in early 1888. Peterson had been an assistant at Brown's July 1888 public electrocution of dogs with AC at Columbia College, an attempt by Brown to prove AC was more deadly than DC. Technical assistance in these demonstrations was provided by Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory and there grew to be some form of collusion between Edison Electric and Brown. Back at West Orange on December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment with members of

14300-541: The state's French and Spanish colonial periods. Before the Louisiana Purchase and granting of statehood, government was often administered in towns where major church parishes were located. Of the original 19 civil parishes of Louisiana that date from statehood in 1807, nine were named after the Roman Catholic parishes from which they were governed. The structure and powers of a county government may be defined by

14430-421: The substantive and procedural law adjudicated in state trial courts originates from the state legislature and state appellate courts. In other words, most criminal defendants are prosecuted for violations of state law, not local ordinances, and if they, the district attorney, or police seek reforms to the criminal justice system, they will usually have to direct their efforts towards the state legislature rather than

14560-407: The task of working out the details of electrode placement. They again turned to Brown to supply the technical assistance. Brown asked Edison Electric Light to supply equipment for the tests and treasurer Francis S. Hastings (who seemed to be one of the primary movers at the company trying to portray Westinghouse as a peddler of death dealing AC current ) tried to obtain a Westinghouse AC generator for

14690-399: The term "county equivalent" to describe places that are comparable to counties, but called by different names. Louisiana parishes, the organized boroughs of Alaska, independent cities, and the District of Columbia are equivalent to counties for administrative purposes. Alaska's Unorganized Borough is further divided into 11 census areas that are statistically equivalent to counties. In 2024,

14820-410: The test but found none could be acquired. They ended up using Edison's West Orange laboratory for the animal tests they conducted in mid-March 1889. Superintendent of Prisons Austin E. Lathrop asked Brown to design the chair, but Brown turned down the offer. George Fell drew up the final designs for a simple oak chair and went against the Medico-Legal Society recommendations, changing the position of

14950-438: The thrill of a tingling sensation he had noticed when grabbing the guard rail in a Brush Electric Company arc lighting power house, managed to sneak his way back into the plant at night and grabbed the brush and ground of a large electric dynamo. He died instantly. The coroner who investigated the case brought it up that year at a local Buffalo scientific society. Another member attending that lecture, Alfred P. Southwick ,

15080-554: The time of execution. A significant shift occurred on February 8, 2008, when the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled electric chair execution as " cruel and unusual punishment " under the state constitution. This decision ended electric chair executions in Nebraska, the last state to rely solely on this method. In the late 1870s to early 1880s, the spread of arc lighting , a type of outdoor street lighting that required high voltages in

15210-409: The type of electricity, direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), was not determined, and since tests up to that point had been done on animals smaller than a human (dogs), some members were unsure that the lethality of AC had been conclusively proven. At this point the state's efforts to design the electric chair became intermixed with what has come to be known as the war of the currents ,

15340-460: The west, Dyer County is connected to Missouri by Interstate 155 over the Mississippi River, providing the only highway connection, other than those at Memphis, between Tennessee and the states to the west of the river. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 36,801 people, 15,120 households, and 10,566 families residing in the county. As of the census of 2000, there were 37,279 people, 14,751 households, and 10,458 families residing in

15470-601: The youngest person ever executed in the electric chair when he was electrocuted at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia , South Carolina. His conviction was overturned in 2014 after a circuit court judge vacated his sentence on the grounds that Stinney did not receive a fair trial. The judge determined that Stinney's legal counsel was inadequate, thus violating his rights under the Sixth Amendment to

15600-622: Was Bill Clinton in 1996. Being overwhelmingly secessionist during the Civil War due to the strong power of the slave economy in West Tennessee , Dyer County was overwhelmingly Democratic for a century after its blacks were disfranchised . Anti-Catholicism allowed Richard Nixon to carry the county narrowly in 1960, then after the massive revolt against the Civil Rights Act and race riots segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace carried

15730-435: Was administered, followed by a one-second pause, then a 22-second application at 480 volts. After a 20-second break, the cycle was repeated three more times. In 1946, the electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis , who reportedly shrieked, "Take it off! Let me breathe!", after the current was applied. It turned out that the portable electric chair had been improperly set up by an intoxicated prison guard and inmate. A case

15860-437: Was adopted by Ohio (1897), Massachusetts (1900), New Jersey (1906), and Virginia (1908), and soon became the prevalent method of execution in the United States, replacing hanging. Twenty-six states, the District of Columbia, the federal government, and the U.S. military either had death by electrocution on the books or actively executed criminals using the method. The electric chair remained the most prominent execution method until

15990-557: Was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court ( Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber ) , with lawyers for the condemned arguing that although Francis did not die, he had, in fact, been executed. The argument was rejected on the basis that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy clause of the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution, and Francis was returned to the electric chair and executed in 1947. Florida saw three highly controversial botched electrocutions in

16120-491: Was convicted and sentenced to death. On July 13, 1916, Morgan was the first person to be executed by electrocution in Tennessee. In the 1920's the Mengle Box Company of Louisville, KY operated a box manufacturing facility at the small town of Menglewood in the western part of the county on the Obion River . The town of Menglewood had over 1,200 people living in it at the height of the box factory's operations. By 1929,

16250-440: Was dissolved by the District of Columbia Organic Act . Jefferson County , for Thomas Jefferson , is next with 26. The most recent president to have a county named for him was Warren G. Harding , reflecting the slowing rate of county creation since New Mexico and Arizona became states in 1912. The most common names for counties not named after a president are Franklin (25), Clay (18), and Montgomery (18). After people,

16380-577: Was executed in the electric chair at New York's Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901, for the assassination of then-President William McKinley . The first photograph of an execution by electric chair was of housewife Ruth Snyder at Sing Sing on the evening of January 12, 1928, for the March 1927 murder of her husband. It was photographed for a front-page story in the New York Daily News the following morning by news photographer Tom Howard who had smuggled

16510-414: Was no evidence that electrocution could instantaneously or painlessly kill an inmate, writing that the idea of the electric chair inducing instant unconsciousness was based on "underlying assumptions upon which the electric chair is based, dating back to the 1800s, [that] have since been disproven." The decision also called electrocution "inconsistent with both the concepts of evolving standards of decency and

16640-470: Was of Nicholas Todd Sutton on February 20, 2020, in Tennessee. The condemned inmate's head and legs are shaved and they are seated in the chair. Their arms and legs are tightly strapped with leather belts, and a cap with a saltwater-soaked sponge is strapped to the head, and electrodes are attached to the legs. The condemned person is optionally hooded or blindfolded. Various cycles (changes in voltage and duration) of alternating current are passed through

16770-537: Was perceived as more humane. While some states retain electrocution as a legal execution method, it is often a secondary option based on the condemned's preference. Exceptions include South Carolina , where it is the primary method, and Tennessee , where it can be used without prisoner input if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. As of 2024, electrocution remains an option in states like Alabama , South Carolina and Florida , where inmates may choose lethal injection instead. Arkansas , Kentucky , and Tennessee offer

16900-474: Was signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889. The bill itself contained no details on the type or amount of electricity that should be used and the New York Medico-Legal Society, an informal society composed of doctors and lawyers, was given the task of determining these factors. In September 1888, a committee was formed and recommended 3000 volts, although

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