Edwin F. Davis was the first "state electrician" (executioner) for the State of New York. In 1890, Davis finalized many features of the first electric chair used.[1] Davis performed 240 executions between 1890 and 1914,[1] including the first prisoner to be electrocuted, William Kemmler, and Martha M. Place, as well as the assasin of William Mckinley, Leon Frank 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.