Darwin says, "Accepted into the Archive. Oldie but goodie."

Reference: News of the Weird, 23 January 1997

Michael Anderson Godwin made "News of the Weird" posthumously in 1989. He had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder conviction before having his sentence reduced to life. In March 1989, sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted. On January 1, 1997, Laurence Baker, also a convicted murderer once on death row but at the time serving a life sentence at the state prison in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was electrocuted by his homemade earphones as he watched TV while sitting on a metal toilet.

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Gizmodo.com

Michael Anderson Godwin was a murderer. He was awaiting South Carolina's electric chair in 1989 when he decided to fix his TV set while sitting on his cell's metal toilet. You can probably see where this is going.

Being on death row is lonely, so having a TV is important to your sanity. Godwin's was on the fritz, so he decided to multitask by trying to fix it while using the commode.

The last stupid decision of his life was to bite down on an exposed wire in the plugged-in TV while sitting on the metal toilet. He was electrocuted instantly, making his own kind of electric chair and saving the state the trouble. - - -

Submitted on 05/22/2009

Submitted by: John Francis
Reference: Gizmodo, May 22, 2009

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
While electrocution is extremely common I think this is worth accepting due to the extreme irony and circumstances under which this occurred. Thanks, John!

Graham said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Electrocution is indeed very common, but this one is quite something! Clearly, our victim understood very little about electricity - and now, never will.

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