First installed at the now-demolished Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, Yellow Mama acquired its yellow
color when painted using highway-line paint from the adjacent State Highway Department lab. The chair was built by a British
inmate in 1927 and was first used to execute Horace DeVauhan that same year. (Previous executions in Alabama had been by hanging.)
Yellow Mama is now stored in an attic above the newly reconstructed
execution chamber at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. The last execution to occur using it was
that of Lynda Lyon Block on May 10, 2002. Following her execution, a bill was passed
that would allow for execution by either lethal injection or electrocution.
