CLEVELAND -- Ohio's electric chair, also known as "Old Sparky," put 312 men and three women to their deaths.

The chair was first built and used in 1897. It replaced the gallows that were used when hanging was the means of execution.

Its inventor, Dr. David Rockwell (right), was from Milan, Ohio -- the same city where Thomas Edison was born.

Rockwell felt it was indecent to hang people. He believed the electric chair would be quicker, less painful and more humane.

There are a lot of stories about the people who died in the chair. But the one that stands out as the most ironic was the execution of Charles Justice on Nov. 9, 1911.

At the turn of the century, Justice was a prison inmate in Columbus and helped build and install Ohio's only electric chair. He served his time, was released from prison, but returned to prison 13 years later and died in the same electric chair that he helped build.

The first person to die in Ohio's electric chair was 17-year-old Willie Haas in 1897. He was convicted for raping and murdering a farmer's wife in Cincinnati.

The last person electrocuted in Ohio, Donald Reinbolt, was put to death in 1963.

Among the witnesses was Al Orton. He was a reporter for The Associated Press.

"There's a wall with a few little holes in it. Peepholes, I think, and the warden just looked over there, nodded and zap he lurched in the chair. There was a big humming noise. He lurched in the chair. They gave him about three jolts. I understand the first one killed him, but I guess they were making sure," Orton said.

The death penalty was reinstated in 1981 and inmates were given a choice of electrocution or lethal injection.

Ohio has now banned the electric chair and prisoners die from lethal injection.