The electric chair has ended its days as Florida's...

The electric chair has ended its days as Florida's sole means of execution after a decade that sometimes saw macabre spectacles in the state's death chamber. Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill giving inmates a choice between the electric chair and lethal injection. The new law makes lethal injection the method of choice if inmates decline a preference. Bush also approved new regulations designed to limit inmates' appeals and cut the time they spend on death row by half. The Legislature approved the changes on January 6 in a bid to stop the U.S. Supreme Court from reviewing a death row inmate's lawsuit claiming the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment -- and therefore unconstitutional.Its old electric chair, dubbed ``Old Sparky'' after flames shot from its headgear during executions in 1990 and 1997, was replaced before the July execution in which blood streamed down the face of Allen Lee ``Tiny'' Davis. The other law changed on Friday 7 limits death row inmates appealing on legal technicalities to two appeals in state courts in most cases and requires second appeals be filed within six months of the first. Previously, attorneys for convicted killers had a year to file a second appeal after the first was rejected. The Senate voted 30-7 for the appeals bill, and the House passed it 80-35 -- just meeting the two-thirds vote needed to repeal court rules that dictate how and when death penalty appeals are filed. Some opponents complained that the Legislature was acting too quickly. ``We really spent more time talking about a license plate last session than we have about executing people,'' said Democratic Rep. Curt Levine.