- Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a
poison ous orasphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent ishydrogen cyanide ;carbon dioxide andcarbon monoxide have also been used. Gas chambers were used as a method of execution for condemned prisoners in theUnited States beginning in the 1920s. During theHolocaust , large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used byNazi Germany as part of their genocide program. [Many sources including http://www.yadvashem.org] The use of gas chambers has also been reported inNorth Korea . [Citation | last = Barnett | first = Antony | title = "Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag" | newspaper = The Guardian | year = 2004 | date = February 1, 2004 | url =http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1136483,00.html]Gas chambers have also been used for animal euthanasia, using
carbon dioxide as the lethal agent. Sometimes a box filled withanaesthetic gas is used toanaesthetize small animals for surgery or euthanasia.Nazi Germany
Gas chambers were used in the
Third Reich during the 1930s and 1940s as part of the "public euthanasia program" aimed at eliminating physically andintellectually disabled people and political undesirables in the 1930s and 1940s. At that time, the preferred gas wascarbon monoxide , often provided by theexhaust gas of cars, trucks or armytank s. [Jewish Virtual Library "The T-4 Euthanasia Program" http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/t4.html]During the
Holocaust , gas chambers were designed to accept large groups as part of theNazi policy ofgenocide against the Jews. Nazis also targeted the Romani people, homosexuals, physically and mentally disabled, and intellectuals. In early 1940, the use of hydrogen cyanide produced byZyklon B was tested on 250 Roma children fromBrno at theBuchenwald concentration camp. [Emil Proester, "Vraždeni čs. cikanu v Buchenwaldu" ("The murder of Czech Gypsies in Buchenwald"). Document No. UV CSPB K-135 on deposit in the Archives of the Museum of the Fighters Against Nazism,Prague . 1940. (Quoted in:Miriam Novitch , "Le génocide des Tziganes sous le régime nazi" ("Genocide of Gypsies by the Nazi Regime),Paris , AMIF, 1968)] OnSeptember 3 ,1941 , 600Soviet POWs were gassed with Zyklon B at Auschwitz camp I; this was the first experiment with the gas at Auschwitz. [The Nizkor Project, "Auschwitz: Krema I" http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-04.html]Carbon monoxide was also used in large purpose-built gas chambers. The gas was provided by internal combustion engines (detailed in theGerstein Report ). [Kurt Gerstein, "Der Gerstein-Bericht"("The Gerstein Report") http://www.ns-archiv.de/verfolgung/gerstein/gerstein-bericht.php]Gas chambers in mobile vans, concentration camps, and
extermination camp s were used to kill several million people between 1941 and 1945. Some stationary gas chambers could kill 2,500 people at once.Rudolf Höß , Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, attested to the use of gas chambers in the Holocaust. ["Modern History Sourcebook: Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz: Testimony at Nuremberg, 1946" http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1946hoess.html]The gas chambers were dismantled or destroyed when Soviet troops got close, except at Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and
Majdanek . The gas chamber atAuschwitz I was reconstructed after the war as a memorial, but without a door in its doorway and without the wall that originally separated the gas chamber from a washroom. The door that had been added when the gas chamber was converted into an air raid shelter was left intact. [The Nizkor Project, "Auschwitz: Krema I" http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-04.html]United States
legend|#FFFF33|Secondary method only legend|#7fff00|Once used gas chamber, but does not today legend|#0099CC|Has never used gas chamber
thumb|200px|Post-Furman uses by state and numbersGas chambers have been used for
capital punishment in the United States to execute criminals, especially convictedmurder ers. The first person to be executed in theUnited States by gas chamber wasGee Jon , onFebruary 8 ,1924 inNevada . In 1957,Burton Abbott was executed as the governor ofCalifornia ,Goodwin J. Knight , was on the telephone to stay the execution. [cite web|year=1957 |month=March 25 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809259,00.html |title=Race in the Death House |publisher="Time (magazine) " |accessdate=2007-11-14 ] Since the restoration of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, only eleven executions by gas chamber have been conducted.cite news | title = "German executed in Arizona, legal challenge fails" | publisher = CNN | date =March 4 ,1999 | url = http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/04/arizona.execution.01/] By the 1980s, reports of suffering during gas chamber executions had led to controversy over the use of this method.At the
September 2 ,1983 execution ofJimmy Lee Gray inMississippi , officials cleared the viewing room after eight minutes while Gray was still alive and gasping for air. The decision to clear the room while he was still alive was criticized by his attorney. David Bruck, an attorney specializing in death penalty cases, said, "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans." [cite news | title = "Some examples of post-Furman botched executions" | publisher = Death Penalty Information Center | date =May 24 ,2007 | http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=478]During the
April 6 ,1992 execution ofDonald Harding inArizona , it took 11 minutes for death to occur. The prison warden stated that he would quit if required to conduct another gas chamber execution. [Citation | last=Weil | first=Elizabeth | title="The needle and the damage done| newspaper=The New York Times | year=2007| date=February 11, 2007 | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11injection.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin] Following Harding's execution, Arizona voted that all persons condemned after November 1992 would be executed by lethal injection.Following the execution of
Robert Alton Harris ,Fact|date=September 2008 a federal court declared that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual." [cite court|litigants=Fierro, Ruiz, Harris v. Gomez |vol= |reporter= |opinion=94-16775 |pinpoint= |court=U.S. 9th Circuit |date=1996 |url=http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cas73.htm] By the late 20th century, most states had switched to methods considered to be more humane, such aslethal injection . California's gas chamber atSan Quentin State Prison was converted to an execution chamber for lethal injection.As of 2006, the last person to be executed in the gas chamber was German national Walter LaGrand, sentenced to death before 1992, who was executed in
Arizona onMarch 3 ,1999 . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that he could not be executed by gas chamber, but the decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The gas chamber was formerly used inColorado ,Mississippi ,Nevada ,New Mexico ,North Carolina andOregon . Five states—Arizona ,California ,Maryland ,Missouri , andWyoming —retain the gas chamber as a method of execution, but allow lethal injection as an alternative. [cite news | title = "Methods of execution" | publisher = Death Penalty Information Center | http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=245]Execution by gas chamber
When executions by gas chambers are conducted in the
United States , the general protocol is as follows. First, the executioner will place a quantity ofpotassium cyanide (KCN) pellets into a compartment directly below the chair in the chamber. The condemned person is then brought into the chamber and strapped into the chair, and the airtight chamber is sealed. At this point the executioner will pour a quantity of concentratedsulfuric acid (H2SO4) down a tube that leads to a small holding tank directly below the compartment containing the cyanide pellets. The curtain is then opened, allowing the witnesses to observe the inside of the chamber. The prison warden will then ask the condemned individual if he or she wishes to make a final statement. Following this, the executioner(s) will throw a switch/lever to cause the cyanide pellets to drop into the sulfuric acid, initiating a chemical reaction that generateshydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas:2KCN(s) + H2SO4(aq) → 2HCN(g) + K2SO4
The gas is visible to the condemned, and he/she is advised to take several deep breaths to speed unconsciousness in order to prevent unnecessary suffering. Accordingly, execution by gas chamber is especially unpleasant for the witnesses to the execution due to the physical responses exhibited by the condemned during the process of dying. These responses can be violent, and can include convulsions and excessive
drooling . It is unknown whether or not the condemned actually experiences pain during the process. However, a Federal judge inCalifornia ordered that a specific gas chamber execution be filmed for her subsequent review. She wanted to determine whether the gas chamber fit the description of "cruel and unusual punishment". After witnessing the film, her ruling paved the way for the gas chamber to be removed from use in California.Following the execution, the chamber is purged of the gas through special scrubbers, and must be neutralized with anhydrous ammonia (NH3) before it can be opened. Guards wearing oxygen masks remove the body from the chamber. Finally, the prison doctor examines the individual in order to officially declare that he or she is dead and release the body to the next of kin.
One of the problems with the gas chamber is the inherent danger of dealing with such a toxic gas. Anhydrous ammonia is used to cleanse the chamber after cyanide gas has been used:
The anhydrous ammonia used to clean the chamber afterwards, and the contaminated acid that must be drained and disposed of, are both very poisonous.
Nitrogen gas or oxygen-depleted air has been considered for human execution, as it can induce
Nitrogen asphyxiation . It has not been used to date.Napoleonic France
In his book, "Le Crime de Napoléon", French historian
Claude Ribbe has claimed that in the early 19th century,Napoleon used poison gas to put down slave rebellions inHaiti andGuadeloupe . Based on accounts left by French officers, he alleges that enclosed spaces including the holds of ships were used as makeshift gas chambers wheresulfur dioxide gas (probably generated by burningsulfur ) was used to execute up to 100,000 rebellious slaves. These claims remain controversial. [Citation | last = Randall | first = Colin | title = "Napoleon's genocide 'on a par with Hitler." | newspaper = Daily Telegraph | year = 2005 | date = November 26, 2005 | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/26/wfra26.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/26/ixworld.html]
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