Dr. Allen McLean Hamiliton, a Toxicologist of Nevada, was the first who had the idea to use gas to kill. Gas was supposed to make executions to a "clean thing". First tests were done with pigs. 

Major D.A. Turner, member of the Medical Corps of the US Army, used his experience with gas in World War I to construct a gas chamber. 

The first gas chamber was used in Nevada. Gee Jon died there as first human being on February 8th, 1924. The execution proceeded without trouble. 

The effectiveness of the gas chamber impressed the German Nazis later... The Cyanide-gas, used to execute in the gas chamber till today, is chemical identical to Cyclone B that was used for genocide in Auschwitz.  

5 US States have the execution in the gas chamber still in their laws: Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri, and Wyoming (here only if lethal injection would be ruled unconstitutional). 

Since reintroduction of the death penalty 11 people died in the gas chamber in the USA.

Talking about a "clean method" means seeing it from the witness' perspective. For the delinquent the death in a gas chamber is very painful. The convicted is strapped to a chair and gets connected to an ECG. Usually there are holes in the seat, to let the gas through. The chamber itself is an airtight room with windows. 

Under the chair there is a bowl with sulfuric acid. A switch gives free small cyanide balls to fall into the acid and making deadly hydrogen cyanide from it. Through this the body is unable to absorb oxygen, in the broadest sense it can be said that the convicted gets strangled. A doctor views the ECG from the outside and pronounces the delinquent being dead. Until the death comes it needs mostly 6 to 18 minutes. This method requires the support of the delinquent. He has to breath fast and deep, to get unconscious faster. If he is not breathing fast and deep the effect of the gas will be faster than the unconsciousness and he will die very distressful. 

After the execution ammonia gets pumped into the chamber to absorb the gas. Even though this the men who open the chamber are equipped with gas masks. 

Jimmy Lee Gray - September 2nd, 1983 - Mississippi
8 minutes after the gas was absorbed by ammonia to clean the chamber, the "executed" was still breathing. His attorney later said: "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while the reporters counted his moans (eleven, according to the AP)."

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last Update: 06.11.04
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