| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Gas chambers have been used for capital punishment in the United States in the past to execute criminals, especially convicted murderers. Five states (Wyoming, California, Maryland, Missouri, and Arizona) technically retain this method, but all allow lethal injection as an alternative. A federal court in California has declared this method of execution as " cruel and unusual punishment". In fact, it is highly unlikely that any of these states will ever again utilize the gas chamber. Most states have now switched to more humane methods, such as lethal injection and electrocution. The first person to be executed in the United States via gas chamber was Gee Jon, on February 8, 1924 in Nevada. The last person to be executed in the gas chamber was German national Walter LaGrand, whom Arizona executed in March, 1999.
The punishment was instituted individually and publicly, behind the protective glass of a gas chamber, in full view of accredited journalists, legal and medical experts, and the prosecuting side. The gassed individual can see the poison, and is advised to take a deep breath after the gas is released, to speed unconsciousness rather than prolonging death. The gas used is hydrogen cyanide, and death from it is painful and unpleasant.
More notoriously, gas chambers were used in the Nazi Third Reich during the 1930sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Link Trainer invented Sc a part of the so-called "public euthanasia programIn Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler's T-4 " Euthanasia" Program was established in order to maintain the supposed purity ( eugenics) of the so-called Aryan race by systematically killing children and adults born with physical deformities or suffering from menta" aimed at eliminating physically and intellectually disabled people, and later the mentally ill. At that time, the preferred gas was carbon monoxide, often provided by the exhaust fumes of cars and trucks.
Later, during the HolocaustThis article deals with the Nazi Holocaust. For other meanings of the word Holocaust see Holocaust (disambiguation Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust refers to Nazi Germany's systematic genocide of various ethnic, religious, nat, gas chambers were modified and enhanced to accept even larger groups as part of the Nazi policy of genocideGenocide has been defined as the deliberate killing of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or (sometimes) politics, as well as other deliberate actions leading to the physical elimination of any of the above categories. There is against JewThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for as, Gypsies, and others. Through experimentation in September 1941 Zyklon B (a crystalline form of hydrogen cyanide) gas was found to be most efficient. Nazi gas chambers in mobile vans and at least eight concentration camps (see also: extermination camp) were used to kill several million people between 1941 and 1945.
The American method may be contrasted with the method used in Nazi Germany, which was instituted en masse and secretly. The victims were apparently unaware of their fates; they died in the belief that they were entering the chambers to be cleaned and deloused.