Arizona making plans to execute prisoners with the same gas Nazis used at Auschwitz: report

[tenderfoot]

On Saturday, Business Insider reported that Arizona has purchased the materials needed to manufacture hydrogen cyanide gas — the same chemical the Nazis used to murder Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz and other death camps — just as they are refurbishing a gas chamber used in death row executions.

"The Arizona Department of Corrections spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients for the gas, The Guardian reported, citing the partially-redacted documents," reported Alexandra Ma. "The ingredients purchased include a solid brick of potassium cyanide, sodium hydroxide pellets, and sulfuric acid, per the documents ... The documents published by The Guardian also included instructions on how to operate the gas chamber."

"Cyanide is lethal in that it prevents the body from using oxygen. It was used in both World Wars — by French and Austrian troops in World War I, and by Nazi Germany in World War II, according to a 2014 fact sheet by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The trade name for hydrogen cyanide is Zyklon B," said the report.

Asphyxiation by hydrogen cyanide gas is an extremely painful way to die, causing violent seizures and cardiac arrest as the body's cells are blocked from respirating.

"Arizona currently uses lethal injections as its method of capital punishment," noted the report. "However, there have been no executions for seven years following the botched death penalty of the murderer Joseph Wood in 2014, according to the Guardian. Woods took two hours to die following 15 injections as he lay gasping and gulping on a gurney."

Many states have been seeking an alternative to lethal injection as scientists have revealed the torture behind the traditional drug cocktails and corporations that manufacture the drugs have cut them off for use in executions. Other states, like South Carolina, are considering firing squads as an alternative.

[hlthe2b]

1. Unbelievably sadistic.

[hlthe2b]

3. During the April 6, 1992, execution of Donald Harding in Arizona, it took 11 minutes for death

During the April 6, 1992, execution of Donald Harding in Arizona, it took 11 minutes for death to occur. The prison warden stated that he would quit if required to conduct another gas chamber execution.[14] Following Harding's execution, Arizona voted that all persons condemned to death after November 1992 would be executed by lethal injection

Wiki page...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chamber

[BGBD]

20. Seems fair

Considering one of the men he killed basically drowned in his own blood.

[Mysterian]

32. A civilized society does not baseline its standards of conduct

on the actions of a murdering thug. Pick up some morality.

[BGBD]

36. My morality is fine

He was a monster and I don't give a shit if his last 10 minutes on earth were agony. I wish it had taken 20.

[Chautauquas]

48. wishing agony on someone, no matter what they did, is incredibly fucked up

[Mysterian]

52. No, it's not. n/t

[BGBD]

54. Go read up

On what he did and then tell me all about how awful it is that he had to suffer for 10 minutes. I personally don't have a fuck to give for him.

[ShazzieB]

44. I'm with you, Mysterian. Yikes!

[edhopper]

34. And the innocent people on Death Row

that seem fair to you too?

[BGBD]

35. That doesn't seem like a question for the method of execution

But the prosecution of the case. What does it really matter if an innocent person is executed in one way or another? They are still dead.

[edhopper]

37. The point is

no one should be executed. And if you are for the Death Penalty, you must accept that innocent people will be executed.

[ShazzieB]

45. I agree.

I am 100% against the death penalty. Not because some people don't "deserve" it, but because... well, that's not really the point. There are a lot of reasons that would take too long to go into here.

I haven't always held this view but was convinced to do so by a book called "Ultimate Punishment," by Scott Turow. Turow wrote the book after serving on the Illinois commission that investigated the administration of the death penalty and influenced Governor George Ryan’s unprecedented commutation of the sentences of 164 death row inmates on his last day in office and ultimately led to the abolishnent of the death penalty in the state. It's a very thoughtfully written book and a great read. I highly recommend it.

[BGBD]

53. There cab be more safeguards

Independent committees to investigate death penalty cases, trials, defenses, etc. Requirements for multiple types of evidence, witness, DNA, digital, etc....

But, there are people who commit crime so horrible that there isn't a punishment suitable short of death.

[roamer65]

2. There we go.

Repukes being the Nazis they have always wanted to be, following their god, Adolf Hitler.

I remember my WW2 great uncle always saying, “The only good Nazi is a dead one”.

That may still yet ring true.

[Comfortably_Numb]

4. Zyklon B, just like the Nazis used. Take a bow Arizona!!!

Then go fuck yourself. Your dipshit “audit” was poised to be the low point of AZ politics but way to find a way to dig that hole deeper.

[Disaffected]

5. I suspect a lot of these red-neck states

don't really want to execute a prisoner "humanely".

The best way IMO is a single shot to the nape of the neck, just below the skull. Instantaneous unconsciousness/death.

That's the way they do it in China anyhow.

[marie999]

14. That reminds me of the TV show In the Heat of the Night.

Chief Gillespie is talking about capital punishment and he says something like you should tell the man that they are not going to execute him to ease his mind and when he walks away then shoot him in the back of the head. He says that is the most humane way to execute someone.

[Disaffected]

22. Yeah, the Chief had a soft spot alright.

Just make sure the victim doesn't hear the chamber being loaded or the hammer cocked.

[Klaralven]

15. Lying down on a steel plate with a small pillow of plastic explosive would be the way to go

The shock wave would instantly terminate nerve impulses before the brain is mostly vaporized.

[soothsayer]

6. Jeezus they are disgusting human beings

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Is This New? Edited

I thought states that used the gas chamber used HCN gas, all the way back to the 60s.
And, Zyklon is actually hydrogen cyanide gas in a mixture of adsorbants (diatomaceous earth, vermiculite, kieselgur...) that traps the gas for gradual release. A very low level opthalmic irritant was added to you'd bail out before the cyanide exposure got too dangerous, should one be exposed.
The HCN itself can be delivered in numerous ways.
As I recall, gas chambers worked by dropping pellets of potassium cyanide into a strong acid, making a salt of the acid anion and releasing cyanide gas. I've done that myself in working with crosslinking alternates in cyanoacrylate adhesives.
So, I'm not sure that this is all that novel, and am not convinced they have the story straight. It's way safer to handle potassium cyanide. Far easier to minimize or eliminate exposure.
My distaste for the death penalty, notwithstanding.
Edit: I see now they bought potassium cyanide solid & sulfuric acid. So the process is as I thought. The sodium hydroxide pellets have nothing to do with the process. The author didn't bother to look this up.
And this is NOT Zyklon B. Hyperbolic headline.

[TwilightZone]

21. I wish that your comment would get more attention.

Instead, as is often the case here (and everywhere, for that matter), it will be drowned in the hyperbole.

[Disaffected]

26. Certainly the gas chamber utilizing HCN as you described

had been used by several states for years (California for example).

It was not a pleasant way to go at all and the prisoner was apparently advised not to hold his breath but to breath deeply to get it over faster. Not an easy thing to do I would imagine especially with breathing the acid vapour that the roiling mixture stirred up (at least in video examples I have viewed).

Quite barbaric all-in-all....

[canetoad]

41. No

Everything old is new again.

Gas Chamber

In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon's cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed. (Bohm, 1999) Today, five states authorize lethal gas as a method of execution, but all have lethal injection as an alternative method. A federal court in California found this method to be cruel and unusual punishment. The last use of a gas chamber was on March 3, 1999, when Walter LaGrand, a German national, was executed in Arizona.

For execution by this method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death. Once everyone has left the chamber, the room is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas. (Weisberg, 1991)

The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the process. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose consciousness immediately. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary warden, Clifton Duffy, "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool" (Weisberg, 1991).

Caryl Chessman, before he died in California's gas chamber in 1960, told reporters that he would nod his head if it hurt. Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes (Ecenbarger, 1994). According to Dr. Richard Traystman of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, "The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety...The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen." The inmate dies from hypoxia, the cutting-off of oxygen to the brain (Weisberg, 1991).

https://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/teacher/c/about/methods/gaschamber.htm

[ShazzieB]

46. Wow, thanks for this info!

I never would have caught that. Very helpful.

[dchill]

8. They want to be the cruelest and unusualest.

This can't stand.

[bahboo]

9. I'm sure just the thought gives them a hard on....

repubs in this state have gone completely off the rails....

[2naSalit]

10. Why am I not surprised?

[Botany]

11. I'm against the D.P.. It costs much more than them keeping locked up for life, too many cases of

people getting off death row after being found innocent, it is cruel on the victims family & friends (too many
dates of execution being passed over), it takes so long that the person executed is not the same as the
person who did the crime and it has no effect on the crime rate but as long as we are going to have it just
shoot 'em. Quick, no pain, 100% effective, and it does not sanitize it either.

[Me.]

12. Dear God, Ehat PLanet Am I On

What country am I in?

[colsohlibgal]

13. Sadistic Jerks

Just another sobering reminder of what may be ahead if we don’t get serious about what’s afoot.

In WW2 we fought Nazis and now there is a push to become what we fought back then.

We have a fight ahead we better be aware and ready.

[monkeyman1]

25. nazi's feared of hanging! was for treason! that's why Adolf shot himself !

[PufPuf23]

42. Their projection is that Democrats and liberals are today's Nazi's

as well as concurrently communists.

Which is seriously out of touch with present reality and history but whatever has caused so much madness among so many to think they are patriots when they are traitors to their country and humanity.

IMO you are correct about the risks we face.

[Retired Engineer Bob]

16. According to MTG

This is nothing compared to the tyranny of being forced to wear a mask.

(if needed)

[Takket]

17. there is a message being sent here... and it isn't to the person being executed...

[USALiberal]

18. Some DUers still like the DP! Nt

[Iggo]

31. The Look What You Made Me Do Brigade.

[PCIntern]

19. Here's an idea to go along with that:

They should have camps for “undesirables” as well…. Some of them coukd be used as research associates for the gas. Of course you woukd somehow have to trick them so a communal shower coukd be utilized. Then, you’d have to cremate the bodies in ovens. You coukd kerp meticulous records and have collection bins of personal property like eyeglasses and shoes.

just in case some lurking RWer gets excited and orgasms all over the place….

[Evolve Dammit]

23. Bayer made the original. Is Bayer still the manufacturer?

[flying_wahini]

24. Hell just use what the Vet used when we put our dog down.

This is some serious BS.

[multigraincracker]

28. That can be very peaceful.

I’d suggest helium or laughing gas.

[smirkymonkey]

33. I don't understand why they just can't put them down like they do when people go in for surgery,

except when they are completely under, just give them something to stop the heart. They would feel nothing. Why has that never been considered?

I mean, if you have to do it at all, at least do it humanely. Why can't they knock them out first so they don't have to experience any pain or fear.

[jmowreader]

40. How does that differ from a lethal injection execution?

[smirkymonkey]

43. I was under the impression that they were not put under first, that they were

just given the drug that killed them and that is why they were suffering and struggling. Or at least not put under the way a surgery patient would be put under.

I am no expert on lethal injection, but I can't understand why it is so painful, violent and sometimes takes too long. How did Jack Kevorkian do it so that it caused his patients to just peacefully drift away, or the same with Dignitas, or even with pets when they are put down.

I don't actually know the answer to these questions, but it seems to me that there is a quick and painless way to do it and our prison system has not been using those methods. There must be peaceful and painless ways to end someone's life.

[jmowreader]

49. The original protocol is three drugs

The first is a fast-acting general anesthetic, the second paralyzes the breathing and the third stops the heart. Later protocols rely on lethal doses of anesthetic, but anesthetic is part of the protocol always.

Problem is, fast-acting anesthetic doesn’t keep you asleep long, which is why when you get a surgery they switch to a different anesthetic after you are asleep and keep feeding it to you until they’re done.

As to the “peaceful and painless” thing...getting killed will always be a violent act, so if we HAVE to execute people we should choose a way that kills really quickly. Properly done shooting, hanging and beheading executions kill instantly.

True story: France’s government wanted to abolish capital punishment long before they did, but the people were all “but we Must keep execution for our worst offenders!” Then lethal injection came along and the people were all “let’s abandon the guillotine for this.” The government said no. Then for the next few years prosecutors asked juries something on the order of “can you bring yourself to cut this man in half on a guillotine?” No one could, and eventually the state just quietly wrote a ban on the practice and passed it into law. Now the only usable guillotine in France is in the National Museum, where its days of chopping people’s heads off are over.

If we used a really violent method of execution and required the jury to be witnesses if they chose to execute the criminal, executions would drop to almost nothing really quickly.

[LymphocyteLover]

27. 1-- these people are indeed Nazis. 2-- let's not execute people.

[ashredux]

29. For God's Sake people!!! Don't you know any history at all?

[Iggo]

30. Or you could just, like, stop killing people.

[Initech]

38. And the GOP goes full Nazi. Bravo!

[superpatriotman]

39. How do we humanely put our pets down?

Has it all been a big lie?

[jmowreader]

50. Interestingly...

...the FDA refuses to establish an approval process for euthanasia solution, which is the blue-colored bottle of serious downers used to kill animals. FDA-approved drugs have to be safe and effective; an effective euthanasia solution is “unsafe” by design.

[jmowreader]

51. I guess hanging was out of the question

The gas chamber has been deemed the most expensive, most dangerous and most problematic method of execution ever designed. It is the only method that can kill the witnesses and prison staff if something goes wrong.

And you’d think that if they INSIST on lethal gas, they’d just use carbon monoxide. Give the inmate about five Valium tablets, stick a mask over his face and feed him CO until his heart stops. Any industrial gas supplier can get you a cylinder of it.