Entries tagged with “Gas Chamber”

Executions

Methods of Execution

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Feb 08, 2024

Past to Present: 100 Years Since the United States’ First Lethal Gas Execution, a Recently Renewed Practice

Today, February 8, marks the 100-year anniversary of the first lethal gas execution in the United States, exactly two weeks after Alabama carried out the first execution using nitrogen gas. On February 8, 1924, Nevada executed Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of killing the owner of a laundromat, using cyanide gas. A fellow prisoner, Thomas Russell, was also scheduled to be executed the same day but was resentenced to life by the Board of Pardons and Parole the previous evening. The gas…

Executions

Methods of Execution

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Feb 22, 2022

Arizona Jewish Community Sues to Bar State from Executing Prisoners with Gas Nazis Used in Holocaust

Members of the Arizona Jewish community have filed suit to bar the state from executing prisoners in its gas chamber, using the same substance employed by the Nazis during the Holocaust to murder more than one million people. On February 15, 2022, the ACLU of Arizona filed a taxpayers’ complaint in a Maricopa County trial court on behalf of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, along with its executive director and a member of its board, arguing that the state’s planned…

Executions

Methods of Execution

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Jun 02, 2021

Arizona Prepares for Executions With Gas Used in Holocaust Death Camps

Arizona reportedly has “refurbished” its gas chamber and has spent more than $2,000 to acquire ingredients to execute prisoners with cyanide gas, the same gas used by the Nazis to murder more than one million men, women, and children during the Holocaust. Records obtained by The Guardian show that the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry purchased a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530. The state also purchased supplies of additional ingredients for…