How does execution by gas chamber work

A federal court in California found this method to be cruel and unusual punishment. 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. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose consciousness immediately. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool. Witnesses said he nodded his head for several minutes. About a half an hour later, orderlies enter the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. As of April 17, , Oklahoma introduced death by nitrogen gas as an alternative to lethal injection if the necessary drugs cannot be found or if that method is found unconstitutional.

Nitrogen is a naturally occurring gas in the atmosphere, and death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him or her of oxygen.

On March 23, , firing squad was reauthorized in Utah as a viable method of execution if, and only if the state was unable to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection execution. Prior to this reauthorization, firing squad was only a method of execution in Utah if chosen by an inmate before lethal injection became the sole means of execution. The most recent execution by this method was that of Ronnie Gardner.

By his own choosing, Gardner was executed by firing squad in Utah on June 17, For execution by this method, the inmate is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with. One of the shooters is given blank rounds.

Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed. Bohm, 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. 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.

In , Utah murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who chose the method over lethal injection, was pronounced dead two minutes after four bullets pierced the target over his heart.

The last electrocution was in Virginia in when Robert Gleason Jr. In , child killer Daryl Holton was pronounced dead in Tennessee after two second jolts with second pause in between. But there have been a string of botched electrocutions that have lasted far longer.

In Indiana in , it took 17 minutes — and five cycles of current — to kill William Vandiver, who murdered and dismembered his father-in-law. In , Louisiana teenager Willie Francis survived his first electrocution only to be put to death a year later. Three inmates have died by hanging since the U. Supreme Court brought back the death penalty.

The last, Delaware double murderer Billy Bailey, chose the gallows over lethal injection in and was pronounced dead 11 minutes after he plunged through a trapdoor with a noose around his neck. The gas chamber was used in only 11 executions between and , largely because the deaths by cynanide were protracted and in some cases disturbing to watch.