Gas Chamber Execution

Lethal gas entered American capital punishment in the 1920s as another effort to replace older execution methods with a procedure promoted at the time as more modern. Nevada carried out the first U.S. lethal-gas execution in 1924, when Gee Jon was executed after an early plan to introduce gas into his cell proved impractical and an airtight chamber was used instead.

The cyanide-gas chamber

Traditional gas-chamber executions used hydrogen cyanide generated inside a sealed chamber. The condemned prisoner was restrained in a chair while witnesses observed from outside. The method became notorious because death could involve a prolonged period of visible respiratory distress rather than an immediate loss of consciousness.

Historical decline

The gas chamber gradually fell out of favor as lethal injection became the primary method across the United States. A federal court challenge in California helped accelerate that shift, and the last U.S. execution using the traditional gas chamber was Walter LaGrand's execution in Arizona in 1999.

Botched-execution connection

Gas statutes did not disappear

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Sources

– Death Penalty Information Center — Methods of Execution – Death Penalty Information Center — Execution Method Descriptions – Death Penalty Information Center — Authorized Methods by State