Process: The condemned is strapped into a chair inside an air-tight container. Below the chair is a pail of sulfuric acid. After an okay from the warden, the executioner releases a pellet of sodium cyanide into the pail where a chemical reaction occurs. Hydrogen cyanide gas, which is visible to the prisoner and the people watching, begins to fill the room. The inmate is instructed to try to breathe deeply to speed up the unconsciousnesses. Nonetheless, most try to hold their breath and struggle while doing so.
How long should it take? 10-18 minutes
Ethics: The gas chamber is thought to be the most complicated, expensive, and dangerous method of execution. It is very painful as the inmate can be choked and gagged by the gases for several minutes before dying.
First person to be executed: In Nevada, on February 8, 1924, John Gee was convicted of murder and was the first person to be killed by lethal gas.
Where is it legal: 5 states (Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wyoming) as secondary methods only
Green – previously used but does not presently
Blue – never used gas chamber
(Montana should be yellow and California should be green)
How many people have died since 1976: 11
Botched case: On April 6, 1992, Donald Eugene Harding was killed by the gas chamber. He was not pronounced dead until 10 1/2 minutes after the sodium cyanide was released. “A television journalist who witnessed the execution, Cameron Harper, said that Harding’s spasms and jerks lasted 6 minutes and 37 seconds. ‘Obviously, this man was suffering. This was a violent death … an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely.'”
5 Legal Ways of Execution 