Arizona said looking to restart executions with gas used by Nazis at Auschwitz
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In a bid to jumpstart its long-frozen execution program, the southwestern US state of Arizona has renovated its gas chamber and purchased the ingredients to make cyanide gas, better known as “Zyklon B,” the chemical used by the Nazis at the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other death camps.
The details were reported over the weekend by the UK’s Guardian news site , based on documents obtained through public records requests.
They showed that Arizona authorities spent some $2,000 purchasing a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December, along with sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid, which are intended to be used to generate the deadly gas.
The documents also revealed that they had “refurbished” the state’s gas chamber, built in 1949 and mothballed in 1999 after the botched execution of an inmate, Walter LaGrand.
LaGrand died an “agonizing choking and gagging” death, which lasted 18 minutes from the moment the gas entered the chamber until he died, “shrouded in poisonous gas,” according to an eyewitness account published in the Tucson Citizen.
The Guardian said authorities had now used “primitive” means to test the chamber at the state prison in Florence, including using a lit candle to check if the air seals were intact. They also conducted a test with water running through the system and a smoke grenade was thrown inside.
The report also said prison staff engaged in role-play during the tests. Guards acted as inmates who resisted going to their death, screaming: “This is murder,” “I’m innocent,” “You’re putting me down like an animal,” and “This is against everything America stands for.”
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No surprise that Israeli news picked this story up.
Are the gassings going to be administered by CyberNinjas?
My choice would be to die from alcohol poisoning. One gal of Everclear would do the trick.
What crime in Arizona, on conviction, qualifies one to receive the death penalty? And more importantly, what is the evidentiary requirement to get the conviction with death as a possibility?
Ask Alexa.
Thanks for the snide remark to an honest question. I guess I should have known better believing some people could be serious and polite.
My apologies, I should have posted "Ask Google". Just put it down as 90% of questions posted on yada-yada sites as being rhetorical traps.
Really, just murder. In most states that have the death penalty, you also need some special, aggravating circumstances to go from a sentence of life in prison to the death penalty. For example the defendant murdered a child or a pregnant woman, or tortured his victim first, or it was part of gang activity, or they killed multiple people - you get the idea.
There are technically other crimes that can earn one the death penalty, like Treason, Espionage, or insane levels of drug trafficking, but I think those generally are only prosecuted by the federal government, and even then it’s relatively rare.
While I personally am against the death sentence, I do find it interesting that there's nothing in local news about this except for one opinion piece that strongly leans on the article from the Guardian. In fact, many of the sites found by Google all link back to the Guardian article. I'm not saying it's so, but is this another example of mainstream media just copying the info from another media source rather than do their own investigations?
All media sources use other sources including the 'non-mainstream'. There is nothing mysterious nor nefarious about this.
Not saying there's anything mysterious or nefarious about it. Just found it interesting that all the sources I read from searching Google all point back to the piece by the Guardian. We had this issue during the Trump presidency where one news source would write a story and many others would jump on and repeat the same story, only to later see a retraction or a re-write by the original source. Considering how low the quality of mainstream media has gotten, if you want to trust the story as being accurate you are more than welcome to. I haven't fully trusted mainstream media in a few years now.
All, and I mean all, media will print a story at one time or another that needs to be retracted, the problem with that is it is held up to tarnish all subsequent reports and especially the "mainstream" in its entirety. Newt Gingrich was a very destructive fellow.
And there lies the rub! Honest media will retract. Dishonest media will not.
Fox........
That might be because it’s unlikely to impact many people - assuming it impacts anyone ever. Lethal injection is still the preferred method, but there is a shortage, so they have the gas chamber ready to go as an alternative.
Possible. But as the Arizona Republic (local Phoenix newspaper) is very liberal leaning I would think anything this controversial would be reported in a larger fashion. The only piece I can find on this topic is a Montini opinion piece that only references the Guardian piece for information. That's why I wonder if this is another example of MSM all feeding from the single source rather than verify themselves the information is true.
True or not, it’s ridiculous to liken any of this to the Nazis.
Agreed. But we just went thru four years of MSM being so biased against political parties... oh how I miss the days of Cronkite.
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Currently, there are 119 people on death row in AZ.
That's 119 too many.
Morning Kavika...I assume the only reason you are on death row is you have taken the life of another human?
I agree with capital punishment, especially child killers..here you are lucky if you get 20 years for murder. Some little as 5 years. If you murder someone in cold blood, then you forfeit your own.
We do have a few never to be released Martin Bryant the Port Arthur mass murderer is one..he should have been exterminated years ago..but he still walks this earth unfortunately..
I’m no fan of the death penalty, but the approach to this story seems like a reach. What is driving the need to link this development to Nazis? Politics maybe?
Various states have been gassing people for execution since the 1920s - long before the nazis came along. Half a dozen states - other than Arizona - still have the penalty on the books and the facilities to administer it. And by the way, they all use cyanide gas. In California, for example, the penalty still exists as an alternative to lethal injection. There is nothing unusual (or fascist) happening in Arizona because of the gas chamber.
That's the playbook.
I wonder if Bayer's patent is still valid.
As long as it's quick and efficient that's all that really matters. If the name bothers people then calling it something else seems to solve that problem
Morning free...would have thought a firing squad would be first choice, especially over there...can always call it..victims voice...
I have to laugh when read about so and so getting caught with enough fentanyl in their trunk to kill one million people, yet we can’t figure out how to put down death row inmates. Sounds like we’ve got a free and unlimited supply of what we need. It would be hard to consider it cruel and unusual punishment when so many people are already dying from using it recreationally.