Jewish groups condemn Arizona's potential use of gas executions
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Janice Friebaum can trace family members who were murdered at the Nazi death camp of Treblinka — two grandparents, three great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and countless cousins — among the millions of Jews killed in gas chambers during the Holocaust.
The politicization of the Holocaust amid the coronavirus pandemic has only undermined the barbarity inflicted on the victims of genocide, she said, adding that Americans may become "desensitized by false analogies" like equating mass murder with mask-wearing mandates.
But when she learned her home state of Arizona reportedly refurbished its gas chamber for executions, a method of death last used there more than two decades ago, she decided it warranted speaking out.
"Uniformly, Holocaust survivors and their descendants are nothing short of horrified of this form of execution being utilized," said Friebaum, vice president of the Phoenix Holocaust Association, a nonprofit group that documents experiences of survivors and educates about genocide.
The gas chambers were a "Nazi innovation, and it was positively inhumane," she said. "To think our 'civilized society' today in the state of Arizona would utilize this Nazi innovation, I believe, is tantamount to giving posthumous approval to the evils conducted by the Nazis. We're basically saying what the Nazis did was OK."
The gas chamber's upgrade at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence, southeast of Phoenix, has struck a nerve with Jewish organizations, which have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to what they describe as a particularly macabre method of execution.
The American Jewish Committee, one of the nation's oldest Jewish advocacy groups, said it was especially troubled by the state's purchase of materials to make hydrogen cyanide gas, which was part of a pesticide known as Zyklon B that the Nazis used in Auschwitz. Details about the state's plan were first reported by the Guardian newspaper in May.
"Arizona's decision to employ Zyklon B gas as a means of execution defies belief," the committee said in a statement last week. "Whether or not one supports the death penalty as a general matter, there is general agreement in American society that a gas devised as a pesticide, and used to eliminate Jews, has no place in the administration of criminal justice."
It's unclear why the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry has appeared to revive the gas chamber option for executions. In a statement to NBC News, the department said it and the state attorney general's office are "prepared to fulfill its constitutional obligation, carry out legally imposed court orders, and deliver justice to the victims' families."
But corrections officials note that under the law, only death row inmates who committed their crimes before Nov. 23, 1992, have the option of selecting either gas inhalation for their execution or the state's default method of lethal injection. Since 1976, gas chamber executions have been used 11 times by various states, including California and Mississippi, according to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center.
Arizona's gas chamber was built in 1949 and has been used twice: once in 1992 for the execution of Don Harding, who was convicted of murder, and in 1999 for the execution of Walter LaGrand, also convicted of murder. The use of cyanide gas on LaGrand, a German citizen, stoked outrage in his home country, which has no death penalty. His brother, who was convicted of the same crime and also sentenced to death, opted for lethal injection.
Arizona has not executed an inmate since 2014, when a lethal injection procedure described by some as a "botched" operation ended after the prisoner gasped for two hours.
State Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, notified the state Supreme Court in April that he will seek execution warrants in two cases, both of which involve murders that took place before 1992. While Brnovich announced last week he will run next year for a U.S. Senate seat, he previously said he wants to "ensure" that the 21 people on Arizona's death row whose appeals have been exhausted are executed before his term ends in 2023.
"Capital punishment is the law in Arizona and the appropriate response to those who commit the most shocking and vile murders," he said in a statement. "This is about the administration of justice and ensuring the last word still belongs to the innocent victims who can no longer speak for themselves."
A spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, told The Associated Press that he is "following the law as it's spelled out in Arizona's Constitution. Victims have been waiting a long time for justice in many of these cases."
The Arizona Supreme Court last month set timetables for the two executions that Brnovich is currently seeking, and has given dates in August and September to acquire responses from defense attorneys and related replies.
While the two dozen states that have death penalty laws largely held off on executions during the pandemic, Texas in May became the first state in 10 months to resume capital punishment activities.
In recent years, state executions have remained at record lows amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs and waning public support for capital punishment. But some states are reviving other methods.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, signed legislation in May that adds death by firing squad as an alternative to the electric chair because of a lack of lethal injection drugs.
Last week, Alabama corrections officials told a federal judge that the agency is close to finishing construction of a system that would deploy nitrogen gas for executions, a method that proponents believe is more humane but remains untested.
Arizona has struggled carrying out the death penalty in recent years because of the lack of lethal injection drugs, but said in March it had obtained a shipment of pentobarbital, a sedative that slows the activity of the brain and the nervous system, the AP reported.
In the case of lethal gas executions, accounts from witnesses have described how levers are used to drop a sodium cyanide mixture into a pot of sulfuric acid below the inmate, who's strapped into a chair.
Tempe lawyer Jim Belanger, who witnessed the execution of his client, Harding, in 1992, said white fumes rose from the metal box on the floor and Harding's face turned red and contorted as he gulped and gasped. He said Harding writhed in pain for the majority of the 10½ minutes he was alive.
Belanger said Friday that he remains against capital punishment, but said states "should find a humane way of administering" executions.
"Our country has called out others that violate international law and human rights when they use gas or murder millions like in the Holocaust," he added. "In my mind, we have committed our own atrocities with gas."
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There are so many gunslingers in the USA who I'm sure would love to have the opportunity to LEGALLY pump a human being full of lead. How about a lottery to determine the winners to do the job? That could change an expensive procedure into a profitable enterprise.
From Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant:
Oh, in case anyone didn't know, I have ALWAYS supported the fact that my country, Canada, abolished the death penalty 45 years ago.
...depending upon their past political affiliation, I would volunteer, and supply my own ammo.
While I think some criminals deserve to die the death penalty is just to expensive with the appeals process. I really don't trust the justice system enough to feel good allowing them such a permanent punishment as killing a citizen. I'd be perfectly willing to allow prisoners to choose a death penalty over long sentences. If they are going to kill them why doesn't our Government use some of the Fentanyl they confiscate from drug dealers, that shit will kill you as well as anything else. Just give them a series of small intravenous doses till they are feeling no pain then one massive dose to end it.
Now there's someone using his head. I think that's a good idea.
Yes, this is why I have been against the death penalty for so long. The average time between sentencing and execution is somewhere around 22 years. That's a life sentence already. And the cost of guarding prisoners on death row is higher than the general population, and we add in the cost of the appeals. It just doesn't seem like this is a good ROI to me. I would rather they just give a 25 year without parole sentence, they can provide the option you have given. But why spend so much money when it takes so long and politicians can change to allow and prevent the penalty from being executed at any time.
gee, over $60K+ per year to incarcerate versus a $0.50 bullet, that's a tough one. /s
obviously, there would need to be some type of grading system for the crimes. but if the perp willfully confesses, there's more than one eye witness, or the crime is caught on film, dispense with the appeals process and take them out back after the sentence is handed down with the camera rolling and have the organ harvester's and coroner's meat wagon standing by.
yeah, but it's never that easy. A better comparison would be $60k per year to incarcerate vs $80k per year to incarcerate plus court & lawyer costs for all the appeals that we end up paying for.
Or fill the chamber up with pure nitrogen? No choking, they won't feel anything other than getting sleepier before dying.
If you have to kill someone, it should be as a last resort, and done humanely. Wanting someone to suffer is inhumane.
We just had a man on death row that was finally exonerated after twenty years.
Two things:
1) They are called vapors, not fumes. Fumes are particulates formed when metal is heated, such as in welding.
2) 10 and 1/2 minutes to die???? Isn't there something in the US Constitution about cruel and unusual punishment?
No matter the method there is no way to humanly force a person to an assured and premature death.
true. But child rapists/murderers don't deserve a quick painless death
I am not a death penalty supporter. I believe our justice and punishment system needs to be completely over hauled. Prison should be about punishment. Take away the computers, the cable television, the weight gyms. They need relaxation - give them BOOKS. If they can't read - teach them. People that murder should never be let out of prison. Limit their activities, visitations (NO conjugal visits). Sexual offenders (and I don't mean people caught urinating in a fountain or at the side of the road) should also NEVER get out. They tend to re-offend & then end up killing the next time. I watch a lot of programs on ID that actually shows the progression.
The guy in GA that shot that cashier over a mask - should NEVER get out - put him away and PUNISH him.
This is just my opinion.
I have never been a proponent of the death penalty, our justice system isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination as can be seen by the number of people that have been imprisoned for decades that were innocent.
What would prevent a person from committing a crime? Would it be fear of punishment? If it is ignorance, or serious mental illness, that could be treated in one way, but a person who knows that there is a penalty to pay should he/she be caught obviously is not working so well, because crime is rampant. So then the penalty is something that must serve as being an effective deterrant. The bleeding hearts talk about cruel and unusual punishment, and give criminals a home away from home, a rest from reality you might say, but I am very sorry to say that the person contemplating committing a crime must be made aware that it is not worth the penalty should he/she be caught. And so, provided identification of the guilty person is perfect and DNA and security cameras is helping with that, the penalties MUST be a deterrent. In other words, I mean cruel and unusual punishment - things that would strike fear in the minds of would-be criminals. Of course the seriousness of the offence must be considered - i.e. getting caught with a joint where MJ is not yet legal is no big deal - society isn't really suffering from that. But the person who pushed over and kicked an elderly Asian woman needs to be beaten to a pulp once a month, but not killed. Tell the world what happens to him and maybe others who might have done the same thing are going to think twice before they do. Finding painless ways to end the life of mass murderers or a 10 to 20 year vacation is really not much of a deterrant because it sure as hell isn't stopping the mass murders in the USA, so what would put fear in the heart of a person who might otherwise think that his/her rampage is worth the penalty they have to pay if and when caught? Think about it - what do YOU suggest?