TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A lawsuit has been filed in Arizona to stop prisons from using cyanide gas. Shawndrea Thomas spoke to Jewish leaders in Southern Arizona about why they are suing and the push to end the use of poison gas altogether.
Also known as hydrogen cyanide, the gas has a history of use in chemical warfare and is most infamously associated with the Nazis, who used "Zyklon B" as a means of mass extermination of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
The Discovery and Early Uses of Hydrogen Cyanide
Hydrogen cyanide has commercial uses. According to the CDC, "Hydrogen cyanide (AC) is a chemical warfare agent (military designation, AC). It is used commercially for fumigation, electroplating, mining, chemical synthesis, and the production of synthetic fibers, plastics, dyes, and pesticides."
The discovery of hydrogen cyanide came nearly a hundred years after the dye called "Prussian blue" was synthesized. That color is most famously used in "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai as part of his "36 Views of Mount Fuji" series. From that dye came the necessary components for a Swedish chemist to discover hydrogen cyanide in the late 18th century.
Hydrogen cyanide would be used for some fumigation of crops in the 1800's.
But World War I would change how war is waged in many ways, including the use of chemical weapons. Chlorine gas, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and mustard gas came into widespread use and resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and thousands of deaths. In fact, phosgene was invented by German chemist Fritz Haber, a German Jew who converted to Christianity and received a Nobel Prize for his work in chemistry in 1919. His work would be piggy-backed by later chemists to create Zyklon B.
Following mass outcry and images of the effects of chemical weapons on the human body the Geneva Protocol of 1925 outlawed the use ofchemical weapons in warfare.
Gas Chamber Usage in the Early 20th Century
In the United States, the first person to ever be executed in a gas chamber was Gee Jon. The Chinese national was a member of a gang in Mina, Nevada and executed for murder.
In Arizona, it wouldn't be until 1934 that Arizona would adopt the gas chamber over hangings. The first gas chamber execution inArizona was on July 6th of that year.
This returns us to the Holocaust, and the most infamous use of gas as a weapon of mass murder. The Nazis began using gas to murder those with physical and mental disabilities in 1939. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says that during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, "gas vans" were used to kill thousands of Jews. These vans were hermetically sealed with exhaust diverted into the van. These early uses of gas convinced the SS that creating gassing chambers to kill Jews was the most efficient means of affecting their "Final Solution".
This lead to millions of Jews being transported to camps to be systematically murdered in places with names that continue to illicit dread and horror. Auschwitz, Dachau, Belzec. The Jewish people forced to work in these camps would be led into showers, packed as tight as possible into the room, and the gas would be released. According to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, "At the height of the deportations in 1943–44, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed each day at Auschwitz."
Around 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. Following the war, the International Military Tribunal, better known as the Nuremberg Trial, would hold dozens of Nazi leaders accountable for their atrocities. Many Nazi leaders would be prosecuted following World War II and it would prevent Nazism from entering Germany's political landscape again. That said, many of those convicted received prison sentences of less than 20 years and there was criticism that it didn't go far enough to convict more Germans involved in the Holocaust.
Gas Chamber Executions in Arizona and Beyond
The gas chamber is a haunting, nightmarish sight. A hermetically sealed pod, within which sits a lone metal chair laced with the straps necessary to keep the condemned from breaking free. A pipe lets the lethal gas in from the top of the chamber, windows allow the executed to look out at their executioners. Like all technology built for the specific purpose of killing a person, it is almost alien to look at, and even when not witnessing what happens inside, the aura of anguish lingers.
The argument for the inhumanity of the chamber has been prevalent since its inception. In fact, while Arizona implemented it in the 1930's, its use was suspended between 1962 and 1992. Much of this came from Supreme Court rulings about the use of the death penalty rather than any offering of a different means to execute criminals.
In 1992, Donald E. Harding was put to death by lethal gas, the first person in Arizona to be executed in such a way in thirty years.
In an opinion piece submitted to "azcentral", Jim Belanger, a defense lawyer in Tempe, recounted watching the execution of Harding.
"His death was slow, painful, degrading and inhumane," Belanger said. "It is mind-numbing to think that Arizona is resuming this barbaric practice. Don Harding’s execution is seared into my memory."
He continues, saying that it took over 10 minutes for Harding to die and 8 of those he was in extreme agony.
The last lethal gas execution was carried out in the United States in 1999. That was Walter LeGrand, one of the brothers involved in a armed bank robbery gone wrong in Marana in 1982.
Between stories like that told by Jim Belanger and the introduction of lethal injection, the United States has moved away from the use of the gas chamber as a means of executing criminals.
Last years refurbishment of the gas chamber in Florence State Prison prompted leaders of the Jewish community in Arizona to seek legislation banning the use of gas in executing criminals.
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