Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 13:39:22 -0700 From: robertslists@HOTMAIL.COM (Robert Anthony Peters) Subject: Fwd: [tecsoc2] Today in Tech History To: LIBERTARIANS@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
More wonderful innovations from our past.
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>Subject: [tecsoc2] Today in Tech History
>Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 03:45:46 -0800
>
>This is the daily history message from the Center for the Study of
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>Dear Readers -
>
>On the morning of February 8, 1924, the gas chamber was used for the
>first time to execute a prisoner found guilty of a capital offense.
>
>Perhaps inspired by the use of poisonous gases during World War I, the
>Nevada state legislature in 1921 legalized the use of lethal gas to
>execute capital convicts. Apparently, the original plan was to poison
>the prisoner in his cell while he slept, but that approach was obviously
>impractical: there would be no way to contain the fatal gas. Instead, a
>sealed gas chamber was constructed.
>
>The first person executed in Nevada's gas chamber was 29-year-old
>Chinese immigrant Gee Jon, who had murdered a member of a rival gang.
>(This was during a period of violent feuding between "tongs," the gangs
>of the so-called "Chinese mafia.")
>
>The poison used in gas chambers is hydrogen cyanide. The prisoner slips
>into unconsciousness after a few breaths of the gas; he usually
>convulses involuntarily, and death follows after several minutes. After
>the prisoner dies, the air in the room is filtered out and the room and
>body are carefully cleaned.
>
>There have been 696 executions in the U.S. in the last quarter-century;
>of those, 11 were in gas chambers. Of the 38 U.S. states that currently
>allow capital punishment, the vast majority now use only lethal
>injections. All five of the states that still allow gas chamber
>executions actually permit prisoners to choose between injection and
>gas. The most recent gas chamber execution was in Arizona in March 1999.
>
>***
>
>To learn more, use the links below.
>
>* Click here to see a picture of Gee Jon and read about his crime:
>http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/prison/nsp-01.htm
>
>* The Death Penalty Information Center has a vast clearinghouse of
>statistics about capital punishment in the U.S.:
>http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
>
>Thank you, as always, for your support.
>
>Yours,
>The Center Staff
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