Editing Fred A. Leuchter (section)

==Life and career after Leuchter report==
Protests were organized outside the courthouse in Canada and near Leuchter's home in [[Malden, Massachusetts]]. Despite the bad publicity, he remained active as a capital punishment consultant until 1990, when his lack of qualifications to practice was exposed.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/WT/lib00179,0EB0EF119CC04CB2.html | title=Feelings erupt at trial over a license | newspaper=[[The Washington Times]] |date=December 17, 1990 | agency=Associated Press | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30611F73B580C7B8DDDA90994D8494D81 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717063308/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30611F73B580C7B8DDDA90994D8494D81 | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 17, 2012 | title=Dr. Death and His Wonderful Machine | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=October 18, 1990 | author=Staff | access-date=March 11, 2008 }}</ref> In the late 1980s, following the [[Ernst Zündel]] trial, he was featured in both ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]''<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Lehman, Susan| url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199002/electric-chair | title=A Matter of Engineering | magazine=[[The Atlantic]] Monthly |date=February 1990 | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> and ''[[Primetime Live]]'' in items on capital punishment, neither of which mentioned his association with Zündel. Also following his involvement in the Zündel trial, Leuchter began lecturing to [[Holocaust denial]] groups, such as the [[Institute for Historical Review]] (IHR), about his research and continued belief in the conclusions he testified to in the trial.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/BG/lib00065,0EADDF1EF8258A34.html | title=Holocaust Deniers Hold Area Meetings | newspaper=[[Boston Globe]] |date=December 9, 1990 | author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> In a speech to the Eleventh IHR Conference in October 1992, he said:

<blockquote>In this case, it is myself that I [[post mortem]]—and the cadaver isn't dead! Much to the dismay of my executioners, the execution was so badly botched that I am able to stand here before you to speak the truth, and to tell the world that it is not myself, but the Holocaust story that is dead. I repeat for the record: I was condemned for maintaining that there were no execution gas chambers as Auschwitz, Birkenau, [[Majdanek]], [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]], or [[Hartheim killing centre|Hartheim Castle]]. There's no proof for the charge, only innuendo, lies, and half-truths. [[Robert Faurisson]], Ernst Zundel and others said this first. They, too, live as victims of botched executions, but nevertheless free to speak the truth in a strong and growing voice that repeats: No gas chambers, no gas chambers, no damn gas chambers!{{parabr}}Because I was somewhat naïve at the time, I was not aware that by so testifying I was offending the organized world [[Jewish]] community. By providing final, definitive proof that there were no execution gas chambers utilized for [[genocidal]] purposes by the [[Nazi Germany|Germans]] at these wartime camps, I established the simple fact that the Holocaust story is not true. What I did not know was that anyone expressing such beliefs is guilty of a capital crime: that of thinking and telling the unspeakable truth about the greatest lie of the age.{{parabr}}I would have to pay for this crime. While I innocently told the truth in [[Toronto]], plans were made, and subsequently implemented, for a major effort to destroy me. If I could be destroyed and discredited—so the reasoning went—no one would accept my professional findings, no matter how truthful.<ref name=speech/></blockquote>

When he tried to sell parts of a lethal injection machine and other items from Fred Leuchter Associates, many of which were part of projects done for states who had refused to pay him for previously contracted or agreed-on work, he was again charged.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/SJ/lib00189,0EB71881CF0491C3.html | title=For Sale: Death Machine Discredited Consultant Resorts To Want Ads | newspaper=[[San Jose Mercury News]] |date=August 16, 1991 | author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref>{{not in citation given|date=June 2023}} When he claimed that the Massachusetts Attorney General determined that the sale of the offered equipment was not, in fact, illegal, states started denying his contracts on the basis of his lack of qualifications.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/28876359.xml?dids=28876359:28876359&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+18%2C+1990&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Expert+on+execution+denied+state+contract&pqatl=google | title=Expert on execution denied state contract | newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=August 18, 1990 | author=Staff | access-date=March 11, 2008 | archive-date=October 26, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026135310/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/28876359.xml?dids=28876359:28876359&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+18,+1990&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Expert+on+execution+denied+state+contract&pqatl=google | url-status=dead }}</ref>{{not in citation given|date=June 2023}} His wife divorced him in this same period.<ref name="transcript"/>

Leuchter was arrested in and shortly thereafter deported from the [[United Kingdom]] in November 1991.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61548334.xml?dids=61548334:61548334&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+18%2C+1991&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=British+Officials+Oust+American+for+His+Views+on+Nazis%27+Toll&pqatl=google | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130731190734/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61548334.xml?dids=61548334:61548334&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+18,+1991&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=British+Officials+Oust+American+for+His+Views+on+Nazis'+Toll&pqatl=google | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 31, 2013 | title=British Officials Oust American for His Views on Nazis' Toll | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=November 18, 1991 | author=Staff | access-date=March 11, 2008 }}</ref> He had been banned from entering the country by the [[Home Office]], thus his entry and presence there were illegal.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/99675037.html?dids=99675037:99675037&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+08%2C+1991&author=JONATHAN+FREEDLAND&pub=Jerusalem+Post&desc=UK+BANS+HOLOCAUST+REVISIONIST&pqatl=google | title=UK Bans Holocaust Revisionist | newspaper=[[Jerusalem Post]] | date=October 8, 1991 | first=Jonathan | last=Freedland | access-date=March 11, 2008 | archive-date=October 26, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026135329/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/99675037.html?dids=99675037:99675037&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+08,+1991&author=JONATHAN+FREEDLAND&pub=Jerusalem+Post&desc=UK+BANS+HOLOCAUST+REVISIONIST&pqatl=google | url-status=dead }}</ref> Leuchter claimed that United States consulate personnel effectively refused him aid. He had been interrupted while giving an invited speech at [[David Irving]]'s instigation; his talk followed immediately one by [[Robert Faurisson]]. Leuchter has blamed criticism of his work on an "international cabal&nbsp;... those who have unjustly attacked me and violated my rights&nbsp;... the [[Serge Klarsfeld|Klarsfelds]], Shapiros, and Kahns of the world".<ref name=leuchter1993/><ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/MH/lib00246,0EB341EAD8C1976F.html | title=Execution Expert Denies Fraud, Says Enemies Trumped Up Charge | newspaper=[[Miami Herald]] |date=October 24, 1990 |author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref>

According to the [[Institute for Historical Review]], Leuchter subsequently took employment as a [[telemarketing|telemarketer]].<ref>"Telephone solicitor" is not a law-practice job but one involving making telephone calls to try to sell goods and services". "Fred Leuchter Needs Our Help," ''Journal of Historical Review'' ([[Institute for Historical Review]]), 13, no. 4 (July/August 1992), p. 27</ref>

According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', before selling execution equipment, Leuchter was a dealer in military surveillance equipment.<ref>{{cite news |last=deCourcy Hinds|first=Michael|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30614F9345D0C708DDDA90994D8494D81 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525194746/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/13/us/making-execution-humane-or-can-it-be.html?pagewanted=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 25, 2015 |title=Making Execution Humane (or Can It Be?) |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 13, 1990 |access-date=March 11, 2008 }}</ref>

On October 24, 1990, ''The New York Times'' described him as "self-proclaimed execution expert and manufacturer of death machinery."<ref name=NYTLeuchter>Staff (October 24, 1990) [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/24/us/an-expert-on-executions-is-charged-with-fraud.html "An 'Expert' on Executions Is Charged With Fraud"], ''[[The New York Times]]''. "A self-proclaimed execution expert and manufacturer of death machinery was charged today in a Middlesex County District Court with fraudulently practicing engineering. The man, Frederick A. Leuchter Jr., holds a bachelor's degree in history and is not licensed to practice engineering in [[Massachusetts]], state officials said."</ref> It quoted Edward A. Brunner, chairman of the [[anesthesia]] department at [[Northwestern University Medical School]], as saying Leuchter's lethal injection system would indeed [[paralyze]] a condemned criminal with [[Pavulon]], but that far from being humane, the paralysis would merely stop the prisoner from screaming at the "extreme pain in the form of a severe burning sensation" caused by the [[potassium chloride]] injection. Potassium chloride is commonly used in judicial execution through lethal injection.

Leuchter's electric chair design was used by the state of Tennessee to execute [[Daryl Holton]] in 2007 and [[Edmund Zagorski]] in 2018.<ref>https://apnews.com/article/c1aa2c9828be4b9fb6bffc2b88d04242</ref><ref>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/edmund-zagorski-executed-electric-chair-for-murder-of-john-dotson-jimmy-porter-tennessee-tonight-2018-11-1/</ref>

===Allegations of dishonest court appearances===
In 1990 ''[[Newsweek]]'' reported [[Alabama]] assistant attorney general [[Ed Carnes]] having called Leuchter's views on the gas chamber "unorthodox", and alleging that "Leuchter was running a death row shakedown scheme: if a state didn't purchase Leuchter's services, he would testify at the last minute for the condemned man that the state's death chamber might malfunction."<ref name=leuchter1993>{{cite news | url=https://www.adl.org/issue_holocaust/leuchter-1993.asp | title=Fred A. Leuchter Jr.: An ADL Backgrounder | publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]] | year=2001 | author=Staff | access-date=March 11, 2008 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007040631/http://www.adl.org/issue_holocaust/leuchter-1993.asp | archive-date=October 7, 2008 }}</ref> The [[Associated Press]] quoted Carnes as claiming that Leuchter made "money on both sides of the fence".<ref name=ap>[[Associated Press]] (October 24, 1990)</ref><ref name=lipstadt>[[Deborah E. Lipstadt|Lipstadt, Deborah E.]] (2005). ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving''. Ecco. p.36</ref> In his memorandum to death penalty states, Carnes observed that in Florida and Virginia the federal courts had rejected Leuchter's testimony as unreliable.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/SP/lib00249,0EB5D9DD9D2130AF.html | title=Woman's Execution Stayed Because Of Electric Chair | newspaper=[[St. Paul Pioneer Press]] |date=June 22, 1990 | author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/WT/lib00179,0EB0EEFBF65E7083.html | title=Execution 'expert' called impostor | newspaper=[[The Washington Times]] |date=October 25, 1990 |author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> The court in [[Florida]] had found that Leuchter had "misquoted the statements" contained in an important [[affidavit]] and had "inaccurately surmised" a crucial premise of his conclusion.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.fastcase.com/Google/Documents/ViewDocument.aspx?C=425f69a95344323ceded22ebe2d294f40256504aa9dd4b55&D=59d66c946097e42cf15ee2383b738afcedd0ef64b263feec | title=United States District Court, SD Alabama, SD | publisher=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama]] | date=July 10, 1990 | access-date=March 11, 2008 }}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In [[Virginia]], Leuchter provided a death row inmate's attorney with an affidavit claiming the [[electric chair]] would fail.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/CSTB/lib00225,0EB373000FBCF273.html | title=Fired expert says execution device may malfunction | newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=August 26, 1990 | author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> The Virginia court decided the credibility of Leuchter's affidavit was limited because Leuchter was "the refused contractor who bid to replace the electrodes in the Virginia chair".<ref>''[[Newsweek]]'' (October 22, 1990) p.22</ref>

===Charges of practicing without a license===
In 1991 Leuchter faced charges of practicing engineering without a license issued by the Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and of Land Surveyors, which [[regulation and licensure in engineering|regulates professional engineers]], a violation of Massachusetts law.<ref>{{cite news | agency=Associated Press | url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20613F63A5D0C738EDDAB0894D9494D81 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718110605/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20613F63A5D0C738EDDAB0894D9494D81 | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 18, 2012 | title=Holocaust Skeptic Who Gives Advice on Death Faces Trial | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=February 20, 1991 | access-date=March 11, 2008 }}</ref><ref name=wapo/> As a result of those charges, Leuchter signed a consent decree with the board, in which he stated that he was not and had never been registered as a professional engineer, despite having represented himself as one.<ref name=wapo>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/06/18/holocaust-revisionist-admits-he-is-not-engineer/b208816c-6c3c-481e-9d66-545a815f8f36/ | title= Holocaust Revisionist Admits He Is Not Engineer | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=June 18, 1991 | first= Christopher B.| last= Daly| access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/RO/lib00084,0EAEA218C67D1DC7.html| title=Holocaust Revisionist Admits Lying Of Expertise | newspaper=[[Roanoke Times]] |date=June 18, 1991 | author=Staff | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> He settled with prosecutors by serving two years of probation and agreeing to stop disseminating documents in which he presented himself as an engineer, including the Leuchter report.<ref name=wapo/><ref name=NYT>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D81E30F930A25755C0A967958260 | title=Execution 'Engineer' Settles Criminal Case |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 13, 1991| quote=Mr. Leuchter (pronounced LOOT-cher), a native of the Boston suburb of Malden, builds electric chairs and other execution devices, and he was once one of the nation's leading advisers on the administering of capital punishment. ... | access-date =March 11, 2008}}</ref> In a speech given over a year later, Leuchter claimed that:

<blockquote>a spurious criminal complaint was filed against me in the Massachusetts court system with the intent of destroying my reputation by putting me in prison for three months.{{parabr}}In point of fact, a license is not required in Massachusetts, or any other state, unless the engineer is involved in construction of buildings, and is certifying compliance with specifications. There is also a statutory exemption for engineers who do not deal with the general public.{{parabr}}As confirmation of the spurious nature of this charge, it should be pointed out there are more than fifty thousand practicing engineers in Massachusetts, of whom only five thousand are licensed. Although the state's licensing law has been in effect since 1940, there has been no record of any prosecution for this offense.<ref name=speech>Leuchter, Fred A. Jr. (October 1992) [https://www.historiography-project.com/jhrchives/v12/v12p429_Leuchter.html "Is there life after persecution? The botched execution of Fred Leuchter"] (presented at the 11th [[Institute for Historical Review]] conference) ''JHR Archive''</ref></blockquote>

Leuchter attributed the actions of the regulatory board against him to pressure from Jewish groups.<ref name=speech/>