Editing Gas chamber (section)

==United States==
[[File:Map of US gas chamber usage.svg|thumb|left|Gas chamber usage in the United States.{{legend|#FFFF33|'''Secondary''' method only}} {{legend|#7fff00|'''Previously''' used, but '''not presently'''}} {{legend|#0099CC|'''Never''' used}}]]
[[File:PostFurmanUSGasChamber.gif|thumb|left|Post-[[Furman v. Georgia|Furman]] uses by state and numbers]]

Gas chambers have been used for [[capital punishment in the United States]] to execute [[List of United States death row inmates|death row inmates]]. The first person to be executed in the United States by lethal gas was [[Gee Jon]], on February 8, 1924. An unsuccessful attempt to pump poison gas directly into his cell at [[Nevada State Prison]] led to the development of the first makeshift gas chamber to carry out Jon's death sentence.<ref name="DPIC-Descriptions">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/descriptions-execution-methods#gas |title=Descriptions of Execution Methods: Gas Chamber |publisher=[[Death Penalty Information Center]] |year=2010 |access-date=November 3, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112105603/http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/descriptions-execution-methods#gas |archive-date=November 12, 2010}}</ref>

On December 3, 1948, [[Miran Edgar Thompson|Miran Thompson]] and [[Sam Shockley]] were executed in the gas chamber at [[San Quentin State Prison]] for their role in the [[Battle of Alcatraz]].

In 1957, [[Burton Abbott]] was executed as the governor of California, [[Goodwin J. Knight]], was on the telephone to stay the execution.<ref>{{cite news |date=March 25, 1957 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809259,00.html |title=Race in the Death House |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=2007-11-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330000547/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809259,00.html |archive-date=March 30, 2008}}</ref>

Since the restoration of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, 11 executions by gas chamber have been conducted. Four were conducted in [[List of people executed in Mississippi|Mississippi]], 2 in [[List of people executed in Arizona|Arizona]], 2 in [[List of people executed in California|California]], 2 in [[List of people executed in North Carolina|North Carolina]], and 1 in [[List of people executed in Nevada|Nevada]]. The first execution via gas chamber since the restoration of the death penalty was in Nevada in 1979, when [[Jesse Bishop]] was executed for murder. The most recent execution via gas chamber was in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/execution-database?filters%5Bmethod%5D=Gas|title=Execution Database &#124; Death Penalty Information Center|publisher=[[Death Penalty Information Center]]|access-date=September 4, 2021|archive-date=September 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904220226/https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/execution-database?filters%5Bmethod%5D=Gas|url-status=live}}</ref> By the 1980s, reports of suffering during gas chamber executions had led to controversy over the use of this method.<ref name="CNN">{{cite news |title=German executed in Arizona, legal challenge fails |publisher=CNN |date=March 4, 1999 |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/04/arizona.execution.01/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011002515/http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/04/arizona.execution.01/ |archive-date=October 11, 2008}}</ref>

At the September 2, 1983, execution of [[Jimmy Lee Gray]] in [[Mississippi]], officials cleared the viewing room after 8 minutes while Gray was still alive and gasping for air. The decision to clear the room while he was still alive was criticized by his [[Attorneys in the United States|attorney]]. In 2007, [[David Bruck]], an attorney specializing in death penalty cases, said, "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans."<ref>{{cite news |title=Some examples of post-Furman botched executions |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center |date=May 24, 2007 |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=478 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071122180900/http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=478 |archive-date=November 22, 2007}}</ref>

During the April 6, 1992, execution of [[Donald Harding|Donald Eugene Harding]] in [[Arizona]], it took 11 minutes for death to occur. The prison warden stated that he would quit if required to conduct another gas chamber execution.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Weil |first=Elizabeth |title=The needle and the damage done |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 11, 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11injection.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421134244/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11injection.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin |archive-date=April 21, 2017}}</ref> Following Harding's execution, Arizona voted that all persons condemned to death after November 1992 would be executed by [[lethal injection]].<ref name="CNN" />

Following the execution of [[Robert Alton Harris]] in 1992, a federal court declared that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally [[cruel and unusual punishment|cruel and unusual]]."<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Fierro, Ruiz, Harris v. Gomez |vol=77 |reporter=f.3d |opinion=301 |pinpoint=309 |court=U.S. 9th Circuit |year=1996 |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=26906922262871934}}</ref> However, this decision was vacated after California amended its statute to allow death row inmates to choose between lethal injection and the gas chamber.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fierro v. Terhune, 147 F.3d 1158 {{!}} Casetext Search + Citator |url=https://casetext.com/case/fierro-v-terhune |access-date=2024-02-09 |website=casetext.com}}</ref> By the late 20th century, most states had switched to methods considered to be more humane, such as lethal injection. California's gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison was converted to an execution chamber for lethal injection.{{When|date=December 2024|reason=when exactly was it converted}}

As of 2020, the last person to be executed in the gas chamber was German national [[LaGrand case#Background|Walter LaGrand]], sentenced to death before 1992, who was executed in [[Arizona]] on March 3, 1999. The [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]] had ruled that he could not be executed by gas chamber, but the decision was overturned by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]].<ref name="CNN" /> The gas chamber was formerly used in [[Colorado]], [[Maryland]], [[Nevada]], [[New Mexico]], [[North Carolina]] and [[Oregon]]. Seven states (Alabama, Arizona, California, Mississippi, [[Missouri]], Oklahoma, and [[Wyoming]]) authorize lethal gas if lethal injection cannot be administered, the condemned committed their crime before a certain date, or the condemned chooses to die in the gas chamber.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Methods of Execution |url=https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution?scid=8&did=245 |access-date=2024-02-06 |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center}}</ref> Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma specify the nitrogen hypoxia method, Arizona specifies the hydrogen cyanide method, and the other states do not specify the type of gas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=State-by-State Execution Protocols |url=https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/state-by-state-execution-protocols |access-date=2024-02-06 |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center}}</ref> In October 2010, [[Governor of New York]] [[David Paterson]] signed a bill rendering gas chambers illegal for use by [[humane society|humane societies]] and other animal shelters.<ref name="humaneanimal">{{cite web |url=http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$AGM374$@TXAGM0374+&LIST=SEA17+&BROWSER=BROWSER+&TOKEN=26623049+&TARGET=VIEW |title=Agriculture and Markets Law § 374 |access-date=January 31, 2012 |archive-date=December 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210230501/http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$AGM374$@TXAGM0374+&LIST=SEA17+&BROWSER=BROWSER+&TOKEN=26623049+&TARGET=VIEW |url-status=live}}</ref>