Tag: capital punishment

Arizona plans to execute prisoners with the same deadly gas used by the Nazis at Auschwitz, documents show

The state of Arizona has plans to use hydrogen cyanide, the deadly gas used by the Nazis at Auschwitz and other extermination camps, to kill inmates on death row, documents obtained by The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington showed.

The Arizona Department of Corrections spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients for the gas, The Guardian reported, citing the partially redacted documents.

The ingredients purchased include a solid brick of potassium cyanide, sodium hydroxide pellets, and sulfuric acid, the documents showed.

Cyanide is lethal in that it prevents the body from using oxygen. It was used in both World Wars — by French and Austrian troops in World War I, and by Nazi Germany in World War II, said a 2014 fact sheet by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The trade name for hydrogen cyanide is Zyklon B.

The department has also refurbished a gas chamber in Florence, Arizona, that was built in 1949 but had not been used for 22 years, The Guardian reported.

The chamber was tested for “operational functionality” and “air tightness” last August, and in December, following a refurbishment, officials “verbally indicated that the vessel is operationally ready.”

The documents published by The Guardian also included instructions on how to operate the gas chamber.

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Biden Stalls on Ending Capital Punishment

Seventy-five days since taking office, President Joe Biden has yet to issue a promised executive order on the death penalty. And criminal justice reform advocates working closely with the administration are growing tired of the delay, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Two of these sources said they had each received assurances from transition officials that Biden would sign an executive order on capital punishment very quickly or “imminently” after he entered office. But in recent weeks, White House officials and close allies of the president have been quietly signaling to frustrated activists that a more forceful push on this type of reform will likely have to wait until some unspecified point after the new president’s first 100 days in office.

“It is complete bullshit that they’re dragging their feet on this,” one of the sources said. “We have been pushing them on this and barely getting anywhere.”

This source noted that Biden came into office promising the American people that he would dramatically reverse course, especially after Trump’s “killing spree.”

“And we’re still being told to wait and be patient,” the source said.

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Virginia Becomes First Southern State to Abolish Death Penalty

Virginia, the state that has executed more people than any other in the nation, has abolished the death penalty. Governor Ralph Northam signed the bill into law on Wednesday, a month it was passed in the state’s Democrat majority House and Senate.

“It is the moral thing to do,” he said during the press briefing, echoing Democrat party policy. “The death penalty is fundamentally flawed.” Virginia becomes the first former Confederate state to get rid of capital punishment.

“This is a major change because our Commonwealth has a long history with capital punishment. Over our 400-year history, Virginia has executed more than 1,300 people, more than any other state for 200 years,” Northam said.

Virginia executed 113 people in the years after the U.S. Supreme Court restored states’ rights to enact capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). In the last five decades, only Texas has executed more people than Virginia.

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GOP Texas lawmaker introduces bill to allow death penalty for women who have abortions

A Republican lawmaker in Texas has introduced a bill that would allow the death penalty for women who have abortions.

“Today, I filed HB 3326 to Abolish Abortion in Texas,” Texas State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R) said on Twitter.

“The bill will end the discriminatory practice of terminating the life of innocent children, and will guarantee the equal protection of the laws to all Texans, no matter how small,” he said.

Under HB 3326, a person who has an abortion or performs an abortion could be charged with assault or homicide, which is punishable by death, the Texas Tribune reported.

Slaton’s legislation also says that certain parties may have to testify in cases of death or “bodily injury to an unborn child,” and offers immunity to those that do.

The legislation also directs the state’s attorney general to “direct a state agency to enforce those laws, regardless of any contrary federal statute, regulation, treaty, order, or court decision,” the newspaper reported.

The bill would also ban abortions at fertilization, whereas most abortions in Texas are prohibited after 20 weeks.

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