Can This Be…Arizona Using Cyanide Gas for Their Executions?

Cyanide gas, the same used at Auschwitz, is planned to be used for executions in Arizona. Just the news of cyanide gas being used once again, especially in the United States, does this make you wonder what is going on?

According to a story from the guardian.com, the same lethal gas that was used at Auschwitz, hydrogen cyanide, is in the works to be used to kill death row inmates in Arizona.

According to the story authorities have spent more than $2,000 on ingredients to make the gas. In documents obtained by the Guardian:

The department (Arizona Department of Corrections) bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530.

To generate the mixture, the department purchased sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid. This combination is used to cause the deadly gas.

The Arizona Department of Corrections already had a gas chamber that was built in 1949 but has been disused for the past 22 years. The story says the chamber has been dusted off and, according to the department, “refurbished”.

According to department officials, the refurbished chamber was checked to make sure the facility was in proper working order The last time it was used was back in 1999.

According to an eyewitness account of the 1999 event published by the Tucson Citizen:

The witness room fell silent as a mist of gas rose, much like steam in a shower, and Walter LaGrand became enveloped in a cloud of cyanide vapor. He began coughing violently – three or four loud hacks – and then, in what appeared to be his last moments of consciousness, he made a gagging sound before falling forward at about 9:15 p.m.