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North Carolina's Gas Chamber Years

By Steve Hall

That's the title of an OpEd in today's News & Observer of Raleigh, by Scott Christianson.  He's the author of The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber, published last month. LINK Here's the beginning of this fascinating history:The recent gruesome legal execution by firing squad in Utah has revived debate about "humane" methods of capital punishment and the wisdom of the death penalty in general. Every state always has claimed that the method it uses is "humane," and no state has ever acknowledged that it has executed an innocent person.Today North Carolina has 176 persons on death row. (Since 1973 an additional seven convicts who were scheduled to die have been exonerated.)Over the past 50 years, North Carolina has put to death 44 persons, some of whom might have been wrongfully convicted...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).