| Show 0 f- f J I IU Vr l Ill l f off l 1 r r III fl f Nevada s Execution of i a Chinaman by aa a. a k anic Acid Gee Ge Jon JORn a Chin Chinaman am an was was' the fi first man to todie Gas Raises die by the poison gas method Discussion as to 0 0 N a. a ss I II I j With a low hiss the lethal gas e escaped into the dea death th 7 chamber and six minutes later the fir first s t condemned man oan to pay the full penalty in Nevada was dead by this I method considered j by many the most i humane yet devised devised devised de de- 1 by the State I The first breath of I the gas brought unConsciousness unconsciousness un un- j consciousness a and n d I to the death which soon ensued was to all appearances perfectly painless r- r In both Utah tah and ad Nevada Nevada Ne Ne- NeA A r vada the man whose life fe is s forfeited to the State may face the h firing firing fir fir- in ing g s squad q Mad i if he so elects instead of the the lethal hangman or gas chamber chamber- 1 took the fatal draught of hema hemlock hemlock hem hem- f j lock in the tho days o of the ancient Greeks Socrates died by that means of compulsory com com- a- a suicide Hemlock k is better known to chemists as conium It is a narcotic and while according to all the fables it is is bitter to the taste the death resulting resulting result result- from it is absolutely painless The 5 ing which he from victim falls in in a sleep Sr fh never awakens Ii r 4 t INCE CE the execution ut i in Nevada vada the exe t n. n S SINCE 41 rN 7 Y ay 1 attention attentIon of Humanitarians has been Deen tb J JY 1 i called to another possibility that may maywell maywell of the Y y t z well give ive pause ause to advocates x s r scientist who electric chair A Viennese 6 T y has made a special study of r i i ad adIF IF TP IF YOU had to die tomorrow at the theA A hands of the public executioner how would like to to die Alone By in invisible invisible invisible in- in visible means In sleep Or in in the I presence of a group of solemn official witnesses Would you choose to stand upon a scaffold to be hanged or guillotined in full view of all your fellow men who dared to look or would you take the firing squad Or would you rather die as ns many famous men have died by your own wn hand but by order of the State By poison By the knife In the known period of years during which mankind has been taking prisoners lives off and on the foregoing methods methods' have all been tried again and again and the experimenting is not ended yet Nevada has just startled the world by putting a man to death with acid gas also known as prussic acid He was dead according to the medical experts experts ext ex ex- ex- ex t in six minutes but he became unconscious unconscious unconscious un un- conscious with the first whiff What is the most humane form of killing those whose lives have been forfeited forfeited for for- to the State The death of Gee dee Jon Chinese Tong killer executed by gas in the Nevada death house at Carson City a few v weeks ago is conceded to havo have been without physical pain or torment But now the question is being asked all allover allover allover over the United States States all all over the world world Is Is physical pain the only thing to be considered Does the entire absence of pain in other words make mae such an execution more humane than death by shooting for instance in which the condemned man may live for a second or two before death intervenes Is it more humane than the Chinese knife built on the principle principle principle prin prin- ciple of the guillotine which slices a aman aman aman man into two two from from head to foot Is it ita a not the waiting for death that hurts and not the blow of the lethal weapon today has reached the CIVILIZATION stage at which men seek to find the tho easiest method of exacting the supreme penalty It has not in most of the nations nations nations na na- of the world abolished the death penalty The countries most prosperous and presumably most highly have found no substitute for death as a penalty for certain heinous crimes This was not always the caseIn caseIn case In the gruesome history of public killings killings kill kill- ings is to be found a sort of barometer of civilization It was not always tho the fashion to kill a man as easily as pos pos- sible During many recurring periods of the worlds world's history the end sought was to m r II lItE Jt III 1 inflict as m much ch pain as possible before death In fact many supposedly civilized nations stopped just short of the death of the prisoner gave him medical aid and restored him to health so that he might be tortured again The Pit and the Pendulum was was only a hideous fancy but Edgar Allan Poe might have pointed to worse things in history In his famous story of The Laughing Man Victor Hugo described in minute detail a form of death definitely planned to require four days and which he says was used in England The victim was Vias laid on his back back Each hand and each foot was chained the chains were attached at attached attached at- at to pillars and drawn taut Then great flat stones were placed on the unfortunates unfortunate's unfortunates unfortunate's unfortunates unfortunate's un un- un- un fortunate's chest Each day the weight we of these stones was increased until on the fourth day the weight was made sufficient to crush the victim If however however however how how- ever the man confessed whatever it was his c captors demanded he was re released released released re- re leased from the chains taken up to the jail wall and publicly hanged IT HAS lIAS been many years however since since such methods method have been in use uso All nations inflicting the death penalty seek to make it easy and most of the modern means of public killings owe their origin to the search for such an easy death The guillotine came into u use use se to replace the ax used for or centuries in many lands For Fot even the most expert headsman sometimes missed his mark particularly when the victims were numerous as in fn the early days of the French Revolution The guillotine obviated obviated that It caused instant death Instantaneous that is is after taking time out for the preliminaries The preparations required time That is true also of the electric chair the hangman's noose the rifle squad It is true of every modem modern form of official killing including the new method just tried in Nevada That is while the necessary preparations preparations' preparations preparation for or lulling killing by gas are carried on without the knowledge of the prisoner he is certainly certainly certainly made aware that his end is near when guards enter the death house to strap him into a chair And that takes time Before the gas law was placed upon the statute books Nevada was famous as the State that permitted a man to choose his ow own form of death The last Jast execution execution execution tion in fact was that of a man who chose to be bo shot His only alternative was hanging Utah still has such a law lawon on its statute books Omar R R. R Woods wife murderer died on January 18 last before a firing squad choosing that x H Methods l of execution execution tion are a good thermometer thermometer thermometer ther ther- of a nations nation's nations nation's na na- ap p J zt 4 tion's civilization q L a 5 In China it has lias been been been- j the custom to decapitate de de- a and sometimes sometimes sometimes some some- times to cut the prisoner prisoner pris pris- w a aJ oner in two J E Mary Que Queen en of Scots paid the extreme extreme ex ex- penalty on f r the chopping block T The picture is from froma q t a p painting a in tin g by 4 R. R S. S A. A States the I In many electric chair is in use and nd this method is considered considered consid consid- ered humane in death is almost almost al al- a- a that most instantaneous form rather than death on a scaffold And that brings up a very curious fact A search of the records show that wherever men have been given the choice of various methods they have taken that means which keeps all their senses intact until the tho last moment but particularly the sense of sight In other words it would appear that in the opinion of the vi victims tims the most merciful form that can be the form of death is man can see the seen The condemned cannot see the flash of a rifle He lIe He c cannot see the descent of the ax electric chair Ho He cannot current of the see the sweet smelling gas reminiscent of the odor of almonds now used in Nevada He could of course see poison More he could take it himself as the con con- Copyright 1924 by Public Led Ledger er has announced that they do lo not really cause death but only a form of prolonged catalepsy In this state according to Jellinek k the Viennese specialist the heart beats of the victim are so faint that they cannot cannot cannot can can- not be detected even with the scope To the normal human ear ear even even the trained ear of the physician physician physician-it it may appear that the heart has ceased to beat But after a time the victim returns to consciousness consciousness and and to the horror of ot being buried alive that alive that at least is what the Viennese doctor says It is somewhat encouraging to find that other specialists do not agree with him They point out that while a single powerful electric shock delivered accidentally may cause catalepsy and not death the shocks given in the electric chair are prolonged and repeated They also show that physicians at executions do not depend on the unaided ear or the pulse to determine de- de determine determine de de- termine that death has taken its toll Instruments of extraordinary delicacy are used capable of measuring the slightest beats of the heart I Burial alive incidentally has been used as the legal means of inflicting the death penalty in some civilized nations of the past Merely to list other means that would be considered now as incredibly incredibly incredibly brutal would require more space r y L than Is available Crucifixion was a common method in certain provinces of f the Roman Empire and probably had been used long prior to the time of Christ The earliest records of death penalties are to be found in the Bible Readers of the Old Testament will recall numerous methods referred to One in particular widely used in Babylonia long before the time of Abraham was later referred to by Christ Christ- Christ CI better that a millstone millstone mill mill- stone be tied about his neck and he ba he cast into the depths of the sea The canals that furnished irrigation and the means of transportation to Babylonia were used as a rule and millstones were were wert the instruments of death Stoning to death also was a common punishment in those days and here again reference was made to the custom by the founder of Christianity Let him among you who is without sin cast the first stone The living death of which this was probably the first example is I not unknown today In China certain condemned criminals die by sword thrusts administered by executioners who are also trained anatomists The idea is to inflict as much injury as as possible without severing severing- an artery or dealing a mort mortal l blow The The victim dies eventually from slow loss of blood plus the awful shock hock of the ordeal to which he is put of the Nevada N THE early accounts accounts' I TN IN law governing executions it was set forth that the purpose was to keep the victim from knowing in advance the exact moment of his death The original plan in killing by gas was to pump the tha lethal agent into the cell while the condemned condemned con con- man slept In fact the law provides provides provides pro pro- vides that the convicting judge shall set seta a week during which the prisoner is to tobe tobe be be executed The th that t week falls within the pro province nce of the warden Similar regulations as to date are in effect in Pennsylvania New York and many other States But for some reason the prison authorities decided to strap Gee Jon to his chair shair thus giving him notice that his end had come Psychologists who have studied the problem of providing a humane form orm of death are convinced that the answer lies in secrecy In other words word they would give to the man no further information as to the date of the execution execution tion after he had been convicted while this form of death has certain certain BUT tain thin aspects of mercy to the viewpoint of scientists it is considered by th the deeply religious to be the most horrible idea ever ever suggested To those who believe believe believe be be- lieve in an after life no death could be worse worse than a death without a chance to prepare the conscience Warden Lewis E. E Lawes of Sing Sing declared after learning of the execution of the Chinese prisoner in Nevada that lethal gas as a n means beans of capital punishment punishment punishment punish punish- ment never would be used in New York State If we must have executions said t the electric Warden Lawes I r think chair is better I think electricity is better than gas because it is the more humane of the two A protest was sent to to Governor of Nevada by the Women's Peace Union of New York City protesting protesting protesting pro pro- testing against the execution of 1 the he Chinese by gas The association is is' isop opposed opposed op op- posed to all capital punishment and especially protested the trying of tho the experiment upon a de defenseless fen s e I e s s Chinese S |
