The Gas Chamber

The Gas Chamber

The gas chamber is widely associated with the Holocaust, but this instrument of death has survived well beyond World War II. As of 2018, seven US states - Alabama, Arizona, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming - still legally allow executions via the gas chamber, though it's as an alternative across the board. 

In 2004, information emerged that North Korea was using gas chambers to conduct experiments on entire families. Scientists at the country's Camp 22 gulag allegedly watched subjects slowly asphyxiate while they took notes on the process. 

For the traditional execution, prisoners are placed inside a steel chamber, where a combination of sulfuric acid, distilled water, and sodium cyanide crystals create a gas that renders them unconscious and ceases their breathing. The jury is still out on what this experience is actually like for the prisoner, as the process doesn’t allow for accurate measurements of suffering.