An Airing of Gas Chamber Alternatives

A while back, we discussed in this space the scheduled execution of Robert Alton Harris at San Quentin prison. Harris is the man who abducted two teen-age boys from a Jack-in-the-Box in San Diego, drove them to a secluded spot and shot them to death as they begged for their lives. His crime was topped off with a gesture that would make Harris infamous across the land: As the boys lay dead, he ate their still-warm hamburgers.

For these murders, Harris has been sentenced to die in the gas chamber on April 3. If that date is kept, he will be the first person to be executed by the state of California since 1968. In the recent column, we set aside the larger questions surrounding use of the death penalty and raised some issues about the state’s method-of-choice for executions.

Simply put, it seems that the use of hydrogen cyanide gas to induce death carries with it certain problems. The period of time required to induce unconsciousness may extend for 30 seconds or more, far longer than other methods. And anecdotal evidence suggests that this form of death can be agonizing.

The state has not addressed the issue of how to conduct official killings for more than 50 years, when it abandoned hanging and substituted lethal gas. Assuming that a painless, quick death was desirable, we suggested that other techniques might now be explored.

You never know what’s going to provoke an extraordinary reaction. This column did. Dozens of letters have been received and it’s interesting to note that not once did anyone raise their voice against the use of the death penalty. As a people, it seems we are ready to proceed.

A large number of writers, in fact, criticized what they sensed was a certain sympathy in the column for Harris, who might undergo some pain within the gas chamber.

Where is it written, these people asked, that official executions should be quick or painless?

Mostly, those replies were angry, and you’ve heard their sort before. But another group of letters were written by people simply trying to be helpful. These were the most fascinating of all, and I want to share some of them with you today. You can draw your own lessons.

Clark Dickson, with no listed address, wrote that he believed the column showed “very little imagination” in posing alternatives to the gas chamber.

“When I was in the Navy Air Force,” Dickson continued, “we were put in a room from which the air was slowly evacuated. Fingers turned blue and men gradually became incoherent from lack of oxygen. One man passed out. All TOTALLY PAINLESS. Death would follow unconsciousness if oxygen were not restored.

“Why not use this method for executions and get on with them!”

Two other letter-writers also suggested oxygen evacuation as a likely solution. And several went the guillotine route. One respondent wrote this on a paper napkin: “The French has gilletones (sic), a mechanical device that drops a big knife and right away a head rolls out. It probably takes 1/8 a second or less.”

Not everyone was so conventional. Thomas G. Digby of Los Angeles dug into his own past for a suggestion. “I recall an incident some years back where a missile silo door, something like 50 tons of concrete, fell on some workers,” he wrote. “The men were killed instantly, with the condition of their bodies being such that identification was difficult. That leads to the idea of some kind of device for ‘stomping’ murderers much as one might step on insects or vermin.

“If it is done properly, the victim would lose consciousness as quickly as with hanging or electrocution, while in the dark recesses of the subconscious the rest of us would KNOW, on some elemental primitive level, that justice had been done.”

Perhaps so, but Robert T. Ford of San Clemente had other ideas. After reading the original death penalty column, Ford wrote, he was provoked to start thinking about “a fair way to satisfy all concerned, both pro and con on this issue.”

“In order to impress on the killer how it felt when he killed his victim or victims, I recommend that we use the same method to terminate his life,” Ford wrote.

“Like if he strangled--have him strangled, if he stabbed some one to death--the same for him, etc. etc. and etc.

“On this basis, relatives of the victims could feel that full retribution had been achieved. Call me anytime for more good ideas.”

Will do. And thanks to you all, etc. etc. and etc.