Lack of Emissions Permit Puts Gas Chamber Out of Service
Arizona’s gas chamber cannot be used until the Department of Corrections gets a permit to release cyanide gas into the air after each execution, a spokesman said Sunday.
The state has not executed anyone in 28 years, and the permit process could delay several executions scheduled over the next two months, starting June 7 with a man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her two children in 1984.
Appeals were pending or expected in all the cases.
In a notification last week, the Department of Environmental Quality said that, “since venting of gases from the gas chamber under your jurisdiction represents an emission into the atmosphere, it is necessary that the Department of Corrections obtain a permit to operations which will cause such venting.”
The Corrections Department has begun the process of applying for a permit, which can take from 30 to 60 days, spokesman Michael Arra said. The state Supreme Court must now decide what is to be done, he said.
The lack of a permit was discovered while state officials were updating procedures for carrying out a legal execution, Arra said.
The gas used in executions would be sucked out of the chamber through a 30-foot-tall pipe outside the building.
The last execution in Arizona was March 14, 1963, when murderer Manuel Silvas was sent to the gas chamber.
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