The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1921-03-22
NEW METHOD FOR
KILLING MURDERERS

| Interesting details of the method of
| putting to death murderers by the
lethal gas method were published in
the Carson City newspapers. Great
interest is manifest in this subject
because Nevada is the first state to
pass law providing for death in this
manner. The Carson News says:
The average Nevadan If asked
What act of greatest interest was
passed by the legislature at the ses-
sion just closed" would be stumped
to give an answer, and would prob
ably invariably fail to answer cor
rectly. The newspaper men and Gov
ernor Boyle, however have good rea-
son to know that Assembly bill 230,
introduced in the lower house March
8 by Messrs. Hart and Bartlett has
attracted the attention and is holding
the interest of people all over the
United States. From far and near
newspapers, news-gathering and
news-distributing agencies have sent
telephone calls, letters and kilograms
requesting details of the act that only
awaits the signature of the governor
to become the first state law in the
Union requiring that when a judg4
ment of death is rendered it must be
executed by the use of lethal gas.
Available information is meagre. The
bill was lacking in details. 1t provides
concisely. that the warrant of death
appoint a week within which the
judgment is to be executed, not less
than sixty nor more than ninety days
from the time of the Judgment, and
that the sheriff must deliver the de-
fendant to the warden of the state
prison within seven days, or as soon
as travel will permit. The second
section of the act provides that the
by the administration of lethal gas,
within a suitable enclosure within the
limits of the state prison provided
by the board of prison commission
ers. The warden must be present
and he must invite competent ply
sieian and not less than six reputable
citizens over the age of twenty-one
years, but no other persons shall be
present at the execution.
Uban tho hill u-o 6 npday pcidata
ton in the assembly Mr.. Hart pre-
sented arguments in favor of its pas
sage. He believed that jurors hesitate
to bring in verdicts providing the
death penalty because they cannot
bear the thought of being RESPONSE
BILE for the dangling of the body of
human beings at the end of rope.
An execution by gas, he declared,
would be without gruesome features
ferred to the killing of the Elko
county officers by Fristoe and Bell
told how an older, hardened man,
placed a gun in the hands of boy
and ordered the youth to shoot-and
no hanging followed. He maintained
that jurors would hesitate less in
convicting murderers if they knew
that none connected with the case
would ever be haunted or troubled
with their dreams of gallows scenes.
1t would be easier for them to do
their full duty to society in the
knowledge that the condemned man
would some night go to sleep; that
as he slept in an air tight death cell
valves regulating the flow and sup
ply of fresh air would be so manipu-
lated that the deadly lethal gas in
stead would be forced into the en-
closure; there would ensue no vio-
lence, no struggle; there would be no
suffering-the dawn would disclose
that the murderer had slept on to