EXECUTION BY POISON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 981, 20 April 1911, Page 4

EXECUTION BY POISON.

A novel law providing an alternative to hanging for murderers on whom the death sentence has been passed was presented recently to the Nevada Legislature. It sets forth that any person about to suffer capital punishment may, if he please, swallow a dose of hydrocyanic acid. The new law was framed by a “Code Commission’’ partly as the result of the difficulty in finding an official executioner in Nevada. The officers of the law, it seems, have frequently objected of late to figuring in executions, on the ground that, though the death sentence is provided by law, they are, in fact, guilty of voluntarily bringing about death.. The members of the Code Commission, therefore, adopted a suggestion based on the cup of hemlock drunk by Socrates.

If the new law is passed by the Legislature, condemned murderers, after the sentence has been pronounced, will be allowed in future immediately to designate the method of death they prefer. Ten minutes before the time appointed tor execution a physician will visit the prisoner in his cell and hand him (or her) a packet of poison, and explain its effects and the proper way of taking it. The Bill sets forth that on the receptacle containing the poison it shall be plainly written :

“ There is contained herein a sufficient quantity of hydrocyanic acid to cause instantaneous death. You are authorised to take the same for the purpose of carrying into execution the sentence of death heretofore legally pronounced against you.” It is further provided that “ if the defendant, after having elected to take the hydrocyanic acid, shall fail or refuse to take the same, he shall forthwith be hanged by the neck until he is dead.”

The majority of the Legislature are reported to favour the statute as framed by the Code Commission.