Execution chamber

Kansas, Nevada, and Wyoming are the only states to have an execution chamber, which is equipped to execute an inmate by lethal injection, which has never been used, while the states of New Jersey and New York formerly had lethal injection chambers which were never used while the death penalty remained legal.

The National Ethics Council of the American Institute of Architects ruled in 2019 that its members may continue to design execution chambers in jurisdictions where they are legal.

All remaining inmates death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the New Mexico Supreme Court in 2019.

All remaining inmates death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the New York Court of Appeals immediately upon abolition.

All remaining inmates death sentences were automatically commuted to life imprisonment under the abolition statute.

All remaining inmates death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the Washington Supreme Court immediately upon abolition.

The room, usually formed from two single prison cells, contained the large trapdoor, usually double-leaved, but in some older chambers such as at Oxford, single-leaved, and operating lever.

The wooden beam from which the rope was suspended was usually set into the walls of the chamber above, with the floor removed.

The last gallows to be constructed and used in Britain, at HMP Aberdeen, was built in 1962, and was used one year later for the hanging of Henry John Burnett, the last person to be executed in Scotland.

Japan has seven execution chambers, which are located at the Detention Houses in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai and Sapporo.

[42] In the Tokyo facility, the actual chamber is preceded by a room with a shrine to Amida Nyorai (Amitābha), a Buddhist deity, to allow for prayers and consultation with a religious official.