Abstract

Window on a Gas Chamber

Bearing the official imprint of the Warden's Office at the Maryland Penitentiary, the invitation to become a legal witness to the execution of prisoner Nathaniel Lipscomb arrived by registered mail. The prisoner, a thirty-two-year-old Negro, was to be executed by lethal gas for murder and rape. The mounting tension broke somewhat as one of the witnesses began questioning the Warden on the number of men who had been executed in the new gas chamber. Three sides of the chamber projected into the witness room. Looking through the two-inch plate glass, the author could see Nathaniel Lipscomb seated on a steel chair, his arms and legs securely fastened by thick leather straps. According to the author, statistics prove overwhelmingly that capital punishment is no deterrent to crime, and there is not in the world today a reputable criminologist, penologist, sociologist who does not advocate its abolition as a barbaric atavism.