Gas Chamber

The do-gooders and the bleeding-hearts are out there again trying to save that creep John Thanos' life. Their argument this time is really marginal.They say that using the gas chamber to snuff Thanos is cruel and unusual punishment because he might suffer a little at the end.So he suffers a little.How much suffering do you think Thanos has caused? For no good reason, he killed two teen-agers who never had a chance at life. And in case you thought you might ever feel any sympathy for Thanos, he informs us he'd kill again if given the opportunity.

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's gas chamber is on trial in a constitutional challenge that could bring an end to legal execution by cyanide poisoning.The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California opened its attack yesterday with the emotion-charged testimony of the Rev. Leon Harris, who helped his cousin, Robert Alton Harris, face his final hours in April 1992.Observers wrote at the time that the Baptist preacher, an ex-police officer, turned from the dying man to other family members witnessing the execution.

Maryland prison officials allowed reporters and photographers to have a look yesterday at the gas chamber at the Maryland Penitentiary, but refused to say much about the impending execution of John F. Thanos."

A Baltimore County judge yesterday dismissed a death row inmate's constitutional challenge to Maryland's gas chamber and, in doing so, denied a request to have the execution of convicted killer John F. Thanos videotaped as evidence.The unexpected ruling in an appeal by Donald Thomas surprised prosecutors and defense attorneys, who had expected to wait until next week to argue Thomas' contention that execution by lethal gas constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.Yesterday's hearing was supposed to involve Thomas' request to have Thanos videotaped and monitored by an electroencephalograph (EEG)

Inside his cell at the high-security Supermax prison, John Frederick Thanos continues his routine, writing endless letters and composing neatly rhymed poetry.The 44-year-old convicted killer seems almost resentful of the flurry of activity centered on his rendezvous with Maryland's gas chamber, scheduled for the first week of November.Thanos, who fatally shot two Baltimore County teen-agers during a robbery and who may force Maryland's first execution in 32 years by refusing to pursue appeals, declines interviews.

John Thanos approaches death to a crescendo of public indifference. Once, the execution of a human being provoked great public outcries, philosophical shrieks about the sanctity of human life. Now Thanos lives out his days like some pathetic bug pinned down by legalities, twitching his limbs only when the system nudges him a little.The world outside his cell pays only sporadic attention, absorbed as it is by other crimes, the homicides du jour. The arithmetic of modern street killing numbs us to the desires of a Thanos calling for his own speedy death.

OAKLAND -- A Garrett County judge set the stage for Maryland's first execution in 32 years yesterday by ordering convicted killer John Frederick Thanos to the gas chamber during the first week in November.Circuit Judge Fred A. Thayer made his ruling after Thanos fired his lawyers and waived his right to further appeals. Thanos' public defenders said they would immediately seek a stay from Maryland's highest court on the grounds that Thanos, 43, was not competent to waive his right to appeal.

A Washington man described by prosecutors as the mastermind of the carjacking in which Pam Basu was dragged to her death could face the death penalty after his conviction yesterday of first-degree murder.The Baltimore County jury that convicted Rodney Eugene Solomon, 27, will convene Tuesday in Towson to decide if he should be sentenced to die in the gas chamber or to life in prison.The Circuit Court panel of nine women and three men deliberated about four hours before finding Solomon guilty of premeditated murder and felony murder -- two types of first-degree murder -- for the Sept.

A retired professor of anesthesiology who witnessed Maryland's last execution said during a hearing challenging the state's use of the gas chamber that the execution reminded him of a 1948 visit to a Nazi death camp.Dr. Sylvan M. Shane, a retired dentist and former professor at the Johns Hopkins University, described the struggling of Nathaniel Lipscomb, who was put to death June 9, 1961."When I saw that and I thought back to what I had seen at Auschwitz, I thought this is probably the most inhumane thing I had ever seen," he said.

John Frederick Thanos is a step closer to the gas chamber after failing to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction for murdering an Eastern Shore welder.Thanos, 44, missed Friday's deadline for filing an appeal with the Supreme Court. Now, his only legal option is to seek a new trial by filing a post-conviction petition in state court. That appeal must be filed within eight months -- 240 days -- after the July 2 deadline for the Supreme Court appeal.Thanos faces three death sentences for murdering the welder and two Baltimore County teen-agers during a 1990 crime spree.