Arizona executed two German citizens, Karl and Walter...

Arizona executed two German citizens, Karl and Walter LaGrand, Karl on February 24 and Walter on March 3, for killing a bank manager in Arizona in 1982. Walter was executed by the gas chamber at the State Prison in Florence, where there are 4 of the 5 German nationals on death rows in U.S. prisons. Karl LaGrand was the first German citizen executed in the United States since World War II, when several prisoners of war were hanged. Both brothers chose the gas chamber instead of lethal injection in hopes of winning a stay on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment. However, Karl LaGrand was allowed to switch to lethal injection at the last moment. Walter LaGrand refused the state's offer to switch to lethal injection, saying he would stick with the gas chamber regardless of the outcome. He was pronounced dead 18 minutes after cyanide pellets were dropped into a pan of distilled water and sulfuric acid below the black chair in which he was strapped. LaGrand apologized to the families of his victims first. "To all my loved ones, I hope they find peace," he added. "To all of you here today, I forgive you and I hope I can be forgiven in my next life." As a cloud of white, steam-like mist rose, LaGrand began coughing, shook his head and gagged several times. A couple of minutes later, his head slumped forward. He coughed again, raised his head and slumped forward. He didn't raise his head after that, though over the next few minutes his shoulders appeared to move involuntarily. Gov. Jane Hull rejected appeals from German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to stay the execution. Germany challenged the executions in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The ICJ ruled that the executions should be stayed, but to no avail. Germany's challenge to the U.S. in the ICJ continues. The issue of whether the U.S. has violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not informing foreign nationals of their rights to confer with their consulate will be decided by the ICJ in the future.