Dan Vasquez used to push the lever on the gas chamber, or the “coughing box”, as it was known on death row. As California’s state executioner, he stared into the eyes of condemned men while they passed to the next world.

“They try to hold their breath, but it seeps in through the pores,” he said. “It takes seven seconds. The head rolls forward, and then they flatline. One told me: ‘Everyone will dance with the grim reaper.’”..