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Arizona prisoner won’t be executed in gas chamber

Arizona Department of Corrections

An Arizona prisoner is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 8 for killing an 8-year-old girl.

Frank Atwood is the second death-row prisoner to decline lethal gas since the state refurbished its gas chamber.

Gas chamber executions haven't been used in the United States in more than 20 years.

Atwood declined to pick a method of execution when officials asked him if he wanted to die by lethal injection or the gas chamber.

Lethal injection is Arizona’s default execution method when prisoners refuse to make a selection.

Atwood was sentenced to die for his murder conviction in the 1984 killing of Vicki Hoskinson.