Urban Explorer Seph Lawless is known for exploring empty, eerie places — and Picher, Oklahoma, is definitely one of the most unsettling. Picher started out as a promising mining town in 1918, but today, it is known as the most toxic city in America. After years of water contamination and sludge buildup, the whole town was evacuated. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCBP_ATF’); }); For his latest project, Lawless journeyed to this foreboding town and walked its silent streets. There is nothing safe about being inside Picher’s city limits, but that definitely wasn’t enough to extinguish his curiosity. Abandoned for over a decade, this city once thrived with a booming mining industry in the early 20th century. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCBM_BTF’); }); During Oklahoma’s expansion in 1913, huge amounts of lead and zinc were found in the area. Being at the center of all this new mining work, a settlement was formed and its population had reached nearly 10,000 people by 1920. Seph Lawless It was named after Oliver Picher, owner of the Picher Lead Company. Seph Lawless It became so successful that at one point, it was producing over $20 billion of ore, quickly making it the most lucrative mining settlement in the state. Seph Lawless Over half of the lead and zinc used by the U.S. military during World War I came from the city. Seph Lawless But everything changed after mining stopped in 1967. Hazardous waste and contaminated water from mine shafts created a toxic environment. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCI1_BTF’); }); The situation got so bad that the U.S. government designated it as a Superfund site, which identified it as a candidate for cleanup because of the dangerous risk that was posed to people living there. Seph Lawless Unfortunately, Picher couldn’t be salvaged. Officials evacuated the area in 2009 and classified it as the most toxic city in America. Seph Lawless Residents were forced out of their homes and relocated. They left many of their possessions behind, which turned their houses into chilling time capsules that now commemorate an awful point in Oklahoma’s history. Seph Lawless Lawless noticed when he started exploring that people’s clothes were still hanging in their closets as if they’d only just left. Seph Lawless Because of extensive mining, the ground beneath the explorer’s feet could have given way at any time. Seph Lawless As Lawless walked through the streets, he feared that he would fall to his death. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCI2_BTF’); }); Mining also left behind huge piles of siliceous rock and dolomite waste called “chat.” The mounds are so large that they look like mountains surrounding the city. Seph Lawless Approximately 34 percent of children from Picher were found to be suffering from lead poisoning by the time 1996 rolled around. Seph Lawless In the short amount of time that Lawless spent on one of the hills, he reported feeling nauseous and very uneasy. Seph Lawless But despite all of the dangers, the city’s pharmacist, Gary Linderman, refused to leave […]
The firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, taken on June 18, 2010.Image: Trent Nelson/Associated Press A botched execution in the state of Oklahoma on Tuesday has drawn criticism from the White House, infuriated the ACLU and — practically overnight — reignited the death penalty debate in America. Clayton Lockett, convicted of raping and murdering a 19-year-old girl, was due to be executed at the state penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., Tuesday night when things went shockingly awry. It began when Lockett was given a powerful anesthetic at 6:23 p.m. CDT, the New York Times reported, and was pronounced unconscious moments later. After a few minutes, Lockett reportedly tried to sit up in his chair, trembled, shook his foot, said “man, something’s wrong” and gasped, before officials closed the curtains to the execution chamber. Prison officials later said Lockett died of a heart attack about 40 minutes after a doctor administered the initial drug, and stated the botched execution was a result of a “vein failure” that had “burst.” A second execution scheduled for later Tuesday was postponed pending an investigation. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely.” “I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.” Gov. Mary Fallin (R.-Okla.) has promised to investigate the state’s lethal injection protocol. The brutal mishap has again put a spotlight on the morality of the death penalty and has called into question the cocktail of secret drugs administered to Lockett. Below, Mashable answers some basic questions about the death penalty and how the process of lethal injection is carried out. Which countries have the death penalty? The United States is one of 58 nations that still practices capital punishment, along with Ethiopia, Afghanistan and North Korea. Japan and India are the only other major democratic nations that carry out this form of punishment. Of the 198 countries recognized by the Death Penalty Information Center, 98 forbid capital punishment. Seven of those countries allow it only in the case of “exceptional crimes,” such as one committed under military law. Thirty-five others allow it for “ordinary” crimes such as murder, but have not carried out an execution in at least 10 years and “are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions,” according to the center’s website. In the map below, click “legend” in the top left corner to see what the colors designate. How many states in the U.S. have the death penalty? Capital punishment is still legal in 32 states. Maryland was the latest to outlaw the death penalty in 2013, though the ruling was not retroactive; the five inmates on death row there are still due to be executed. The same is true for Connecticut and New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty in 2012 and 2009, respectively. Connecticut’s 11 death row prisoners and New Mexico’s […]
