Lethal Injection Chamber, San Quentin State Prison, California, United States

Federal executions occurred at San Quentin in December 1948. On two days inmates under federal death sentences for murder were executed in the gas chamber. Samuel Richard Shockley and Miran Edgar Thompson died on the 3rd. Carlos Romero Ochoa died on the 10th.
Although numerous towns and localities in the area are named for Roman Catholic saints, and "San Quintín" is Spanish for "Saint Quentin", the prison is not in fact named after the saint. The land on which it is situated, Point Quentin, is named after a Coast Miwok warrior named Quentín, fighting under Chief Marin, who was taken prisoner at that place.
In 1851, California's first prison opened; it was a 268-ton wooden ship named The Waban, anchored in San Francisco Bay and outfitted to hold 30 inmates. After a series of speculative land transactions and a legislative scandal, inmates who were housed on the Waban constructed San Quentin which "opened in 1852 with 68 inmates." A dungeon built at San Quentin in 1854 is thought to be California's oldest surviving public work.