# Decapitation by hanging? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 18, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424 "2007-01-18T04:26:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/21 "2007-01-18T19:11:49Z")
[QUOTE=drillrod] A 200 pound man (hypothetical) drops 8 feet or so straight down and comes to an abrupt stop by means of a rope around his neck. This has got to generate a tremendous amount of force. Physics majors - a little help here? [/QUOTE] Some information here: [http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging2.html](http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging2.html) see the section on the **long drop.** ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/22 "2007-01-19T00:17:33Z")
I don’t think neck weakness is solely dependent on weight/health status - I remember reading once about how most suicide bombers are decapitated by their own bombs The Israeli post-bomb cleanup person quoted said that their heads fly up ‘like corks’ when the bomb goes off, because the neck is so weak as compared with the rest of the body. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/23 "2007-01-19T00:47:10Z")
With regards suicide bombers, I was under the impression that the body was pulped and head and limbs sent flying elsewhere, simply because all the explosives are usually wrapped around the bomber’s body. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/24 "2007-01-19T04:31:59Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] Does the choice of hanging as the means of capital punishment in Iraq have anything to do with Islam? I mentioned something about how they seem to be botching it and wonder why they choose hanging rather than firing squad or lethal injection, when it occurred to me that those forms of execution might be forbidden under Islam. I am pretty ignorant of the religion, however. [/QUOTE] I don’t know much about Islam either, but I do know that the methods of execution do vary in Islamic countries. You can be executed by firing squad, hanging, decapitation via a sword, or a single shot to the head, depending on where you are at and possibly what your crime was. I’ve never heard of lethal injection being used in Islamic countries, but I am definately not an expert on the subject by any stretch of the imagination. In Saddam’s case, the choice seemed to come down to firing squad or hanging. Saddam asked for a firing squad but didn’t get it. Apparently hanging is done for common criminals, and firing squads are reserved only for people who deserve more resepect like military officers. In a way, the fact that they chose to execute him by hanging was a bit of an insult, classifying him as just another common criminal and not worthy of a more respectful death. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/25 "2007-01-19T04:49:00Z")
[QUOTE=engineer\_comp\_geek] In Saddam’s case, the choice seemed to come down to firing squad or hanging. Saddam asked for a firing squad but didn’t get it. Apparently hanging is done for common criminals, and firing squads are reserved only for people who deserve more resepect like military officers. In a way, the fact that they chose to execute him by hanging was a bit of an insult, classifying him as just another common criminal and not worthy of a more respectful death. [/QUOTE] The distinction between hanging as a “shameful” execution and the firing squad as more respectful has a long history. During the American revolution, Washington chose to have British spy [John Andre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Andre) hung instead of facing the firing squad. Although Andre was an officer in the British Army, Washington wanted to make the point that his spying warranted a less-than-honorable death. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/26 "2007-01-19T05:22:20Z")
[QUOTE=Poysyn] They did mention that the guy in question was suffering from cancer - would that cause weakened muscles, tissues etc…? [/QUOTE] Yes, it could, but that is probably minor in this case. For his weight, the recommended drop according to the British hanging table is about 5-1/2 feet, I think. And I think that I saw that the rope the Iraqis used was more like 8-1/2 feet. Given that much over-length in the rope, he could have been in the best of health, plus had a bull neck like the biggest of football defensive linemen, and it still wouldn’t have mattered – that rope was still going to pull the head right off. I remember it being mentioned that in the film of the execution, you can see excess length of the rope coiled at his feet. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/27 "2007-01-19T20:15:12Z")
Here in Washington State Mitchell Rupe’s hanging was stopped due to his being[too fat](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002790683_webrupe07.html) : > [@](#): > > In 1994, a federal judge upheld his conviction but agreed with Rupe’s contention that at more than 400 pounds, he was too heavy to hang because of the risk of decapitation. Rupe argued that hanging would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. > > \>\>\>snip\<\<\< > > Rupe weighed more than 425 pounds — that’s the highest the scale went — when the federal judge ruled he was too heavy to hang Since then Washington has changed to lethal injection, and Rupe, whose sentence was changed to life imprisonment in 2000, died in prison of liver disease in February 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/28 "2007-01-19T22:01:57Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] I remember it being mentioned that in the film of the execution, you can see excess length of the rope coiled at his feet. [/QUOTE] Then he must have been very short. If the drop was 8.5 feet, the loose rope would only reach 4.25 down from his neck. To coil at his feet, he would have to be considerably less than 4 feet tall. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424/29 "2007-01-19T23:15:52Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] Then he must have been very short. If the drop was 8.5 feet, the loose rope would only reach 4.25 down from his neck. To coil at his feet, he would have to be considerably less than 4 feet tall. [/QUOTE] Here’s one place where I saw that: the NY Times: [Second Iraq Hanging Also Went Awry - The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16hang.html?_r=1&em&ex=1169096400&en=5a3602a618664c51&ei=5070&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin) > [@](#): > > Iraqi officials who attended the hanging said the calculation in the case of Mr. Ibrahim, a 55-year-old of medium height and build, had allowed for a “drop” of eight feet — too much, according to at least one United States Army manual — and about that amount of thick yellow rope could be seen coiled at Mr. Ibrahim’s feet before the hanging. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decapitation-by-hanging/388424.md?page=1)