# Electrocution or hanging? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227 "2016-04-14T23:05:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/21 "2016-04-15T14:25:39Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > Why can’t they just use the method they use to euthanize animals? Pink stuff, instant end. I think for the same reason that lethal injection isn’t always reliable: doing it well and painlessly requires physician assistance, and physicians refuse to assist in executions. In most US states (and this is a matter of law, unlike the above), physicians are not even allowed to assist in suicides, even if the patient is terminally ill and living with incurable pain. That means physicians don’t even get much if any practical knowledge of euthanizing humans. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/22 "2016-04-15T15:02:33Z")
Efficiency? Well, you don’t have to pay an electrical bill for a hanging, so unless the rope breaks hanging is certainly more efficient. Also, if you hang someone by the neck long enough, or electrocute someone long enough, they will die 100% of the time. So I guess that would be a tie, unless of course the rope breaks and you need to replace it and hanging them on a second rope counts as 2 hangings. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/23 "2016-04-15T15:04:18Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > That sounds a bit reminiscent of the old Mughal (and later British colonial) practice of having people [blown from the mouths of cannons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowing_from_a_gun). Messy clean-up afterwards, unless a flock of vultures is handy … :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/24 "2016-04-15T15:42:03Z")
A bullet’s only 50 cents. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/25 "2016-04-15T16:28:36Z")
**Enzyme based drain cleaners** Well, they can’t clean drains worth a damn. Oh, is this the [wrong thread](https://youtu.be/ODRCp_WIRkQ?t=45)? ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/26 "2016-04-16T01:01:05Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > A bullet’s only 50 cents. 😉 Where you buying your bullets? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/27 "2016-04-16T02:09:47Z")
I want to take hangmans’ wood into the next life. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/28 "2016-04-16T22:28:47Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’ve always been partial to skull pulverisation, either from a firing squad aiming at the head, or perhaps just crushing the skull beneath a high-velocity pile driver. Amazing! I’ve never met anyone before who had been executed enough times to have a preference. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/29 "2016-04-17T00:35:16Z")
I’ve never eaten a shit sandwich…but I know in advance I wouldn’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/30 "2016-04-17T00:53:44Z")
I recall years ago – early 1990s, I think – there was a hanging in Washington state. Can they choose between two forms of execution there? I think the perp chose hanging to make a statement about the barbarity of the death penalty, intending for the witnesses to be shocked. However, the witnesses reportedly said it seemed quick and efficient, over in a flash. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/31 "2016-04-17T01:21:25Z")
What would Rasputin have chosen? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227/32 "2016-04-18T06:40:00Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > What would Rasputin have chosen? “All of the above”, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrocution-or-hanging/752227.md?page=1)