# How Does Hanging Kill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138 "2007-01-08T12:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/21 "2007-01-10T16:29:08Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] It’s an interesting and plausible idea that the shock of the break makes the person black out. If all that was happening was that the spinal cord was being severed then, as Paul pointed out, death actually takes several minutes, as the body starves for oxygen. The question is, why isn’t that person rolling eyes, opening mouth, and doing other things that the cranial nerves do during that time. Blacking out from the shock would explain it. [/QUOTE] I got hit in the jaw when I collided with my raquetball partner. It was a very, very minor tap, but it just happened to be where there are a helluva lot of nerves in my face. I dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes! I remember vaguely that it felt like an electric shock. I have no problem at all believing that a much more intense version, caused by your neck snapping, would have the same"short-circuit" effect and knock you out until vital oxygen starvation ended brain function completely. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/22 "2007-01-10T18:13:05Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] I’m afraid you’re wrong my friend. Pierrepoint hanged many Nazi war criminals including Josef Kramer, Irma Grese and also Lord Haw Haw. He hanged many of the female Belsen guards, the youngest being hanged first as he considered she would be the most frightened. Incidentally, it was his speed and efficiency which convinced the Allied powers that a British hangman was best suited for the “job” in hand. [/QUOTE] Pierrepoint certainly executed _some_ war criminals, but not those sentenced at the main Nuremberg trial, who are the ones that I assumed Mark VII meant, and certainly not all of them, which your post implied. I apologise if my assumption has caused any confusion, but given that, I think you’ll find my post stands. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/23 "2007-01-10T18:38:42Z")
[QUOTE=SCSimmons] This is why hanging is no longer used for executions in most civilized countries. [/QUOTE] I think you will find that all civilized countries no longer use judicial killings at all. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/24 "2007-01-10T18:39:27Z")
No apology required. My bad for thinking that you meant that Pierrepoint had hanged none of the war criminals. \*note to self…read the bloody post before replying ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/25 "2007-01-10T20:46:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] At the other end of the spectrum, dropping the hangee too far (especially if the subject is rather heavy) can result in decapitation. [/QUOTE] IIRC, the US Army has data, and in 1969 published, data on weight and height to prevent this. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/26 "2007-01-10T20:52:56Z")
[QUOTE=Pjen] I think you will find that all civilized countries no longer use judicial killings at all. [/QUOTE] And here I thought this was GQ, not GD (or the Pit). I’m rather surprised the mod of this forum let this kind of comment slide (probably just missed it or didn’t think it worthy of comment). The question of capital punishment is debatable…its not a fact that countries using or not using capital punishment somehow determines if they are civilized. Of course, this was your not so transparent way of simply taking a dig at the US, eh Pjen? FTR, I agree…the US SHOULD get rid of capital punishment (not because its uncivilized however). This, however is a debatable point. If you want to debate the merits of capital punishment, or you wish to try and continue your claim about how barbaric the US is wrt you civilized and cultured Euro’s, feel free to start a debate about it in GD…or take it to the pit where most of your posts concerning the US belong. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/27 "2007-01-10T22:18:02Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] And here I thought this was GQ, not GD (or the Pit). I’m rather surprised the mod of this forum let this kind of comment slide (probably just missed it or didn’t think it worthy of comment). The question of capital punishment is debatable…its not a fact that countries using or not using capital punishment somehow determines if they are civilized. Of course, this was your not so transparent way of simply taking a dig at the US, eh Pjen? FTR, I agree…the US SHOULD get rid of capital punishment (not because its uncivilized however). This, however is a debatable point. If you want to debate the merits of capital punishment, or you wish to try and continue your claim about how barbaric the US is wrt you civilized and cultured Euro’s, feel free to start a debate about it in GD…or take it to the pit where most of your posts concerning the US belong. -XT [/QUOTE] Calm down now. **SCSimmons** said: “This is why hanging is no longer used for executions in most civilized countries.” A neutral comment with which you did not disagree or suggest that he took it to the Pit or to GD. I replied with an amendment of his sentiments, except extended to all executions, saying: “I think you will find that all civilized countries no longer use judicial killings at all.” Why is it that you find **SCSimmons** post to be OK, yet find that my similar comment is for the Pit or GD. So its OK for one poster to imply that hanging is not to be engaged in by civilized countries, but not OK for another poster to imply that all execution methods are not to be engaged in by civilized countries. A little sensitive are we? See me in the Pit if you wish to discuss further. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/28 "2007-01-10T22:24:30Z")
[QUOTE=Pjen] A neutral comment with which you did not disagree or suggest that he took it to the Pit or to GD. [/QUOTE] Because his was a statement that was quasi-related to the thread…and actually has some basis in, you know, fact (i.e. hanging really ISN’T done in most countries anymore, civilized or otherwise). Your’s was a statement that is debatable (i.e. that capital punishment itself is the mark of a country being uncivilized)…and offensive to boot (since your intended target was quite transparently the US). As you intended it to be. [QUOTE=Pjen] So its OK for one poster to imply that hanging is not to be engaged in by civilized countries, but not OK for another poster to imply that all execution methods are not to be engaged in by civilized countries. [/QUOTE] Because, as I sad above, one actually had something to do with the thread and had a basis in fact (this being GQ and all), and one was meant to be a dig, and is of a debatable subject. But hey…I guess its all ok since you slipped it in without getting spanked by a mod. So its all good, ehe? 😛 [QUOTE=Pjen] See me in the Pit if you wish to discuss further. [/QUOTE] You haven’t annoyed me enough yet for me to bother, friend Pjen. Perhaps some day. 😉 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/29 "2007-01-10T22:32:08Z")
SCSimmons said: “This is why hanging is no longer used for executions in most civilized countries.” Hanging is a method of execution in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. [Methods of Execution Used in Capital Punishment](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004916.html). Oh dear, **SCSimmons** seems to be saying almost the same as me, yet doesn’t raise your ire. As I said, a little sensitive eh? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/30 "2007-01-10T22:37:10Z")
You wouldn’t be trolling, would you Pjen? [Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging): > [@](#): > > The last public hanging legally conducted in the United States (and also the last public execution in the United States) was that of Rainey Bethea, who was publicly hanged on August 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky. As I said above, his statement was at least quasi-related to the thread (which is about hanging), and it has a basis in fact, while your’s in only tangentially related to the thread and is based on your own opinion and has nothing to do with fact…i.e. the point is debatable and thus should be in GD. You are boring me at this point. If you wish to continue this, start your own Pit thread or just drop it, ehe? -XT ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/31 "2007-01-10T22:44:10Z")
Not that it has much to do with the thread, but I wanted to correct something I said. Same source as above. > [@](#): > > At present, only the states of Washington and New Hampshire still retain hanging as an option. Laws in Delaware were changed in 1996 to specify lethal injection, except for those convicted prior to 1996 who were sentenced to hanging. These convicts were allowed to choose lethal injection. If a choice wasn’t made, hanging was the default method. **This was the case in the 1996 execution of Billy Bailey, the most recent hanging in American history**. \*\*Since the hanging of Bailey, no Delaware prisoner fits in this category, thus the practice is ended de facto, and the gallows have been dismantled. \*\* In New Hampshire, if it is found to be “impractical” to carry out the punishment of death by lethal injection, then the condemned will under the law be hanged.[19] Other forms of capital punishment, such as the electric chair and more recently lethal injection, have largely replaced hanging. Bolding mine. Appearently the last person to be hanged in the US wasn’t in 1936, but in 1996…again, appearently by choice (gods know why anyone would choose this method). As you can see from the above, the practic has (de facto) been eliminated in any event from the US. Sorry for the continued hijack. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/32 "2007-01-10T22:47:44Z")
You seem to be debating in GQ or engaging in amateur modding. As a matter of fact, three hangings have been carried out in the US since 1976: > **[Death Penalty Update](https://www.infoplease.com/us/crime/death-penalty-update)** > > Here & Abroad by John Gettings Related Links Deadly Questions: New Study Raises ConcernsCountries of the World and Their Death Penalty StatusMethods of Execution in the U.S.U.S. Prisoners Under Sentence of DeathWomen on Death RowNumber of Persons... “Today, while more than half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, the United States continues to use the death penalty in all but 12 states (plus the District of Columbia). From January 1977 through April 2001, 710 executions were carried out in this country: 545 by lethal injection, 149 by electrocution, 11 by gas chamber, three by hanging, and two by firing squad.” In summary, **SCSimmons** makes a comment that most civilized countries have dispensed with hanging. I made the similar point that all civilized have dispensed with executions- intending to point out that hanging is not particularly cruel or unusual (after the botched execution in Florida last week, no-one is going to claim that execution by lethal injection is pleasant- 30 minutes to die in agony.) My post was meant to point out that hanging and other methods of execution are equally abhorrent and so have been rejected by many countries- same as the point made by **SCSimmons** about hanging alone. Maybe you should give up the borrowed moderator’s hat. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/33 "2007-01-10T22:50:56Z")
[QUOTE=Pjen] SCSimmons said: “This is why hanging is no longer used for executions in most civilized countries.” Hanging is a method of execution in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004916.html](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004916.html). Oh dear, **SCSimmons** seems to be saying almost the same as me, yet doesn’t raise your ire. As I said, a little sensitive eh? [/QUOTE] He said used. While it might be legal, it isn’t used. [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state/](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state/) [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=245](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=245) Delaware: Subject can choose hanging only if sentenced before 6/13/86. The last hanging to take place was January 25, 1996 in Delaware. As of July 2003 no inmates on death row were elligible to choose this alternative. New Hampshire: Hanging if death by injection not possible. Number of executions since 1976: 0 Washington: Choice of injection or hanging. Number of executions since 1976: 4 Number of Hanging Deaths in the U.S. since 1976: 3 (2 in Washington, 1 in Delaware) ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/34 "2007-01-10T22:56:11Z")
[QUOTE=Pjen] You seem to be debating in GQ or engaging in amateur modding. [/QUOTE] And you seem bound and determined to hijack this thread for your standard purposes of bashing on the US. 😛 [QUOTE=Pjen] As a matter of fact, three hangings have been carried out in the US since 1976: [/QUOTE] Thats nice…whats it got to do with the subject being discussed again? Oh thats right…nothing. [QUOTE=Pjen] In summary, SCSimmons makes a comment that most civilized countries have dispensed with hanging. I made the similar point that all civilized have dispensed with executions- intending to point out that hanging is not particularly cruel or unusual (after the botched execution in Florida last week, no-one is going to claim that execution by lethal injection is pleasant- 30 minutes to die in agony.) [/QUOTE] In summary, you seem to have difficulty reading and understanding what I said on this subject up thread, so there is no point in me repeating it again. C’est la vie I guess…you are like a dog with a bone. You simply won’t let this go. [QUOTE=Pjen] My post was meant to point out that hanging and other methods of execution are equally abhorrent and so have been rejected by many countries- same as the point made by SCSimmons about hanging alone. [/QUOTE] 😛 Your post was as transparent as always…no need to explain it Pjen. [QUOTE=Pjen] Maybe you should give up the borrowed moderator’s hat. [/QUOTE] I certainl will (it doesn’t fit well in any case) if you promise to stop hijacking the thread. Deal? 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/35 "2007-01-10T22:56:48Z")
the Major German War Criminals were hanged by the American hangman, whose name, I think, was John C. Woods ---
**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 10, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/36 "2007-01-10T22:57:55Z")
[QUOTE=Pjen] As a matter of fact, three hangings have been carried out in the US since 1976: [/QUOTE] A little more detail: 05 January 1993 Westley Allan Dodd , hanged in Washington. 27 May 1994 Charles Campbell, hanged in Washington 25 January 1996 Billy Bailey, hanged in Delaware From [Execution Database | Death Penalty Information Center](http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions.php) ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/37 "2007-01-10T23:02:51Z")
I repeat, I didn’t hijack the thread, I merely amplified a comment made by **SCSimmons**. His comment already implicated the USA as an uncivilized country because the USA has hanging on its statute book and has used it only a decade ago. I didn’t mention the USA until you claimed that my post was about a: “claim about how barbaric the US is wrt you civilized and cultured Euro’s” You brought up the subject of the USA’s involvement, hence my cite to show that the US was implicated in the original mention of hanging being abandoned by most civilized countries… It is you who have engaged in posts more suitable to GD or the Pit. I’d check you knee reflexes if I were you, your knee-jerk seems oversensitive. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/38 "2007-01-10T23:36:36Z")
In this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=394969&highlight=hanging) **Gabriela** describes hanging death in detail. Here is her post: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7935327&postcount=15](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7935327&postcount=15) Whatever happened to **Gabriela** , anyway? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138/39 "2007-01-10T23:40:16Z")
**Pjen** and **xtisme**. Enough. Take it somewhere else. **samclem** GQ moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-hanging-kill/387138.md?page=1)