Muslim honor killings often involve stoning. This recent storyhad me wondering what actually killed the unfortunate woman.
I wouldn’t expect stones to penetrate the body cavity like a bullet. Wouldn’t the vital organs be somewhat protected? Stones could break ribs, arms, and other bones. They would inflict massive blunt force trauma. The victim would be in tremendous pain and in danger of going into shock. Lets assume there’s no major head injury. Couldn’t a modern trauma hospital still save the person? I wonder how many stoning victims die from a lack of immediate trauma care? They are simply left where they collapse and die a lingering death?
Has any studies been done on what kills stoning victims?
IANAD but I’m going to assume that having a bunch of stones thrown at you causes massive internal bleeding. You’re basically going to bleed to death even if the blood is still mostly inside your body.
It would be hard to treat, even in a hospital, because it’s small injuries like ruptured blood vessels spread all over your body.
I would think, that at some point, there is going to be a massive head injury. It seems very bad form just to leave someone moaning in the dust. I imagine someone usually steps up and brains their unfortunate relation with a smallish boulder. But perhaps, sometimes, the victim does manage to crawl off and actually lives. Short of a head wound, 20 or 30 bricks might not do much but break some bones.
If I recall correctly, in Saudi Arabia they stone you by anaesthetising you, and then backing up a lorryload of gravel and emptying it over you. You die of suffocation.
IMO stoning is less brutal than the electric chair. A well-aimed stone can send you into unconsciousness/coma while the rabid unwashed proceed to smash your skull open. But on the chair, you are painfully aware of your body burning; you smell your own flesh charring, and finally die after enough vital organs have been singed. Burn injuries are said to be more painful than other forms of injuries.
I thought the electric chair was supposed to caused instant loss of consciousness by disrupting the functioning of the brain. Certainly stoning COULD be quick and merciful if somebody manages to knock you out or kill you with the first stone, but it can also be (and often is) horrifyingly slow and cruel.
I’d be interested to hear what kind of scientific information we have about whether a person in an electric chair remains conscious for any length of time.
Keep in mind that in the linked article people were throwing bricks and parts of bricks. We’re not talking the kind of stones you skip across a creek, we’re talking buck fucking hunks of hard material.
If you had a bunch of people attack you and punch and kick you what kills you there? Guessing it’s similar,
I saw a video quite a few years ago of a poor women that was spontaneously stoned. She had left this very poor neighborhood in a taxi. She was gone a short time. Came back and was surrounded and attacked as she left the taxi. The people had heard a rumor she had gone to service a client.
The shocking thing was how quickly it took place. She was surrounded and pelted with rocks for only a couple minutes. Thats all it took to end her life. Really brutal.
I thought I recalled reading that the size of the stones is regulated. You don’t want too big of a stone cause then the person could be instantly knocked out and wouldn’t suffer enough.
Giles Corey, accused Salem witch, was crushed to death under heavy stones, which is sometimes referred to as “stoning.” I always thought that this was the actual method of execution referred to.
According to legend, he refused to confess (his property would have been seized, denying his family their inheritance) but instead said, “More weight!”
That’s called pressing to death, or “la peine forte et dure”. It was an inheritance from the English common law.
If a person was tried and convicted, sometimes their entire estate would be confiscated.
But, there could be no trial if the accused didn’t enter a plea. Some accusers, convinced they were going to be found guilty and executed, would choose to refuse to plead, and then be pressed. Even if they died, they hadn’t been convicted, so their property passed to their heirs.