Then it should be a simple matter to come up with a cite of someone saying that. Could you so oblige us?
Regards,
Shodan
I have always had a morbid fascination with decapitation, myself. I do not think that death would be instantaneous, but I doubt if consciousness would continue for more than a few seconds – well, let’s hope not!
Also – if we are going for instantaneous annihilation in an execution, what about an explosive charge that would just obliterate the head in an instant? It would be messy to clean up, of course…
Beheading? That’s no way for a man to die. A parachute not opening… that’s a way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine… having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that’s the way I wanna go!
how about a maze full of Indiana Jones style death traps and if they survive to the other side they get their freedom…I am thinking they could have one room be a metal grate floor with a giant block of stone to crush them right through the grate (you could even put the compost pile right under it for easy clean up)
I am a supporter of the death penalty but seriously believe we need to do 2 things with it,
1 up the reasonable doubt requirement to a much higher level
2 start using it more often
Exactly how bloody would a decapitation be? You would be severing the aorta, so I suppose that there would be blood spurting as long as the heart was pumping – how much blood would there be? It would be at least a little bit messy, maybe a lot messy.
So, how did they deal with all the blood during France’s “Reign of Terror”? Did they clean up the guilltine between executions? If so, how long would it take?
OK, color me morbidly fascinated : why would head crunching be more painless than straight decapitation ? I would think the brain mulch would still get some blood flowing into it (hence the chance for basic consciousness and functions to last longer), the pain bearing nerves would still be in there (although crunched up, making them doubly painful)…
There’s this exciting new invention called a “mop.”
Beats me why they don’t just modify existing gas chambers with evacuation pumps. Gradually pump out most of the air so the inside of the chamber approaches the equivalent of an altitude of 35,000 feet. Slipping into unconsciousness is painless to the point of most people not even realizing it is happening. Heck, we might even get treated to some entertaining goofiness as the condemned wonders out loud why the puppy purple van is strongwide… strongwide!
I wasn’t picturing a cinder block crushing someone’s skull, I was thinking a one ton lead or iron ingot on nearly frictionless rails that would pulverize someone’s head into red bony snot faster than nerve function could transmit pain.
I’ve drawn a crude diagram which should esplain. (With the rails omitted for clarity)
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1981/crushs.jpg
Oh and the link is a little grisly… with some blood, but it’s a crude drawing.
“I’m crushing your head!”
I dunno how well this would act as a deterrent. After all, Wile E. Coyote’s an unrepentant recidivist.
No, not a guillotine under any circumstances. Too mechanical. Just jerk a lanyard and down comes the blade. Too clean. Go for a big, hairy, sweaty, bare chested Mexican wrestler in a hood and a big honking pole ax. Have the condemned kneel with his head on a stump. Two blows. First blow crushes the skull and then commence chopping away.
Or maybe the Chinese method. A quick rifle shot to the back of the head. Corpse sort of just slumps over. Maybe a pistol rather than a rifle for the safety of the down range spectators.
Or maybe the old Roman system. Tie ‘em to a post and turn the lions lose.
Or the Arab system. Kneel in the public square and go after ‘em with a saber
Nothing can beat a good old drawing and quartering. String the condemned up for a little strangling, cut him down, disembowel him, cut off the arms, legs and head and display the remains on pikes at the city gates.
Stoning, yea, stoning. If it was good enough for St Steven it ought to be good enough for your everyday serial murderer. Certainly we can find some television Christian who will cast the first stone.
No even better. Crucifixion. In front of the state capitol building. On Sunday morning.
If you are going to kill your fellow citizens for the edification of the rest you ought to make a worthwhile spectacle of it. All this assumes of course that there is no possibility of mistake. Once you do this crap there is no taking it back, although you can apologize to the widow and orphans.
Do you mean one of these?
Who else read that as Lapdancer?:eek:
I personally think a .38 (or higher) round in the back of the head, right where the spinal cord joins in, would be the most painless death.
The guillotine would be second on the list.
I’m a strong proponent of the death penalty, but only from a perspective of justice and not as punishment. As such, I generally think that the death should either be as humane as possible or maybe let the condemned choose the method within reason. That is, wanting to be hanged instead of getting a lethal injection is fine, but wanting to be able to jump off the Empire State Building or be blown up with dynamite probably wouldn’t.
That said, I’d generally be fine with beheadings, but they probably wouldn’t be the prefered method simply because it’s probably messy and has many potential problems. However, I wouldn’t have a problem with the state having a guillotine and allowing prisoners to choose it as a method of execution. Hell, I’d even be okay with letting them be the one to push the button.
I’m not a supporter of the death penalty, so I suppose you’ll have to take what I say with a grain of salt (or not after you read it), but if the death penalty is to be, why not beheading? Afterward, is the subject dead? Of course … mission accomplished.
Dead is dead.
Well, the reason I phrased the OP as I did is because many persons who support the death penalty also prefer that it be as sanitzed as possible, as if to deny the reality of what the state is doing on their behalf. Sometimes they couch this with concern for the dignity of the condemned prisoner.
Contrariwise, some DP supporters would be happiest with gory, painful methords of execution, as they see such as either a deterrent to potential wrong-doers or as just recompense for the offender’s crimes.
I think scalding to death, especially if the prisoner was convicted of illegal rhyming. Scald the rhymer, I always say.
This is EXACTLY what mutant knights should not be allowed to use computers.