# We're still HANGING people?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 8, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587 "2006-02-08T20:30:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/21 "2006-02-08T23:39:11Z")
A friend of mine says that if he is ever called for jury duty on a death penalty case and is asked his opinion, he’s going to say, “If you’ll build the gallows, I’ll make the noose.” Oh, and I hereby nominate **The King of Soup** for the post of Lord High Executioner. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/22 "2006-02-08T23:46:45Z")
> [@scout1222](#): > > That is surprising. I guess I figured everybody had moved to gas chamber or lethal injection nowadays. More “modern”. The article said that Washington’s primary mode of execution today is lethal injection. I’d take hanging over electrocution any day, which I think is completely cruel especially since a good number of people survive the first shock. Hanging also preserves the organs for transplant, unlike electrocution, gassing, or the firing squad. I’m anti-death penalty anyway, but at least use a method that causes the least pain and has the most benefit for the living. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/23 "2006-02-09T00:11:59Z")
Actually Utah has now [dropped the firing squad in favor of lethal injection](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3519310.stm) (the sole exception being a handful of guys who were previously sentenced). With the sole exception of Nebraska (which retains the electric chair), every jurisdiction in the U.S. has moved to lethal injection as its [method of execution](http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=245), at least for new sentences. (Many states still have people on death row who were sentenced to some other form of execution before the state switched to lethal injection, and generally the state will use the old method if the convict insists on it.) > [@Death Penalty Information Center](#): > > Alabama: …lethal injection will be administered unless the inmate requests electrocution. > > California: …lethal injection be administered unless the inmate requests lethal gas. > > Florida: Allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and electrocution. Which is all somehow oddly [Pythonesque](http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/LifeOfBrian/brian-22.html). “Good. Out of the door. Line on the left. One cross each. Next. Crucifixion?” ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/24 "2006-02-09T00:16:44Z")
Not long ago in several jurisdictions you could still choose hanging or fire squad, that may have finally been phased out completely. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/25 "2006-02-09T02:30:22Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > Hanging also preserves the organs for transplant, unlike electrocution, gassing, or the firing squad. How many of the executed agree to let their organs be donated? I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure my attitude would be along the lines of “fuck that” if asked to donate mine after being put to death. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/26 "2006-02-09T03:20:11Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > Someone would have to clean up the rather grisly mess. Easy. The guy on Death Row who’s next in line has to live in the gallows until it’s his turn. I’d be pretty sure to clean all the blood and guts out of the gallows if I had to live there for any length of time. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/27 "2006-02-09T03:23:04Z")
I still remember hearing about someone in Florida talking about their electric chair taking multiple charges to kill people, and saying it was a great deterrant. “Hey, don’t commit a capital crime in Florida! We have the death penalty and our chair ain’t workin’ so good!” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/28 "2006-02-09T04:00:09Z")
I believe they were still hanging people in New Hampshire when I was courting Mrs. Plant to be. Interesting trivia: When boy Confederte Spy David O. Dodd was hanged in Little Rock, it didn’t take and a Sergeant pulled on the rope while he strangled to death. Cherokee Bill, before he was hanged in Ft. Smith was asked if he had any last words. “I came here to die, not make a speech.” ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/29 "2006-02-09T05:34:51Z")
> [@The King of Soup](#): > > What we need is a new machine, housed in glass, into which we can feed our capital criminals so they can be shot, poisoned, hit with mallets, set afire, attacked by angry, steroid-enhanced voles, choked, poked, infected, bit by rattlesnakes, clubbed, made to chew lead paint chips, irradiated, frozen, coughed on, stabbed, exposed to asbestos, smeared with peanut butter\*, drowned, beaten, strangled, sliced, diced, washed, extruded, formed, chilled, breaded, seasoned, pressure-cooked, deep-fried and formed into meatballs which emerge from the machine on a conveyor belt and are then eaten off toothpicks by the witnesses, officials and victims’ family members. And after all that, I still expect to see this headline: “MURDERED GIRL’S SISTER SAYS GENERIC-BRAND BBQ SAUCE PREVENTS ‘CLOSURE’” > > \*Allergic Prisoners Only. Whew! I was afraid for a moment that you’d propose something cruel and unusual, like _The Comfy Chair_. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/30 "2006-02-09T07:21:33Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > So at least as late as 1994 we were still hanging people in the U.S.? Are any other states still practicing this? I’m not looking for a debate about capital punishment, I just always thought hanging was a Wild West, 1800’s, so passe type of criminal punishment. Hey, you can still get firing squads in Idaho and Oklahoma. (Utah stopped offering it as a choice two years ago, but if the people convicted before the law changed and chose “ready, aim, fire” actually do end up getting killed - they can still go that way.) Last time I checked, you can still choose hanging in Washington. If that’s your thing. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2006, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/31 "2006-02-09T08:20:51Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Hey, you can still get firing squads in Idaho and Oklahoma. Idaho only authorizes firing squads if lethal injection is “impractical”; I guess if you’re hellbent on posing for gunfire in Idaho, maybe you could take up recreational narcotics to the point where your veins are all messed up. Oklahoma only authorizes firing squads if both lethal injections and electrocution have been ruled unconstitutional. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/32 "2006-02-09T10:31:11Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > \ > > Cherokee Bill, before he was hanged in Ft. Smith was asked if he had any last words. “I came here to die, not make a speech.” Pure class, right up there with _Molon labe_. I’d shoot for “Just fucking get on with it” myself. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/33 "2006-02-09T11:26:52Z")
Has anyone read that bit of _Does Anything Eat Wasps?_ where the matter of whether guillotining is humane or not is answered? There is anectdotal evidence that the head might still be aware and conscious of pain for several seconds after decapitation. Not, perhaps, ideal. Of course, a really humane execution would require medical expertise, and doctors are usually advised by their professional bodies to have no part in executions (as it shreds the “first do no harm” principle into itsy-bitsy pieces). For example, a properly induced general anaesthetic, followed by a massive dose of IV potassium (or any other method such as the guillotine) would be much more humane and reliable and the somewhat hit and miss affair of the current triple lethal injection. But, like I said, you want a humane execution you need a doctor, and no doctor could assist in executions without censure from their professional body. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/34 "2006-02-09T11:38:11Z")
Japan, the land of high-tech, still uses hanging. But they do it with a robot hangman. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/35 "2006-02-09T12:13:37Z")
What do you mean, a robot hangman, how do they do that? Ick ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/36 "2006-02-09T14:33:24Z")
If we must execute, we should just reinstate the “jerk to Jesus”. (Tie a trebuchet to a rope and put it around the condemned’s head. Release trebuchet. Only time it was tried the head was flung rather than the expected body.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/37 "2006-02-09T14:37:02Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > If we must execute, we should just reinstate the “jerk to Jesus”. (Tie a trebuchet to a rope and put it around the condemned’s head. Release trebuchet. Only time it was tried the head was flung rather than the expected body.) Huh. I have a very different definition of a “jerk to Jesus.” ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/38 "2006-02-09T14:40:41Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > Has anyone read that bit of _Does Anything Eat Wasps?_ where the matter of whether guillotining is humane or not is answered? > There is anectdotal evidence that the head might still be aware and conscious of pain for several seconds after decapitation. Not, perhaps, ideal. There’s also a chapter devoted to this in Mary Roach’s _Stiff_. I don’t recall the ultimate conclusion, but there was certainly a lot of anecdotal discussion around the fact that guillotining wasn’t “instadeath”. (Of course, it was a lot more accurate and less grisly than the poor, overworked axeman. S’all relative.) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/39 "2006-02-09T15:18:03Z")
> [@Hokkaido Brit](#): > > What do you mean, a robot hangman, how do they do that? > > Ick 'twas but a bit of gallows humor. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587/40 "2006-02-09T15:42:47Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > … > There is anectdotal evidence that the head might still be aware and conscious of pain for several seconds after decapitation. Not, perhaps, ideal. > [@haardvark](#): > > …there was certainly a lot of anecdotal discussion around the fact that guillotining wasn’t “instadeath”. [Obligatory link to The Master’s thoughts on this.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_221a.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-still-hanging-people/343587.md?page=3)