We're still HANGING people?!?

[hajario]

What I don’t understand is how that guy could still be that fat after all of those years in prison. Don’t all jailbirds get the same amount of food on a tray for every meal? I suprised that he didn’t lose a lot of weight.

[Lissa]

@ivylass

Okay, so you don’t want to execute someone by hanging because he might be decapitated? Isn’t he just as dead either way?

I have to agree. Whether we hang, decapitate, electrocute, poison, or just beat the guy to death, the results are all the same.

@Q.E.D.

It’s not so much for the benefit of the condemned, but for the sake of the observers. There’s no sense in subjecting the witnesses to unnecessary gore.

This has always bemused me to a certain extent. They’re avid to watch a man die, but we don’t want to give them the willies. The horror of death is somehow negated by the lack of yucky-ness.

@swampbear

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.”

That’s a great way to avoid a death-penalty jury. He’d be instantly excluded by the defense as being over-eager to execute.

[TwistofFate]

@Q.E.D.

It’s not so much for the benefit of the condemned, but for the sake of the observers. There’s no sense in subjecting the witnesses to unnecessary gore. That said, when done properly, judicial drop hanging is very quick and most likely painless, since it snaps the neck between the second and third vertebrae, causing instant unconciousness followed very quickly by death.

does hanging not actually cause a Basal skull fracture, rather than snapping the neck between vertebrae?

[Q.E.D]

@Lissa

This has always bemused me to a certain extent. They’re avid to watch a man die, but we don’t want to give them the willies. The horror of death is somehow negated by the lack of yucky-ness.

Many states require witnesses to an execution, by law.

@TwistofFate

does hanging not actually cause a Basal skull fracture, rather than snapping the neck between vertebrae?

It might, but that’s incidental. The intent, at least for hangings in the US, is to sever the spinal cord. The placement of the heavy knot is such that as the spinal column is broken, the head is caused to snap backwards, cutting the spinal cord.

[M.Meursault]

@haardvark

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.)

Camus also wrote on this topic, relying mostly on anecdotal evidence, as well. It seems like very little has been done in the way of scientific inquiry. You can find his essay on the topic (entitled “Reflections on the guillotine,” I think) in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.

I seem to recall that some of the stories related in Stiff were the same as the ones in Camus, especially the ones about the yelling doctor (Hey! Murderer! Hear me?..Did he just look at me?) and the blinking head (someone told a newly headless to blink after decapitation if he could; he blinked numerous times. Or something; it’s all anecdotal anyways).

Personally, I’d take firing squad. If old movies are to be believed, they’ll give me a cigarette before I go.

[bauble]

@Ravenman

My recollection is that there is something in the Mormon faith about the spilling of blood being required for the taking of a life… and I seem to think that there is a flip side, as in, a Mormon who may be executed may prefer to have his blood spilled, perhaps as an absolution of sin? (Just a WAG)

Blood Atonement is what you’re thinking of. I don’t know what the LDS church’s offical stance is on it right now (I believe they denied that it ever happened for a long time). The link is to an admittedly biased source.

sorry for the hijack

[WotNot]

@M. Meursault

Personally, I’d take firing squad. If old movies are to be believed, they’ll give me a cigarette before I go.

Give it back. Those things’ll kill you.

[Shagnasty]

@M. Meursault

Camus also wrote on this topic, relying mostly on anecdotal evidence, as well. It seems like very little has been done in the way of scientific inquiry. You can find his essay on the topic (entitled “Reflections on the guillotine,” I think) in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.

I seem to recall that some of the stories related in Stiff were the same as the ones in Camus, especially the ones about the yelling doctor (Hey! Murderer! Hear me?..Did he just look at me?) and the blinking head (someone told a newly headless to blink after decapitation if he could; he blinked numerous times. Or something; it’s all anecdotal anyways).

Personally, I’d take firing squad. If old movies are to be believed, they’ll give me a cigarette before I go.

The Master speaks.

Do decapitated heads briefly remain conscious?

[carnivorousplant]

@WotNot

Give it back. Those things’ll kill you.

I’ll blow smoke in the executioner’s face.
That’s me, fighting to the last.

[M.Meursault]

@WotNot

Give it back. Those things’ll kill you.

Well, I only say I’d take a cigarette because I’m sure they wouldn’t give me heroin and a prostitute for a last meal…

[TwistofFate]

@Q.E.D.

It might, but that’s incidental. The intent, at least for hangings in the US, is to sever the spinal cord. The placement of the heavy knot is such that as the spinal column is broken, the head is caused to snap backwards, cutting the spinal cord.

would the head not snap forward due to the knot being behind the head and the force of the body pulling down, while the intent is to severe the spine, has it not been shown that it’s the basal skull fracture that kills them, hence BSF being known as “the Hangman’s Noose”?

[Q.E.D]

The knot is placed below the left ear, not behind the head:
[

Marwood also experimented with the positioning of the knot, and discovered that placing it under the left ear or under the angle of the left jaw would jerk the head backwards at the end of the drop and instantly sever the spinal cord and dislocate the cervical vertebrae. Prison governors and staff who were required, following the abolition of public executions in 1868, to witness executions at close quarters, welcomed the development of swift and “clean” methods of hanging.

](http://www.answers.com/topic/hanging)
Basal skull fractures do occur, but they are not necessarily the primary cause of death in most cases.

[Inigo_Montoya]

@Sublight

'twas but a bit of gallows humor.

Domo arigato Mr. Robo…ack!

[Frank]

@M. Meursault

If old movies are to be believed, they’ll give me a cigarette before I go.

In the only recent execution in Colorado, the condemned was refused a last cigarette as Colorado has banned smoking in prisons. Rumor has it that one of the guards snuck him one anyway.