Why isn't the guillotine used for executions?

angrysoba said:
I remember hearing one story that a very scientifically-minded condemned man said that he would keep blinking his eyes throughout the execution allowing observers to get some idea of how long a head stays alive after decapitation.
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It was the great chemist Lavoisier, executed in 1794 for having been a shareholder in an ancien régime period tax collection company. But the story is a myth. See http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004JChEd..81..629J
 
angrysoba said:
On top of that, there was an execution last year or the year before which caused something of a stir, which was by firing squad.
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Isn't firing squad still considered globally to be the honourable way of execution for soldiers?

A Dutch TV talk show had a forensic pathologist last week to talk about the botched execution in Oklahoma, and they briefly discussed a wide arrange of execution styles - surprisingly, the guillotine was not mentioned, though beheading in general, and Mary Queen of Scots in particular, were mentioned.

As to the question, what the most humane form of execution was, the pathologist first of all remarked that nobody ever lived to tell of their experiences. :) But furthermore, he mentioned as part of the cruelty, the angst that comes over the condemned as they walk to the site of the execution, and all the preparations are done.

So, he ventured, that the most humane way would be to tell the condemned they're going to do something nice, so they're unsuspecting, and then give a gunshot to the back of the head.
 
ddt said:
Isn't firing squad still considered globally to be the honourable way of execution for soldiers?

A Dutch TV talk show had a forensic pathologist last week to talk about the botched execution in Oklahoma, and they briefly discussed a wide arrange of execution styles - surprisingly, the guillotine was not mentioned, though beheading in general, and Mary Queen of Scots in particular, were mentioned.

As to the question, what the most humane form of execution was, the pathologist first of all remarked that nobody ever lived to tell of their experiences. :) But furthermore, he mentioned as part of the cruelty, the angst that comes over the condemned as they walk to the site of the execution, and all the preparations are done.

So, he ventured, that the most humane way would be to tell the condemned they're going to do something nice, so they're unsuspecting, and then give a gunshot to the back of the head.
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In Japan, one of the things that are often pointed to as a particularly cruel aspect of capital punishment here is that prisoners are not told the date of their execution. One day, however they are suddenly interrupted, marched to the gallows and hanged. Not quite as sudden as the shot to the back of the head, but maybe not knowing your execution date is actually better.
 
angrysoba said:
In Japan, one of the things that are often pointed to as a particularly cruel aspect of capital punishment here is that prisoners are not told the date of their execution. One day, however they are suddenly interrupted, marched to the gallows and hanged. Not quite as sudden as the shot to the back of the head, but maybe not knowing your execution date is actually better.
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I agree with you. Explicitly telling them they won't know the date in advance increases the surprise. :)

ETA: the surprise does rob you of a nice meal. Which could be an execution method too.
 
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Undesired Walrus said:
But they do. Is it possible that for all their talk, they feel slightly ashamed of the practice, wishing to mask it behind something clean like lethal injections?
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IMO Americans are big on denial and we hate to admit we're actually killing someone. Also it's not supposed to hurt, which seems odd to me, because it's *punishment*. It wouldn't hurt for long.

Electrocution, hanging and gas chamber all could have ghastly results, for the spectators as well. But an injection? They have a sort of Rube Goldberg contraption. They sedate with pentothal so you don't mind the potassium, but the potassium alone would do it, as would an OD of pentothal, and it wouldn't take long.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Painless, very cheap and without the complications of someone being injected with a cocktail of drugs that can have the side effect of torturing that person to death.
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The Nazis... I know I just Godwined the thread, but the Nazis used it as a demeaning form of execution and racked up quite the body count using the guillotine, so that is probably why it isn't used in most places any more.
 
Mudcat said:
The Nazis... I know I just Godwined the thread, but the Nazis used it as a demeaning form of execution and racked up quite the body count using the guillotine, so that is probably why it isn't used in most places any more.
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I would think the Terror of the French Revolution, with its daily public executions, is more commonly associated with the guillotine than the Nazi executions which were carried out behind closed doors, IIRC.
 
Two words: nitrogen asphyxiation. Possible euphoria, followed by unconsciousness and then death. No pain.

I keep seeing it brought up once in a while during online discussions about execution, but it's apparently not even seriously considered otherwise. The cynical explanation for the lack of interest seems to be that it's too humane.

ETA: Inert gas asphyxiation
 
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Cl1mh4224rd said:
Two words: nitrogen asphyxiation. Possible euphoria, followed by unconsciousness and then death. No pain.

I keep seeing it brought up once in a while during online discussions about execution, but it's apparently not even seriously considered otherwise. The cynical explanation for the lack of interest seems to be that it's too humane.

ETA: Inert gas asphyxiation
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Or maybe that there's no "active ingredient"? With injection, at least the potassium chloride actively stops the heart.
 
Cl1mh4224rd said:
Two words: nitrogen asphyxiation. Possible euphoria, followed by unconsciousness and then death. No pain.

I keep seeing it brought up once in a while during online discussions about execution, but it's apparently not even seriously considered otherwise. The cynical explanation for the lack of interest seems to be that it's too humane.

ETA: Inert gas asphyxiation
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Why not?

Air tight cell?

Guy/gal goes to sleep for the day/night, and just turn the gas on (or carbon monoxide)
 
C_Felix said:
Is that the one from Robin Hood: Men in Tights?
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That calls to mind the sherif's threat to cut Robin of Locksley's heart out with a spoon in Prince of Thieves (awesome movie). That sounds like it would be a long and brutal way to execute a person if someone were to actually try it.
 
If you were the condemned prisoner, and they offered you any method of death of your choice, what would it be?

Personally, I would opt for hanging. Alive, in your cell, and blocking your ears from the infernal droning of the priest one moment, dead 15 seconds later.
 
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MikeG said:
If you were the condemned prisoner, and they offered you any method of death of your choice, what would it be?

Personally, I would opt for hanging. Alive, in your cell, and blocking your ears from the infernal droning of the priest one moment, dead 15 seconds later.
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Not old age?
 
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