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Hanging as capital punishment

Cainkane1

Philosopher
Cainkane1
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Jul 16, 2005
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On youtube there are several Iranian hangings on video. Looking at the victims final moments I see very little activity from the victims. Only in one video did I see weak movement of the legs but this victim, a woman was given a reverse hanging.

Is a normal hanging this painless? The Iranian victims were hoisted slowly not dropped.
 
If I faced execution, and had the choice of which method, without a seconds hesitation I would opt for hanging (but with a trapdoor). One moment you're in the holding cell listening to a priest babbling on, and 15 seconds later you're dead.
 
Probably wrong, but from memory if it is done right the rope rips apart pretty much every thing between the neck and shoulders on impact and she is a bit instant

Unless your mate is Robin Hood who shoots the rope with an arrow
 
The Iranian hanging method does *not* break the neck. There is no trap door, no sudden drop, nothing as pleasant as that.

You stand on the ground, where the rope is put around your neck and your head covered. The crane then pulls you up into the air where you strangle to death.
 
Yeah, I'd hate to have to live with the memory of my painful death.


Oh, wait...
 
Pulvinar said:
Yeah, I'd hate to have to live with the memory of my painful death.


Oh, wait...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's the experience of pain in the moment that most people prefer to avoid, not the memory thereafter.
 
When they are dead have they been "hung" or "hanged"?

I could never work it out
 
cullennz said:
When they are dead have they been "hung" or "hanged"?

I could never work it out
Click to expand...

Hanged.

"Hung is the past tense and past participle of hang in most of that verb’s senses. For instance, yesterday you might have hung a picture on the wall, hung a right turn, and hung your head in sorrow. The exception comes where hang means to put to death by hanging. The past tense and past participle of hang in this sense, and only in this sense, is hanged."
 
MikeG said:
If I faced execution, and had the choice of which method, without a seconds hesitation I would opt for hanging (but with a trapdoor). One moment you're in the holding cell listening to a priest babbling on, and 15 seconds later you're dead.
Click to expand...

That's England, not the US. You get the perp walk to the noose here (back when they did that.........)!!!!! Really a shame though that there is not a rule everywhere that if they hang/execute a person who was innocent the judge, prosecutor and police who handled the case get at least 10-20 years in prison for the murder they committed. Also any civilians who gave perjured testimony!!! The nicety does not apply if any/all were shown to have known the person was innocent!!

Note, yes, I tend to nastiness for murderers and related but I only want those who are guilty for sure handled those ways.
 
MikeG said:
If I faced execution, and had the choice of which method, without a seconds hesitation I would opt for hanging (but with a trapdoor). One moment you're in the holding cell listening to a priest babbling on, and 15 seconds later you're dead.
Click to expand...

Damned if I would. I'd go for nitrogen gassing while under anaesthetic. Also hanging (even the drop method) isn't 100% reliable. John Babbacombe LeeWP - 3 failures in one day.

eta: actually, just go for a fat anaesthetic overdose. We've said goodbye to several pets that way with no need for the gassing. Or make the gassing secretive after a hefty sleeping drug dose was slipped into dinner.
 
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phiwum said:
I'm pretty sure it's the experience of pain in the moment that most people prefer to avoid, not the memory thereafter.
Click to expand...

Just pointing out the irrationality of it. Of course evolution has programmed us to fear death, and seeing others die in terror is likely what helps support that fear, rational or not.
 
By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries British hangman were very well trained, they would calibrate the drop distance based on the condemned's weight adjusted for their neck musculature from a secret observation in their cell. They would then set up the rope and leave it overnight with an equivalent weight to the condemned to remove any stretch in the rope and readjust it in the morning before the execution. When thecondemned was brought in they would be lead to a chalk mark indicating the best position on the trap door (toeing the line), and the hangman would put on the hood and set the noose while their assistant secured the feet with a buckled leather strap. Then the lever was pulled to release the trap. It was perfectly normal for the process to take less than thirty seconds from entering the execution chamber to death being declared. The people who performed this office were well trained professionals with years of experience as apprentices and assistants before taking on the responsibility, a hangman who failed to cause immediate death or left a disfigured corpse was very unlikely to work in that capacity again.

I'm happy that we have no death sentence and today if it were brought back I'd hope that we could come up with something even more humane, but at the time it was the quickest and least painful way of dispatching a healthy person that could be determined. Of course reverse hanging is completely different and far less humane.
 
Cainkane1 said:
On youtube there are several Iranian hangings on video. Looking at the victims final moments I see very little activity from the victims. Only in one video did I see weak movement of the legs but this victim, a woman was given a reverse hanging.

Is a normal hanging this painless? The Iranian victims were hoisted slowly not dropped.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's the usual: revenge, and sending a message, given the public nature of the event and the manner of its execution.

If they wanted to have pain-free hangings they could do so. As other posters have said, it's not as if this stuff hasn't been done many times before.
 
Pulvinar said:
Just pointing out the irrationality of it. Of course evolution has programmed us to fear death, and seeing others die in terror is likely what helps support that fear, rational or not.
Click to expand...
How is it irrational to not want to suffer great pain during death?

You said above that the memory of a painful death is the problem, but the reminder or memory of pain is not as bad as the pain itself, at least I don't think it is.

I mean if getting your head slowly hacked off hurts, but it's okay because you'll be dead in a minute, then what is the cut-off time? Is severe pain 3 hours before death also okay? A week? Rhetorical, I won't be back to this thread I'm sure ;)

I'm not so much concerned with the pain as I am with seeing it coming.
 
mgidm86 said:
How is it irrational to not want to suffer great pain during death?

You said above that the memory of a painful death is the problem, but the reminder or memory of pain is not as bad as the pain itself, at least I don't think it is.

I mean if getting your head slowly hacked off hurts, but it's okay because you'll be dead in a minute, then what is the cut-off time? Is severe pain 3 hours before death also okay? A week? Rhetorical, I won't be back to this thread I'm sure ;)

I'm not so much concerned with the pain as I am with seeing it coming.
Click to expand...
You could argue the nutbags ISIS are quite humane
 
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