Why not hanging for carrying out the death penalty?

Brainster said:
I'm the only one who read the thread title and thought it was proposing hanging the executioners?
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No :) For a moment I thought it was suggesting that executioners are themselves murderers.
 
Madame Guillotine was invented as a humane method of execution. Except of course, when the blade became too dull to cut through. Then, not so much.
 
lobosrul5 said:
Hell lets just turn it into gladiator games. The condemned versus the American Gladiators, tonight at 9/8 central on NBC! If the condemned wins against a trained AMERICAN Gladiator, its surely gods will that he go free!
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There was a series on SyFy years ago called "Exposure", that showed independent science fiction, fantasy, and horror short films. One of them depicted a society in which murderers are punished by bringing them into the desert with their victim's family members. The murderer is given a 5 minute head start, and then a box at the site opens which contains a handgun for each family member. If the killer can reach a finish line 5 miles away he goes free, while the family members will face no legal consequences if they kill him.
 
Stacyhs said:
Madame Guillotine was invented as a humane method of execution. Except of course, when the blade became too dull to cut through. Then, not so much.
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Supposedly if the blade was fresh and razor sharp it would cut a head so cleanly that the person would survive a few seconds until their head bled out. But a bit duller and the shock would kill one instantly. That may be total BS though.
 
lobosrul5 said:
Supposedly if the blade was fresh and razor sharp it would cut a head so cleanly that the person would survive a few seconds until their head bled out. But a bit duller and the shock would kill one instantly. That may be total BS though.
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I dunno. The effect of a noose is internal sectioning of the spinal cord. I'd guess that a dull guillotine blade would be just as effective.
 
GlennB said:
I dunno. The effect of a noose is internal sectioning of the spinal cord. I'd guess that a dull guillotine blade would be just as effective.
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My impression at least based on movies and the like showing guillotines is that the blade's weight is pretty substantial, and I would suspect the bias on it pretty much guarantees that it would cut off a head even if a bit dull. Not exactly tidy though.
 
bruto said:
My impression at least based on movies and the like showing guillotines is that the blade's weight is pretty substantial, and I would suspect the bias on it pretty much guarantees that it would cut off a head even if a bit dull. Not exactly tidy though.
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I think that during The Terror the blood and gore sometimes got so bad it gunked up thr side tracks and there were some botched executions.
 
shemp said:
I think the condemned should be given the choice of scaphing, being fed through a wood chipper (feet first of course), or tank of piranhas. If you're going to execute someone, don't pussyfoot around!

Or, better, do like most of the world's allegedly civilized countries and abolish the death penalty.
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How about sharks with fricken laxer beams on their heads.
 
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Biggest problem, false convictions.

If that were solved then it's a no brainer. Police are confiscating fentanyl every day and thousands of people OD on it every year. So use the confiscated fentanyl. Then you just have the problem of starting IV access. If the phlebotomist fails to get an IV in, get another phlebotomist. You at least won't end up with someone writhing in pain when potassium goes into the tissues instead of into the bloodstream.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Biggest problem, false convictions.

If that were solved then it's a no brainer. Police are confiscating fentanyl every day and thousands of people OD on it every year. So use the confiscated fentanyl. Then you just have the problem of starting IV access. If the phlebotomist fails to get an IV in, get another phlebotomist. You at least won't end up with someone writhing in pain when potassium goes into the tissues instead of into the bloodstream.
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I don't see how false convictions are a relevant problem. If some people are falsely convicted, we should be incentivised to make their execution as painless as possible.
 
I have never understood why they are not put under general anesthesia and then given some drug (OD on morphine) or anything that stops the heart (can they shock the heart to stop?)

Wouldn't that be the most humane way? They wouldn't be aware of whatever experimentation you'd cook up? It's like going in for a guaranteed failed medical procedure. Am I missing something?
 
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lobosrul5 said:
Yeah measured drop seems pretty quick. But get it wrong, and you have someone slowly strangulating, or a decapitation. We need Albert Pierrepoint to wake from the grave and show us Americans how to do it right.

I'd take nitrogen suffocation myself if I was the condemned.
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15 seconds from cell to the drop was his gold standard. Then he would go downstairs to check his work.
 
Daald said:
I have never understood why they are not put under general anesthesia and then given some drug (OD on morphine) or anything that stops the heart (can they shock the heart to stop?)

Wouldn't that be the most humane way? They wouldn't be aware of whatever experimentation you'd cook up? It's like going in for a guaranteed failed medical procedure. Am I missing something?
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The health care community on the whole have refused to participate.
 
Olmstead said:
I don't see how false convictions are a relevant problem. If some people are falsely convicted, we should be incentivised to make their execution as painless as possible.
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Somehow it seems again like trying to combine two incompatibles in one lump. Some people consider that false convictions are a good reason for saying the benefit of executing the guilty is at too high a price. But if you have decided that the price of this is acceptable, why not accept the price of hurting a few of the innocents you kill, as excusable in the overall goal of making the deserving ones more miserable?

"We're going to kill a few innocent people along with the criminals, but don't worry, we'll try not to hurt them" doesn't really sound very appetizing.

But I would concede that the question of innocent victims is more a matter of whether to kill them than how.

If you're determined to do it with as little stress and pain as possible, I suggest you tell them they've been reprieved, then soon after, unexpectedly shoot them with a powerful tranquilizing dart and kill them in their sleep. Or just come up behind them with a pistol and blow their brains out (thus obviating the need for a doctor's participation). This, of course, would never fly with those who demand that the victim must be aware of the punishment, but if the goal is to rid society of someone it should do the trick.

And then we can all sleep soundly, basking in the knowledge of our kindness to one and all.
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
You don't? :eye-poppi

Or is this sarcasm?

I find your reply something I would expect from The Onion.

If you are serious, maybe you should check out The Innocence Project.
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Well, my response was tongue-in-cheek, and I'm actually against the death penalty in all cases, but it's also true that potential innocence isn't relevant to this particular discussion, as it simply has no bearing on whether a method is suitable or not. It would be relevant in a discussion on whether a state should be killing people in the first place, but we're obviously past that step in this scenario.
 
So the question is those who carry out executions be hanged?

Hanging does seem a little old school, and increasingly interferes with society's idea of cruel and inhumane though I believe it might still be an option of it a a state or two.

Lethal injection has had its issues too. One thing that has slowed it down is that primary ingredients are mostly manufactured in Europe and they've banned it for export to US for just that reason.

The export of drugs to be used for lethal injection was banned by the European Union (EU) in 2011, together with other items under the EU Torture Regulation. Since then, pentobarbital followed thiopental in the European Union's ban.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letha...port of drugs to,in the European Union's ban.

I'm anti capital punishment anyway, so I don't think any one of them sounds pleasant. But probably would rather be conked first before feeling electricity.
 
Daald said:
I have never understood why they are not put under general anesthesia and then given some drug (OD on morphine) or anything that stops the heart (can they shock the heart to stop?)

Wouldn't that be the most humane way? They wouldn't be aware of whatever experimentation you'd cook up? It's like going in for a guaranteed failed medical procedure. Am I missing something?
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Even better, give them a general anaesthetic then remove their heart and organs for transplants!
 
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