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Why not hanging for carrying out the death penalty?

Darat

Lackey
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Darat
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This thread was sparked by this article:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/01/18/alabama-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty

The article is about an upcoming execution in which they are going to use nitrogen suffocation to kill the prisoner. It's a method never used before, and it does seem - like the article says - entirely experimental.

If you read the article, you'll see that there are a variety of methods proposed or being used yet I see nowhere is using hanging. It's been used for centuries, carried out properly it is instantaneous, we know how it works, there are even hangmen in some countries that could give hands-on advice.

So, my question is why all these weird and experimental execution methods when there is a perfectly good method they could adopt? What is the reluctance to use hanging?

(Thread isn't meant to be about the punishment of the death penalty itself, not interested in a debate about whether it is right or wrong in this thread.)
 
Darat said:
This thread was sparked by this article:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/01/18/alabama-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty

The article is about an upcoming execution in which they are going to use nitrogen suffocation to kill the prisoner. It's a method never used before, and it does seem - like the article says - entirely experimental.

If you read the article, you'll see that there are a variety of methods proposed or being used yet I see nowhere is using hanging. It's been used for centuries, carried out properly it is instantaneous, we know how it works, there are even hangmen in some countries that could give hands-on advice.

So, my question is why all these weird and experimental execution methods when there is a perfectly good method they could adopt? What is the reluctance to use hanging?

(Thread isn't meant to be about the punishment of the death penalty itself, not interested in a debate about whether it is right or wrong in this thread.)
Click to expand...

There's the trick - and together with the history of hanging in the past (not just in the USA) I'm not at all surprised.
 
It's gruesome looking and, as Lplus says, it's got a loaded history. Haven't bothered to look at the numbers, but I'm guessing most people on death row are Black. Hanging a lot of Black men in the U.S. -- probably mostly in the south -- is not a good look.
 
How exactly do you tell that a death from hanging is instant? The inability to move may be, but that doesn’t have to coincide with death. Did people hook up EKGs to people who were hanged to watch brain activity stop?
 
Ziggurat said:
How exactly do you tell that a death from hanging is instant? The inability to move may be, but that doesn’t have to coincide with death. Did people hook up EKGs to people who were hanged to watch brain activity stop?
Click to expand...

That can be done with a survey.

"You dead?"
... no answer...
"Going with yes."

Gallows humor, is there anything more hilarious?
 
Ryan O'Dine said:
That can be done with a survey.

"You dead?"
... no answer...
"Going with yes."

Gallows humor, is there anything more hilarious?
Click to expand...

What do we do with the people who survive the Hanging?

There are always some used to be they were released because according to Legend if they survived it was By God's will.
 
Darat said:
This thread was sparked by this article:

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/01/18/alabama-nitrogen-execution-death-penalty

The article is about an upcoming execution in which they are going to use nitrogen suffocation to kill the prisoner. It's a method never used before, and it does seem - like the article says - entirely experimental.

If you read the article, you'll see that there are a variety of methods proposed or being used yet I see nowhere is using hanging. It's been used for centuries, carried out properly it is instantaneous, we know how it works, there are even hangmen in some countries that could give hands-on advice.

So, my question is why all these weird and experimental execution methods when there is a perfectly good method they could adopt? What is the reluctance to use hanging?

(Thread isn't meant to be about the punishment of the death penalty itself, not interested in a debate about whether it is right or wrong in this thread.)
Click to expand...

They already cut down the Hanging Tree.
https://wckyhistory-genealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Hancock-County-Jail-Hanging-Tree.pdf
 
Electrocution was a ****-show from the start, and yet it was kept because it's so COOL!

Causing pain is the point.
 
Ziggurat said:
How exactly do you tell that a death from hanging is instant? The inability to move may be, but that doesn’t have to coincide with death. Did people hook up EKGs to people who were hanged to watch brain activity stop?
Click to expand...

I suspect the only way to stop brain activity instantly is to destroy the brain instantly.
 
Personally, I'd rather be guillotined than hanged.

Anyway, I'm going to assume that euthanasia can be carried out painlessly and effectively. If that is the case, then the problem isn't the execution method, but the fact that medical professionals won't do executions, and ironically executioners aren't actually qualified to kill people.

I'd suggest setting up a fancy executioner school, but that career path seems like a dead end.
 
What others said about hanging.

It's not difficult finding ways of execution where cessation of conscious thought is instantaneous. How about the kind of bolt gun used to routinely and reliably slaughter cattle by the millions? Or if that's not decisive enough, a Claymore to the back of the head? The issue is more about appearances and sensibilities. Apparently the powers that be want neither rapid methods in which the damage being done is shockingly visible, nor slow methods that leave a perfectly intact corpse but cause protracted suffering. Hanging, like (as we've learned) lethal injection, fails somewhat (and sometimes, when things go wrong, quite a lot) in both respects.

Industrial accidents appear to demonstrate that nitrogen asphyxiation causes immediate loss of consciousness and rapid death thereafter. Unlike drowning in water, there's no reflex to hold one's breath, which is one of the things that makes it so dangerous in accident situations. In practice, though, unlike in accidents the victim will almost certainly be aware when the next exhalation will end their life, and so will hold their breath for as long as possible, which I suspect will make the process less placid than its proponents are hoping.
 
Myriad said:
What others said about hanging.

It's not difficult finding ways of execution where cessation of conscious thought is instantaneous. How about the kind of bolt gun used to routinely and reliably slaughter cattle by the millions? Or if that's not decisive enough, a Claymore to the back of the head? The issue is more about appearances and sensibilities. Apparently the powers that be want neither rapid methods in which the damage being done is shockingly visible, nor slow methods that leave a perfectly intact corpse but cause protracted suffering. Hanging, like (as we've learned) lethal injection, fails somewhat (and sometimes, when things go wrong, quite a lot) in both respects.

Industrial accidents appear to demonstrate that nitrogen asphyxiation causes immediate loss of consciousness and rapid death thereafter. Unlike drowning in water, there's no reflex to hold one's breath, which is one of the things that makes it so dangerous in accident situations. In practice, though, unlike in accidents the victim will almost certainly be aware when the next exhalation will end their life, and so will hold their breath for as long as possible, which I suspect will make the process less placid than its proponents are hoping.
Click to expand...

What if we just drop the Victim in Liquid nitrogen freezing the 🧠 instantly?
 
Crazy Chainsaw said:
What if we just drop the Victim in Liquid nitrogen freezing the 🧠 instantly?
Click to expand...


Can't happen instantly. Pesky laws of physics. I take cold showers all the time, but I'd rather be executed by elephant stomp than by liquid nitrogen immersion.
 
Myriad said:
Can't happen instantly. Pesky laws of physics. I take cold showers all the time, but I'd rather be executed by elephant stomp than by liquid nitrogen immersion.
Click to expand...

It was just a thought elephant stomp sounds like mistreatment of an animal though, you could be Suied by Peta.
 
Lplus said:
I suspect the only way to stop brain activity instantly is to destroy the brain instantly.
Click to expand...

I did put in an "almost" and then removed it as I thought some folk might have wanted to have a discussion rather than an exchange of pedantry - silly me!
 
Olmstead said:
Personally, I'd rather be guillotined than hanged.

Anyway, I'm going to assume that euthanasia can be carried out painlessly and effectively. If that is the case, then the problem isn't the execution method, but the fact that medical professionals won't do executions, and ironically executioners aren't actually qualified to kill people.

I'd suggest setting up a fancy executioner school, but that career path seems like a dead end.
Click to expand...

Did wonder about putting guillotined in with hanging - then decided not as I could understand that given it is relatively messy that could be the reason it hasn't been adopted. But it is another pretty surefire way of killing someone quickly - if not instantaneously....
 
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