amir_behbahani
07-03-2007, 05:15 PM
Methods of Capital Punishment
Methods of execution used to carry out capital punishment have varied over time, and include:
Asphyxiation (or strangulation)
Boiling to death
Brazen ****
Burning, especially for religious heretics and witches on the stake
Breaking wheel
Burial (alive, also known as the pit)
Crucifixion
Crushing by a weight, abruptly or as a slow ordeal - see also animals
Decapitation, or beheading (as by sword, axe or guillotine)
Disembowelment
Dismemberment
Drawing and quartering (Considered by many to be the most cruel of punishments)
Drowning
Electrocution
Explosives
Exposure in animal skin
Flaying
Garrote
Gassing
Guillotine
Hanging
Impalement
Lethal injection
Poisoning
Sawing
Scaphism and other similar methods
Shooting can be performed either
by Firing squad
by a single shooter (such as the neck shot, often performed on a kneeling prisoner, as in the PR China)
(especially collectively) by cannon or machine gun
Slow slicing
Starvation and Dehydration (sometimes as immurement)
Stoning
By being thrown from a height. Rome executed murderers and traitors by flinging them from the Tarpeian Rock. Defenestration, the act of throwing someone from a window, has been used more by rebels and angry mobs than by official executions. During the Argentinian Dirty War, some victims were even pushed out of planes and into the Río de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean to drown (this form of disappearance was termed vuelos de la muerte, "death flights"). However, death flights are far from being forms of capital punishment, since the victims were not judged, but simply illegally executed. Death flights were also used during the Algerian War (1954-62) by Marcel Bigeard's paratroopers.
Various animal-related methods
Tearing apart by horses, e.g. Ancient China (using five horses) or "quartering," with four horses, as in The Song of Roland and Child Owlet
Attack/devouring by animals, such as dogs or wolves, as in Ancient Rome and the Biblical lion's den; by rodents (such as rats); by alligators and crocdilles or carnivorous fish (such as piranhas or sharks); by crabs or by insects (such as ants)
Poisonous stings from scorpions and bites by snakes, spiders, etc.
Crushing by elephant or trampling by a herd or by horsemen, as practiced by the Mongolian hordes
Snake pit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_methods
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Boiling to death
Historical usage
While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has seen widespread use in Europe and Asia over the past two to three thousand years.
In Europe
For example, it was a legal form of capital punishment during the reign of Henry VIII,[citation needed] reserved for poisoners. In parts of the Low Countries this form of capital punishment was reserved for counterfeiters during the middle ages. In the old town of Deventer the boiling kettle can still be seen today.
In Asia
The Chinese imperial court used boiling as a form of capital punishment and torture. The Mongol warlord Jamuqa boiled some generals of his rival Genghis Khan alive around the year 1200.
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The brazen ****
The brazen **** is an execution device designed in ancient Greece.
Perillos of Athens, a brass-founder [1][dead link – history] proposed to Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, the invention of a new means for executing criminals; accordingly, he cast a brazen ****, made totally of brass, hollow, with a door in the side. The condemned was shut up in the **** and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became "red hot" and causing the person inside to slowly roast to death. So that 'nothing unseemly might spoil his feasting', Phalaris commanded that the **** be designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense. The head of the ox was designed with a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an infuriated ****. It is also said that when the **** was reopened, the scorched bones of the remains shone like jewels and were made into bracelets.
Phalaris commended the invention, and ordered its horn sound system to be tested by Perillos himself. When Perillos entered, he was immediately locked in, and the fire was set, so that Phalaris could hear the sound of his screams.
Before Perillos could die, Phalaris opened the door and took him away. Perillos believed he would receive a reward for his invention; instead, after freeing him from the ****, Phalaris threw him from the top of a hill, killing him. Phalaris himself is said to have been killed in the brazen **** when he was overthrown by Telemachus.
The Romans were recorded as having used this torture device to kill some Christian martyrs, notably Saint Eustace, who, according to Christian legend, was roasted in a brazen **** with his wife and children by the Emperor Hadrian, and Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian, and the first martyr in Asia Minor, roasted to death in a brazen **** in c.92; his tomb became a site of supposed miracles.
Another Christian martyr, Saint Pelagia of Tarsus, is said to have been burned in a brazen **** in 287 by the Emperor Diocletian.
According to Will Tobim, roasting inside a brazen **** was the most common method of torture known to the Greeks. According to the usual definition, this was a method of execution, rather than torture: since it was generally fatal, it was not much use for interrogation.
The satirist Lucian, in the 2nd century BC, is said to have given the first detailed description of the creation and use of the Brazen ****.
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Burning
Execution by burning has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft (burning, however, was actually less common than hanging, pressing, or drowning as a punishment for witchcraft). For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late 18th century; today, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment. The particular form of execution by burning in which the condemned is bound to a large stake is more commonly called burning at the stake.
Historical usage
Perillos of Athens invented the Brazen ****, a hollow brass container where the condemned would be locked as a fire was set underneath. This would cause the metal to become red hot while the condemned slowly roasted to death. The **** was first used on Perillos, the ****'s inventor, although the device continued to be used through ancient Greece and Rome. [dubious — see talk page]
Burning was used as a means of execution in many ancient societies. According to ancient reports, Roman authorities executed many of the early Christian martyrs by burning, as did civil authorities condemning persons judged to be heretics under the Mediaeval Inquisition, including Giordano Bruno. Burning was also used by Protestants during the widespread witch-hunts of Europe and North America. During all these cases were reported wherein the condemned failed to be burnt, requiring decapitation.
Under the Byzantine Empire, burning was introduced as a punishment for disobedient Zoroastrians, because of the belief that they worshipped fire.
The punishment called 'Burning' (Serefa) in the Bible, is not burning at the stake. Rather lead was heated until it was molten and red hot, and then forced into the mouth of the convict. Death was almost instantaneous as the veins and arteries in the neck were burned. This was one of the four prescribed forms of the death penalty, and like all of them was very rarely enforced. (The others are: Stoning, Decapitation (by sword), and Hanging.)
The Roman Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) ordered death by fire, intestacy, and confiscation of all possessions by the State to be the punishment for heresy against the Catholic faith in his Codex Iustiniani (CJ 1.5.), ratifying the decrees of his predecessors the Emperors Arcadius and Flavius Augustus Honorius.
In 1184, the Synod of Verona legislated that burning was to be the official punishment for heresy. This decree was later reaffirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229, and numerous spiritual and secular leaders up through the 17th century.
Among the best-known individuals to be executed by burning were Jacques de Molay (1314), Jan Hus (1415), St Joan of Arc (May 30, 1431), Patrick Hamilton (1528), William Tyndale (1536), Michael Servetus (1553), Giordano Bruno (1600), and Avvakum (1682). Anglican martyrs Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley (both in 1555), and Thomas Cranmer (1556) were also burned at the stake.
In the United Kingdom, the traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be burnt at the stake, while men were hanged, drawn and quartered. There were two types of treason, high treason for crimes against the Sovereign, and petty treason for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife. In 1790, Sir Benjamin Hammett introduced a bill into Parliament to end what is now widely considered a barbaric practice. He explained that the year before as Sheriff of London he had been responsible for the burning of Catherine Murphy, found guilty of counterfeiting, but that he had allowed her to be hanged first. He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for over fifty years, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. The act was duly passed by Parliament and given royal assent by King George III (30 George III. C. 48).[1]
This method of execution is mostly associated with witches. While this punishment was indeed used throughout Europe to dispatch convicted "witches," the punishment was not applied to witches in England (although combined with strangulation, it was used in Scotland).
Modern burnings
Modern day burnings still occur, mostly in Africa. This is often done via a method called necklacing where rubber tires are placed around a live individual who is then doused with kerosene or, more usually, petrol. The kerosene is then ignited and the condemned burns to death. Necklacing is typically extrajudicial and performed by locals rather than authorities.
According to a former Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate officer writing under the alias Victor Suvorov, at least one Soviet traitor was burned alive in a crematorium.[2]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Burning_of_Sodomites.jpg
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Breaking wheel
The breaking wheel (also known as the Catherine wheel; originally, the whele) was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death. It was not used for coercion through torture.
Breaking on the wheel was a form of torturous execution formerly in use, especially in ancient Greece (where it was originated), France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia.
The wheel itself was similar to a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes, but a wheel was not always used.
In France the condemned was placed on a cart-wheel and his or her limbs stretched out along the spokes, one by one over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to slowly revolve, and a large hammer or an iron bar was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times per limb. Sometimes it was 'mercifully' ordered that the executioner should strike the criminal on chest and stomach, blows known as coups de grâce, which caused lethal injuries, leading to the end of the death by torture; without those, the broken man could take hours, even days, before shock and dehydration caused death. In France, a special grace, called the retentum, could be granted, by which the condemned was strangled after the second or third blow, or in special cases, even before the breaking began.
Afterwards, the condemned's shattered limbs were woven ('braiden') through the spokes of the wheel which was then hoisted onto a tall pole, so that birds could eat the sometimes still-living individual.
Legend has it that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was to be executed on one of these devices, which thereafter became known as the Catherine wheel, also used as an iconographic attribute.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Breaking_Wheel.jpg
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Burying alive
In ancient Rome a Vestal Virgin convicted of violating her vows of celibacy was "buried alive" by being sealed in a cave with a small amount of bread and water, ostensibly so that the goddess Vesta could save her should she have been truly innocent.
The two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, (last Guru of the Sikhs), aged between seven and nine years, were buried alive in a brick-mortar masonry by the Muslim kings of India as a punishment for refusing to embrace Islam.
In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. This practice is referred to in passing in canto XIX of Dante's Inferno.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries in feudal Russia, the same mode of execution was known as "the pit" and used against women who were condemned for killing their husbands [2]. The last known case of this occurred in 1740.
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Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead.
This form of execution was widely practiced in Ancient Rome and in neighbouring ancient Mediterranean cultures.
Crucifixion was used by the Romans until about AD 313, when Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire and soon became the official state religion; however, it has been used in various places in modern times.
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Death by crushing
A common method[citation needed] of death by crushing was through the use of elephants throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years of recorded history, and perhaps before that. The Romans and Carthaginians also used this method on occasion. See crushing by elephant.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Le_Toru_Du_MOnde.jpg
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Decapitation
An honorable death
Decapitation has been used as a form of capital punishment for millennia. The terms capital offense, capital crime, and capital punishment derive from the punishment for serious offenses being the inserting of the criminal's head into a hole. Decapitation by sword (or axe, a military weapon as well) was sometimes considered the "honorable" way to die for an aristocrat, who, presumably being a warrior, could often expect to die by the sword in any event; in England it was considered a privilege of noblemen to be beheaded. This would be distinguished from a "dishonorable" death on the gallows or through burning at the stake. High Treason by nobles was punished by beheading; male commoners, including knights, were hanged, drawn, and quartered; female commoners were burned at the stake.
Painless
If the headsman's axe or sword was sharp and his aim was true, decapitation was a quick and thought to be a relatively painless form of death. If the instrument was blunt or the executioner clumsy, however, multiple strokes might be required to sever the head. The person to be executed was therefore advised to give a gold coin to the headsman so that he did his job with care. Not getting their proper money's worth, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Mary I of Scotland required three strikes at their respective executions.
Scandinavia
In Scandinavia, decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, and commoners with an axe. The last executions by decapitation in Finland in 1825 and Norway in 1876 were carried out with axes. The same was the case in Denmark in 1892 . The last decapitation in Sweden in 1910 was carried out with a guillotine.
Japan
In Japan, decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offenses. Samurai were often allowed to decapitate their inferiors (which was nearly everyone else) at will. James Clavell makes this point early in his novel Shogun. In addition, decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment). After the victim had sliced his own abdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a katana to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck - to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a decapitated head rolling about, or towards them, whilst spraying blood. Such an event would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out - avoiding dishonor to him, and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored enough to take part. In the late Sengoku period, decapitation was performed as soon as the man chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen. Decapitation (without seppuku) was also considered the severest and most degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of a daimyo, Ishida Mitsunari, who had warred against Ieyasu Tokugawa. After he lost the Battle of Sekigahara, he was buried in the ground and his head was sawn off with a blunt bamboo saw: spectators were invited to help with the sawing, also described at the end of the novel Shogun. These unusual punishments were abolished in the early Meiji era.
Indian Muslims
The Muslim rulers of India, especially the Mughals, treated their religious rivals with exceptional severity.The Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was openly beheaded at Chandni Chowk in Delhi by Aurangzeb after he refused to convert to Islam. To add injury to the insult he forbade any ritual cremation of the Guru. An infuriated Jaita the Rangretta, a sweeper-caste devotee of the Guru, snatched the head away from the executioners and brought it to Anandpur Sahib for the traditional ceremony. The headless torso was also stolen by another devotee of the Guru and cremated in Delhi itself. It is not certain whether the separate ritual cremation of head and body in different locations meet the requirements of the religion for which the Guru died.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Judith_Beheading_Holofernes_by_Caravaggio.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Heads_on_pikes.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Titian-salome.jpg
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Disembowelment
Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. The results are, in virtually all cases, fatal. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to keep the condemned alive (and in pain) as long as possible.
(In France, the punishment of being "drawn" refers to being conveyed to the place of execution.)
In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn, and quartered" was typically used for men convicted of treason. This referred to the practice of hanging a man from the neck (but removing him before death), disemboweling him, and decapitating him and dividing the body into four pieces. The man's head and quarters would often be displayed as a warning to others. As part of the disemboweling, the man was also typically castrated and emasculated and his genitals and entrails would be burned. Women, for modesty's sake, were instead burned alive. (However, on the Isle of Man this 'mercy' was denied and women convicted of treason were hanged, drawn and quartered as well.)
In the Netherlands and Belgium the vierendelen (literally "to divide in four"), a practice where the arms and legs were tied to horses and the abdomen was sliced open. This punishment was meant exclusively for the punishing of a person who had committed regicide.
In Japan, disembowelment also formed part of the method of execution or of the ritualized suicide by a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (where the term "hara-kiri," literally "stomach cutting," is regarded as vulgar), involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own innards. The act of beheading, in most cases by one's best servant, was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. In the English language, hara-kiri and seppuku are often treated as synonyms.
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Dismemberment
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of the limbs, dismemberment is often fatal.
Dismemberment was carried out in the Medieval era by tying a person's limbs to a chain or other constraint, then attaching the restraint to two separate movable entities (eg. a vehicle) and moving them in opposite directions. Also referred to as "disruption" or being "drawn and quartered", it could be brought about by chaining four horses to the condemned's arms and legs, thus making them pull him apart, as was the case with the execution of Robert-François Damiens and François Ravaillac in 1610. Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia, executed in 613 is generally regarded as having suffered the same death, though she was tied to the tail of a single horse.
There are many instances of dismemberment in modern murder cases. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is infamous for his dismemberment and consumption of his victim. In 1998, three men from Texas dismembered James Byrd, Jr. by chaining him to their pickup truck and dragging him for miles. In 2005, a University of Texas at Austin student dismembered a young woman by cutting off her hands and head.
A famous device used for dismemberment is the rack, upon which the condemned is chained down by the wrists and ankles, on a large bed-like frame, and a wheel is subsequently turned, winding in the chains and causing an immense stretching.
In Korea, during the periods of 12th and 18th century, there was a form of punishment that was called "Neung Ji Cheo Cham" that would involve four hooved animals (ox, horse), and a criminal. The condemned's legs and arms would each be tied to the four animals separately, and on one instance, all animals would be commanded or whipped to run in opposite directions, thereby literally 'tearing' the condemned's body in 5 pieces (two legs, two arms and the torso)
Dismemberment is not known to be used by any modern governments as a form of torture or capital punishment.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Dieric_Bouts_013.jpg
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Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of "cruel" punishment,[1] and was reserved for treason as this crime was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. It was only applied to male criminals. Women found guilty of treason in England were burnt at the stake, a punishment abolished in 1790.
In France, the traditional punishment for regicide (whether attempted or completed) under the ancien régime (known in French as écartèlement) is often described as "quartering", though it in fact has little to do with the English punishment. The process was as follows: the regicide offender would be first tortured with red-hot pincers, then the hand with which the crime was committed would be burnt with sulphur and molten lead and wax and boiling oil poured into the wounds. The quartering would be accomplished by the attachment of the condemned's limbs to horses, who would then tear them away from the body. Finally, the often still-living torso would be burnt. Notable examples include:
Jean Châtel, who attempted to assassinate Henry IV
François Ravaillac (1578 – 27 May 1610) was the murderer of King Henri IV of France and was punished by being "scalded with burning sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin, his flesh then being torn by pincers ..." before he was drawn and quartered.
Robert-François Damiens, who attempted the assassination of Louis XV in 1757 (At least two prominent 20th-century intellectuals described this execution.)
Jacques Clément, the murderer of Henri III (He was killed in this act of regicide, and his corpse was subjected to the same "punishment".)
These executions were carried out (along with most others under the ancien régime) in the Place de Grève.
Balthasar Gérard, assassin of William the Silent, after two days of tenacious torture.
Gérard's execution took place on the market square in Delft, the Netherlands.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Gunpowderhdq2.png
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Electric chair
The electric chair is an execution method in which the person being put to death is strapped to a chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. This execution method has been used only in the United States and for a period of several decades [1] in the Philippines (its first use there in 1924).
The electric chair has become a symbol of the death penalty. However, its use is on a decline, with Nebraska being the last state that uses it as a sole method of execution.
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Flaying
Flaying is apparently a very ancient practice. There are accounts of Assyrians flaying the skin from a captured enemy or rebellious ruler and nailing it to the wall of his city, as warning to all who would defy their power. The Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims of ritual human sacrifice. Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution of traitors in medieval Europe. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 1700s in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish (1979). In China, a variant form of flaying known as death by a thousand cuts was practiced as late as 1905.
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Garrote
A garrote (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, or wire used to strangle someone to death. The term especially refers to an execution device, but is sometimes used in assassination because it can be completely silent. In addition, the garrote is used by some military units. It is known that members of the French Foreign Legion are trained in its use. The garotte was allegedly employed by Thuggees. A garotte can be made out of many different materials, including ropes, tie wraps, fishing lines, nylon, and even guitar strings and piano wire.
Some incidents of garroting have involved a stick used to tighten the garrote; the Spanish name actually refers to that very 'rod', so it is a pars pro toto where the eponymous component may actually be absent. One of the reasons possession of a nunchaku is illegal in many jurisdictions is that it can easily be employed as a garrote in some configurations.
The garrote particularly refers to the execution device used by the Spaniards until the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship as recently as 1974. In Spain, it was abolished, as well as the death penalty, in 1978 with the new constitution. Originally, it was an execution where the convict was killed by hitting him with a club ("garrote" in Spanish). Later, it was refined and consisted of a seat to restrain the condemned person while the executioner tightened a metal band around his neck with a crank or a wheel until suffocation of the condemned.
Some versions of this device incorporated a fixed metal blade or spike directed at the spinal cord, to hasten the breaking of the neck. Such a device can be seen in the Bond film The World Is Not Enough. The spiked version, called the Catalan garrote, was used as late as 1897 in Spain but would continue up to 1940 in Cuba (as well as being used by some other colonies until shortly after the 1898 Spanish-American War). A further alternate device involved two metallic squares covered with leather, of which the upper one moved over the bottom one when the executioner turned the lever, breaking the inmate's neck trapped inside.
The garrote was not abolished in the Philippines after that Spanish colony was captured by the Americans in 1898. The most notable victims of the garrrote in the Philippines was the trio of native priests, the Gomburza, for their alleged participation in the Cavite Mutiny.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/GarroteExecution1901.jpg
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Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used.
Gas chambers were used as a method of execution for condemned prisoners in the United States beginning in the 1920s. Their use has also been reported in North Korea. Gas chambers have also been used for animal euthanasia, using carbon dioxide as the lethal agent.[1]
During the Holocaust, large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany as part of their genocide program[2].
Sometimes a box filled with anaesthetic gas is used to anaesthetize small animals for surgery or euthanasia.[3]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Gaschamber_Mississippi.jpg
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Impalement
Impalement is an act of torture and/or execution whereby a person is pierced by a long stake. The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or possibly through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the individual hanging to die.
In some forms of impalement, the stake would be inserted so as to avoid immediate death, and would function as a plug to prevent blood loss — thus extending the person's agony for as many as three days[citation needed]. One way to achieve this gradual death is to insert the stake through the rectum deep into the body of the victim until it left the body near the right shoulder, thus avoiding damaging the heart[citation needed].
The use of impalement as a form of execution in civilizations of the Ancient Near East, such as Ancient Egypt [2] and Assyria is evidenced by carvings and statues from the ancient Near East. In ancient Rome, the term "crucifixion" could also refer to impalement. Ancient authors also report the use of "crucifixion" (which may have meant impalement as well) in Carthage, where it was used for extreme cases of treachery and failure on the battlefield, usually combined with other forms of torture.
Impalement was frequently practiced in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Vlad III Dracula and Ivan the Terrible have passed into legend as major users of the method.
From the 14th to 18th century, impalement was a traditional method of execution for high treason in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Impalement was used in Sweden during the 17th century, particularly as a death penalty for members of the resistance in the former Danish province Terra Scania (the so called "Snapphane)", where the stake was inserted between the spine and the skin of the victim. In that way, it could take four to five days before the victim died.
The Zulu of South Africa used impalement as a form of punishment for soldiers who had failed in the execution of their duty, or who had exhibited cowardice.[1]
The Araucanian chief Caupolican suffered this death as a prisoner during the Spanish colonization of Chile. The method used was to make him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch.
One particularly gruesome form of impalement involved being forced to stand over a wide stake which was just tall enough that it penetrated the person's rectum deeply. This left them unable to remove themselves, or to sit. As their legs tired, they would slowly sink onto the stake, which eventually would cause mortal damage, but only over the course of hours, or even days.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/JudeanImpalement_Roaf185.jpg
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Sawing
Sawing is a method of torture and execution.
The condemned was hung upside down and then sawed apart down the middle, starting at the crotch. Since the condemned was hanging upside-down, the brain received a continuous blood supply in spite of severe bleeding. The condemned would remain alive and conscious until the saw severed the major blood vessels of the abdomen, and sometimes even longer. In Asian countries, the condemned stood up while constrained and sawing started at the head, which resulted in a much quicker death.[citation needed]
Homosexuals of both sexes suffered this fate, as did rebellious peasants and women believed to be pregnant to Satan. Also, men who committed adultery were subjected to this - the reasoning was that if he wished to be with two women, they could each have a piece of him.[citation needed]
Hebrews 11:37 states, "they were sawn asunder" in a list of hardships endured by saints. According to some religious histories, the prophet Isaiah was executed in this manner.
The Roman Emperor Caligula was said to particularly enjoy giving out this method of torture.[1]
Sawing was used to execute condemned in Europe under the Roman Empire, in the Middle East as referenced in the Bible and in parts of Asia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Cranach.JPG
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Slow slicing
Slow slicing (Simplified Chinese: 凌迟; Traditional Chinese: 凌遲; Pinyin: língchí, alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by/of a thousand cuts, is a form of execution used in China from roughly CE 900 to its abolition in 1905. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly; the method was officially outlawed in 1905.
This method of execution became a fixture in the image of China among some Westerners. It appears in various romantic accounts of Chinese cruelty, such as Harold Lamb's 1930s biography of Genghis Khan.
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"Snake pit"
Snake pits were a historical European means of imposing capital punishment. Convicts were cast into a deep pit containing venomous snakes, such as vipers. They died from snake venom poisoning as the irritated snakes attacked them. An example of execution by this method is that of the Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok in 865, after his army was defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria.
An older legend recorded in in Atlakviða and Oddrúnargrátr tells that Attila the Hun murdered Gunnarr, the King of Burgundy, in a snake pit.
A similar penalty appeared in ancient China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960). The southern Han, one of the states, had a penalty in which a prisoner was thrown into a pool of water containing hundreds of venomous snakes. Soon the prisoner was killed by thousands of snake bites.
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Methods of execution used to carry out capital punishment have varied over time, and include:
Asphyxiation (or strangulation)
Boiling to death
Brazen ****
Burning, especially for religious heretics and witches on the stake
Breaking wheel
Burial (alive, also known as the pit)
Crucifixion
Crushing by a weight, abruptly or as a slow ordeal - see also animals
Decapitation, or beheading (as by sword, axe or guillotine)
Disembowelment
Dismemberment
Drawing and quartering (Considered by many to be the most cruel of punishments)
Drowning
Electrocution
Explosives
Exposure in animal skin
Flaying
Garrote
Gassing
Guillotine
Hanging
Impalement
Lethal injection
Poisoning
Sawing
Scaphism and other similar methods
Shooting can be performed either
by Firing squad
by a single shooter (such as the neck shot, often performed on a kneeling prisoner, as in the PR China)
(especially collectively) by cannon or machine gun
Slow slicing
Starvation and Dehydration (sometimes as immurement)
Stoning
By being thrown from a height. Rome executed murderers and traitors by flinging them from the Tarpeian Rock. Defenestration, the act of throwing someone from a window, has been used more by rebels and angry mobs than by official executions. During the Argentinian Dirty War, some victims were even pushed out of planes and into the Río de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean to drown (this form of disappearance was termed vuelos de la muerte, "death flights"). However, death flights are far from being forms of capital punishment, since the victims were not judged, but simply illegally executed. Death flights were also used during the Algerian War (1954-62) by Marcel Bigeard's paratroopers.
Various animal-related methods
Tearing apart by horses, e.g. Ancient China (using five horses) or "quartering," with four horses, as in The Song of Roland and Child Owlet
Attack/devouring by animals, such as dogs or wolves, as in Ancient Rome and the Biblical lion's den; by rodents (such as rats); by alligators and crocdilles or carnivorous fish (such as piranhas or sharks); by crabs or by insects (such as ants)
Poisonous stings from scorpions and bites by snakes, spiders, etc.
Crushing by elephant or trampling by a herd or by horsemen, as practiced by the Mongolian hordes
Snake pit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_methods
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Boiling to death
Historical usage
While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has seen widespread use in Europe and Asia over the past two to three thousand years.
In Europe
For example, it was a legal form of capital punishment during the reign of Henry VIII,[citation needed] reserved for poisoners. In parts of the Low Countries this form of capital punishment was reserved for counterfeiters during the middle ages. In the old town of Deventer the boiling kettle can still be seen today.
In Asia
The Chinese imperial court used boiling as a form of capital punishment and torture. The Mongol warlord Jamuqa boiled some generals of his rival Genghis Khan alive around the year 1200.
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The brazen ****
The brazen **** is an execution device designed in ancient Greece.
Perillos of Athens, a brass-founder [1][dead link – history] proposed to Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, the invention of a new means for executing criminals; accordingly, he cast a brazen ****, made totally of brass, hollow, with a door in the side. The condemned was shut up in the **** and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became "red hot" and causing the person inside to slowly roast to death. So that 'nothing unseemly might spoil his feasting', Phalaris commanded that the **** be designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense. The head of the ox was designed with a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an infuriated ****. It is also said that when the **** was reopened, the scorched bones of the remains shone like jewels and were made into bracelets.
Phalaris commended the invention, and ordered its horn sound system to be tested by Perillos himself. When Perillos entered, he was immediately locked in, and the fire was set, so that Phalaris could hear the sound of his screams.
Before Perillos could die, Phalaris opened the door and took him away. Perillos believed he would receive a reward for his invention; instead, after freeing him from the ****, Phalaris threw him from the top of a hill, killing him. Phalaris himself is said to have been killed in the brazen **** when he was overthrown by Telemachus.
The Romans were recorded as having used this torture device to kill some Christian martyrs, notably Saint Eustace, who, according to Christian legend, was roasted in a brazen **** with his wife and children by the Emperor Hadrian, and Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian, and the first martyr in Asia Minor, roasted to death in a brazen **** in c.92; his tomb became a site of supposed miracles.
Another Christian martyr, Saint Pelagia of Tarsus, is said to have been burned in a brazen **** in 287 by the Emperor Diocletian.
According to Will Tobim, roasting inside a brazen **** was the most common method of torture known to the Greeks. According to the usual definition, this was a method of execution, rather than torture: since it was generally fatal, it was not much use for interrogation.
The satirist Lucian, in the 2nd century BC, is said to have given the first detailed description of the creation and use of the Brazen ****.
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Burning
Execution by burning has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft (burning, however, was actually less common than hanging, pressing, or drowning as a punishment for witchcraft). For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late 18th century; today, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment. The particular form of execution by burning in which the condemned is bound to a large stake is more commonly called burning at the stake.
Historical usage
Perillos of Athens invented the Brazen ****, a hollow brass container where the condemned would be locked as a fire was set underneath. This would cause the metal to become red hot while the condemned slowly roasted to death. The **** was first used on Perillos, the ****'s inventor, although the device continued to be used through ancient Greece and Rome. [dubious — see talk page]
Burning was used as a means of execution in many ancient societies. According to ancient reports, Roman authorities executed many of the early Christian martyrs by burning, as did civil authorities condemning persons judged to be heretics under the Mediaeval Inquisition, including Giordano Bruno. Burning was also used by Protestants during the widespread witch-hunts of Europe and North America. During all these cases were reported wherein the condemned failed to be burnt, requiring decapitation.
Under the Byzantine Empire, burning was introduced as a punishment for disobedient Zoroastrians, because of the belief that they worshipped fire.
The punishment called 'Burning' (Serefa) in the Bible, is not burning at the stake. Rather lead was heated until it was molten and red hot, and then forced into the mouth of the convict. Death was almost instantaneous as the veins and arteries in the neck were burned. This was one of the four prescribed forms of the death penalty, and like all of them was very rarely enforced. (The others are: Stoning, Decapitation (by sword), and Hanging.)
The Roman Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) ordered death by fire, intestacy, and confiscation of all possessions by the State to be the punishment for heresy against the Catholic faith in his Codex Iustiniani (CJ 1.5.), ratifying the decrees of his predecessors the Emperors Arcadius and Flavius Augustus Honorius.
In 1184, the Synod of Verona legislated that burning was to be the official punishment for heresy. This decree was later reaffirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229, and numerous spiritual and secular leaders up through the 17th century.
Among the best-known individuals to be executed by burning were Jacques de Molay (1314), Jan Hus (1415), St Joan of Arc (May 30, 1431), Patrick Hamilton (1528), William Tyndale (1536), Michael Servetus (1553), Giordano Bruno (1600), and Avvakum (1682). Anglican martyrs Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley (both in 1555), and Thomas Cranmer (1556) were also burned at the stake.
In the United Kingdom, the traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be burnt at the stake, while men were hanged, drawn and quartered. There were two types of treason, high treason for crimes against the Sovereign, and petty treason for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife. In 1790, Sir Benjamin Hammett introduced a bill into Parliament to end what is now widely considered a barbaric practice. He explained that the year before as Sheriff of London he had been responsible for the burning of Catherine Murphy, found guilty of counterfeiting, but that he had allowed her to be hanged first. He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for over fifty years, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. The act was duly passed by Parliament and given royal assent by King George III (30 George III. C. 48).[1]
This method of execution is mostly associated with witches. While this punishment was indeed used throughout Europe to dispatch convicted "witches," the punishment was not applied to witches in England (although combined with strangulation, it was used in Scotland).
Modern burnings
Modern day burnings still occur, mostly in Africa. This is often done via a method called necklacing where rubber tires are placed around a live individual who is then doused with kerosene or, more usually, petrol. The kerosene is then ignited and the condemned burns to death. Necklacing is typically extrajudicial and performed by locals rather than authorities.
According to a former Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate officer writing under the alias Victor Suvorov, at least one Soviet traitor was burned alive in a crematorium.[2]
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Breaking wheel
The breaking wheel (also known as the Catherine wheel; originally, the whele) was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death. It was not used for coercion through torture.
Breaking on the wheel was a form of torturous execution formerly in use, especially in ancient Greece (where it was originated), France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia.
The wheel itself was similar to a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes, but a wheel was not always used.
In France the condemned was placed on a cart-wheel and his or her limbs stretched out along the spokes, one by one over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to slowly revolve, and a large hammer or an iron bar was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times per limb. Sometimes it was 'mercifully' ordered that the executioner should strike the criminal on chest and stomach, blows known as coups de grâce, which caused lethal injuries, leading to the end of the death by torture; without those, the broken man could take hours, even days, before shock and dehydration caused death. In France, a special grace, called the retentum, could be granted, by which the condemned was strangled after the second or third blow, or in special cases, even before the breaking began.
Afterwards, the condemned's shattered limbs were woven ('braiden') through the spokes of the wheel which was then hoisted onto a tall pole, so that birds could eat the sometimes still-living individual.
Legend has it that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was to be executed on one of these devices, which thereafter became known as the Catherine wheel, also used as an iconographic attribute.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Breaking_Wheel.jpg
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Burying alive
In ancient Rome a Vestal Virgin convicted of violating her vows of celibacy was "buried alive" by being sealed in a cave with a small amount of bread and water, ostensibly so that the goddess Vesta could save her should she have been truly innocent.
The two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, (last Guru of the Sikhs), aged between seven and nine years, were buried alive in a brick-mortar masonry by the Muslim kings of India as a punishment for refusing to embrace Islam.
In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. This practice is referred to in passing in canto XIX of Dante's Inferno.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries in feudal Russia, the same mode of execution was known as "the pit" and used against women who were condemned for killing their husbands [2]. The last known case of this occurred in 1740.
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Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead.
This form of execution was widely practiced in Ancient Rome and in neighbouring ancient Mediterranean cultures.
Crucifixion was used by the Romans until about AD 313, when Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire and soon became the official state religion; however, it has been used in various places in modern times.
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Death by crushing
A common method[citation needed] of death by crushing was through the use of elephants throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years of recorded history, and perhaps before that. The Romans and Carthaginians also used this method on occasion. See crushing by elephant.
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Decapitation
An honorable death
Decapitation has been used as a form of capital punishment for millennia. The terms capital offense, capital crime, and capital punishment derive from the punishment for serious offenses being the inserting of the criminal's head into a hole. Decapitation by sword (or axe, a military weapon as well) was sometimes considered the "honorable" way to die for an aristocrat, who, presumably being a warrior, could often expect to die by the sword in any event; in England it was considered a privilege of noblemen to be beheaded. This would be distinguished from a "dishonorable" death on the gallows or through burning at the stake. High Treason by nobles was punished by beheading; male commoners, including knights, were hanged, drawn, and quartered; female commoners were burned at the stake.
Painless
If the headsman's axe or sword was sharp and his aim was true, decapitation was a quick and thought to be a relatively painless form of death. If the instrument was blunt or the executioner clumsy, however, multiple strokes might be required to sever the head. The person to be executed was therefore advised to give a gold coin to the headsman so that he did his job with care. Not getting their proper money's worth, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Mary I of Scotland required three strikes at their respective executions.
Scandinavia
In Scandinavia, decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, and commoners with an axe. The last executions by decapitation in Finland in 1825 and Norway in 1876 were carried out with axes. The same was the case in Denmark in 1892 . The last decapitation in Sweden in 1910 was carried out with a guillotine.
Japan
In Japan, decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offenses. Samurai were often allowed to decapitate their inferiors (which was nearly everyone else) at will. James Clavell makes this point early in his novel Shogun. In addition, decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment). After the victim had sliced his own abdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a katana to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck - to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a decapitated head rolling about, or towards them, whilst spraying blood. Such an event would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out - avoiding dishonor to him, and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored enough to take part. In the late Sengoku period, decapitation was performed as soon as the man chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen. Decapitation (without seppuku) was also considered the severest and most degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of a daimyo, Ishida Mitsunari, who had warred against Ieyasu Tokugawa. After he lost the Battle of Sekigahara, he was buried in the ground and his head was sawn off with a blunt bamboo saw: spectators were invited to help with the sawing, also described at the end of the novel Shogun. These unusual punishments were abolished in the early Meiji era.
Indian Muslims
The Muslim rulers of India, especially the Mughals, treated their religious rivals with exceptional severity.The Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was openly beheaded at Chandni Chowk in Delhi by Aurangzeb after he refused to convert to Islam. To add injury to the insult he forbade any ritual cremation of the Guru. An infuriated Jaita the Rangretta, a sweeper-caste devotee of the Guru, snatched the head away from the executioners and brought it to Anandpur Sahib for the traditional ceremony. The headless torso was also stolen by another devotee of the Guru and cremated in Delhi itself. It is not certain whether the separate ritual cremation of head and body in different locations meet the requirements of the religion for which the Guru died.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Judith_Beheading_Holofernes_by_Caravaggio.jpg
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Disembowelment
Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. The results are, in virtually all cases, fatal. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to keep the condemned alive (and in pain) as long as possible.
(In France, the punishment of being "drawn" refers to being conveyed to the place of execution.)
In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn, and quartered" was typically used for men convicted of treason. This referred to the practice of hanging a man from the neck (but removing him before death), disemboweling him, and decapitating him and dividing the body into four pieces. The man's head and quarters would often be displayed as a warning to others. As part of the disemboweling, the man was also typically castrated and emasculated and his genitals and entrails would be burned. Women, for modesty's sake, were instead burned alive. (However, on the Isle of Man this 'mercy' was denied and women convicted of treason were hanged, drawn and quartered as well.)
In the Netherlands and Belgium the vierendelen (literally "to divide in four"), a practice where the arms and legs were tied to horses and the abdomen was sliced open. This punishment was meant exclusively for the punishing of a person who had committed regicide.
In Japan, disembowelment also formed part of the method of execution or of the ritualized suicide by a samurai. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as seppuku (where the term "hara-kiri," literally "stomach cutting," is regarded as vulgar), involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own innards. The act of beheading, in most cases by one's best servant, was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. In the English language, hara-kiri and seppuku are often treated as synonyms.
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Dismemberment
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of the limbs, dismemberment is often fatal.
Dismemberment was carried out in the Medieval era by tying a person's limbs to a chain or other constraint, then attaching the restraint to two separate movable entities (eg. a vehicle) and moving them in opposite directions. Also referred to as "disruption" or being "drawn and quartered", it could be brought about by chaining four horses to the condemned's arms and legs, thus making them pull him apart, as was the case with the execution of Robert-François Damiens and François Ravaillac in 1610. Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia, executed in 613 is generally regarded as having suffered the same death, though she was tied to the tail of a single horse.
There are many instances of dismemberment in modern murder cases. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is infamous for his dismemberment and consumption of his victim. In 1998, three men from Texas dismembered James Byrd, Jr. by chaining him to their pickup truck and dragging him for miles. In 2005, a University of Texas at Austin student dismembered a young woman by cutting off her hands and head.
A famous device used for dismemberment is the rack, upon which the condemned is chained down by the wrists and ankles, on a large bed-like frame, and a wheel is subsequently turned, winding in the chains and causing an immense stretching.
In Korea, during the periods of 12th and 18th century, there was a form of punishment that was called "Neung Ji Cheo Cham" that would involve four hooved animals (ox, horse), and a criminal. The condemned's legs and arms would each be tied to the four animals separately, and on one instance, all animals would be commanded or whipped to run in opposite directions, thereby literally 'tearing' the condemned's body in 5 pieces (two legs, two arms and the torso)
Dismemberment is not known to be used by any modern governments as a form of torture or capital punishment.
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Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of "cruel" punishment,[1] and was reserved for treason as this crime was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. It was only applied to male criminals. Women found guilty of treason in England were burnt at the stake, a punishment abolished in 1790.
In France, the traditional punishment for regicide (whether attempted or completed) under the ancien régime (known in French as écartèlement) is often described as "quartering", though it in fact has little to do with the English punishment. The process was as follows: the regicide offender would be first tortured with red-hot pincers, then the hand with which the crime was committed would be burnt with sulphur and molten lead and wax and boiling oil poured into the wounds. The quartering would be accomplished by the attachment of the condemned's limbs to horses, who would then tear them away from the body. Finally, the often still-living torso would be burnt. Notable examples include:
Jean Châtel, who attempted to assassinate Henry IV
François Ravaillac (1578 – 27 May 1610) was the murderer of King Henri IV of France and was punished by being "scalded with burning sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin, his flesh then being torn by pincers ..." before he was drawn and quartered.
Robert-François Damiens, who attempted the assassination of Louis XV in 1757 (At least two prominent 20th-century intellectuals described this execution.)
Jacques Clément, the murderer of Henri III (He was killed in this act of regicide, and his corpse was subjected to the same "punishment".)
These executions were carried out (along with most others under the ancien régime) in the Place de Grève.
Balthasar Gérard, assassin of William the Silent, after two days of tenacious torture.
Gérard's execution took place on the market square in Delft, the Netherlands.
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Electric chair
The electric chair is an execution method in which the person being put to death is strapped to a chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. This execution method has been used only in the United States and for a period of several decades [1] in the Philippines (its first use there in 1924).
The electric chair has become a symbol of the death penalty. However, its use is on a decline, with Nebraska being the last state that uses it as a sole method of execution.
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Flaying
Flaying is apparently a very ancient practice. There are accounts of Assyrians flaying the skin from a captured enemy or rebellious ruler and nailing it to the wall of his city, as warning to all who would defy their power. The Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims of ritual human sacrifice. Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution of traitors in medieval Europe. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 1700s in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish (1979). In China, a variant form of flaying known as death by a thousand cuts was practiced as late as 1905.
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Garrote
A garrote (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, or wire used to strangle someone to death. The term especially refers to an execution device, but is sometimes used in assassination because it can be completely silent. In addition, the garrote is used by some military units. It is known that members of the French Foreign Legion are trained in its use. The garotte was allegedly employed by Thuggees. A garotte can be made out of many different materials, including ropes, tie wraps, fishing lines, nylon, and even guitar strings and piano wire.
Some incidents of garroting have involved a stick used to tighten the garrote; the Spanish name actually refers to that very 'rod', so it is a pars pro toto where the eponymous component may actually be absent. One of the reasons possession of a nunchaku is illegal in many jurisdictions is that it can easily be employed as a garrote in some configurations.
The garrote particularly refers to the execution device used by the Spaniards until the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship as recently as 1974. In Spain, it was abolished, as well as the death penalty, in 1978 with the new constitution. Originally, it was an execution where the convict was killed by hitting him with a club ("garrote" in Spanish). Later, it was refined and consisted of a seat to restrain the condemned person while the executioner tightened a metal band around his neck with a crank or a wheel until suffocation of the condemned.
Some versions of this device incorporated a fixed metal blade or spike directed at the spinal cord, to hasten the breaking of the neck. Such a device can be seen in the Bond film The World Is Not Enough. The spiked version, called the Catalan garrote, was used as late as 1897 in Spain but would continue up to 1940 in Cuba (as well as being used by some other colonies until shortly after the 1898 Spanish-American War). A further alternate device involved two metallic squares covered with leather, of which the upper one moved over the bottom one when the executioner turned the lever, breaking the inmate's neck trapped inside.
The garrote was not abolished in the Philippines after that Spanish colony was captured by the Americans in 1898. The most notable victims of the garrrote in the Philippines was the trio of native priests, the Gomburza, for their alleged participation in the Cavite Mutiny.
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Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used.
Gas chambers were used as a method of execution for condemned prisoners in the United States beginning in the 1920s. Their use has also been reported in North Korea. Gas chambers have also been used for animal euthanasia, using carbon dioxide as the lethal agent.[1]
During the Holocaust, large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany as part of their genocide program[2].
Sometimes a box filled with anaesthetic gas is used to anaesthetize small animals for surgery or euthanasia.[3]
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Impalement
Impalement is an act of torture and/or execution whereby a person is pierced by a long stake. The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or possibly through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the individual hanging to die.
In some forms of impalement, the stake would be inserted so as to avoid immediate death, and would function as a plug to prevent blood loss — thus extending the person's agony for as many as three days[citation needed]. One way to achieve this gradual death is to insert the stake through the rectum deep into the body of the victim until it left the body near the right shoulder, thus avoiding damaging the heart[citation needed].
The use of impalement as a form of execution in civilizations of the Ancient Near East, such as Ancient Egypt [2] and Assyria is evidenced by carvings and statues from the ancient Near East. In ancient Rome, the term "crucifixion" could also refer to impalement. Ancient authors also report the use of "crucifixion" (which may have meant impalement as well) in Carthage, where it was used for extreme cases of treachery and failure on the battlefield, usually combined with other forms of torture.
Impalement was frequently practiced in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Vlad III Dracula and Ivan the Terrible have passed into legend as major users of the method.
From the 14th to 18th century, impalement was a traditional method of execution for high treason in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Impalement was used in Sweden during the 17th century, particularly as a death penalty for members of the resistance in the former Danish province Terra Scania (the so called "Snapphane)", where the stake was inserted between the spine and the skin of the victim. In that way, it could take four to five days before the victim died.
The Zulu of South Africa used impalement as a form of punishment for soldiers who had failed in the execution of their duty, or who had exhibited cowardice.[1]
The Araucanian chief Caupolican suffered this death as a prisoner during the Spanish colonization of Chile. The method used was to make him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch.
One particularly gruesome form of impalement involved being forced to stand over a wide stake which was just tall enough that it penetrated the person's rectum deeply. This left them unable to remove themselves, or to sit. As their legs tired, they would slowly sink onto the stake, which eventually would cause mortal damage, but only over the course of hours, or even days.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/JudeanImpalement_Roaf185.jpg
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Sawing
Sawing is a method of torture and execution.
The condemned was hung upside down and then sawed apart down the middle, starting at the crotch. Since the condemned was hanging upside-down, the brain received a continuous blood supply in spite of severe bleeding. The condemned would remain alive and conscious until the saw severed the major blood vessels of the abdomen, and sometimes even longer. In Asian countries, the condemned stood up while constrained and sawing started at the head, which resulted in a much quicker death.[citation needed]
Homosexuals of both sexes suffered this fate, as did rebellious peasants and women believed to be pregnant to Satan. Also, men who committed adultery were subjected to this - the reasoning was that if he wished to be with two women, they could each have a piece of him.[citation needed]
Hebrews 11:37 states, "they were sawn asunder" in a list of hardships endured by saints. According to some religious histories, the prophet Isaiah was executed in this manner.
The Roman Emperor Caligula was said to particularly enjoy giving out this method of torture.[1]
Sawing was used to execute condemned in Europe under the Roman Empire, in the Middle East as referenced in the Bible and in parts of Asia.
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Die_Saege.JPG
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Slow slicing
Slow slicing (Simplified Chinese: 凌迟; Traditional Chinese: 凌遲; Pinyin: língchí, alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by/of a thousand cuts, is a form of execution used in China from roughly CE 900 to its abolition in 1905. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly; the method was officially outlawed in 1905.
This method of execution became a fixture in the image of China among some Westerners. It appears in various romantic accounts of Chinese cruelty, such as Harold Lamb's 1930s biography of Genghis Khan.
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"Snake pit"
Snake pits were a historical European means of imposing capital punishment. Convicts were cast into a deep pit containing venomous snakes, such as vipers. They died from snake venom poisoning as the irritated snakes attacked them. An example of execution by this method is that of the Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok in 865, after his army was defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria.
An older legend recorded in in Atlakviða and Oddrúnargrátr tells that Attila the Hun murdered Gunnarr, the King of Burgundy, in a snake pit.
A similar penalty appeared in ancient China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960). The southern Han, one of the states, had a penalty in which a prisoner was thrown into a pool of water containing hundreds of venomous snakes. Soon the prisoner was killed by thousands of snake bites.
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