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==Methods==
==Methods==
===The short drop===
===The short drop===
The short drop places the person with the noose around their neck on the back of a vehicle (or a cart in the past), or on the back of a horse, and then moving the vehicle away. Prior to 1850, it was the main method used. It is still used widely in Middle Eastern countries.
The short drop places the person with the noose around their neck on the back of a vehicle (or a cart in the past), or on the back of a horse, and then moving the vehicle away. Prior to [[1850]], it was the main method used. It is still used widely in Middle Eastern countries.


===Suspension hanging===
===Suspension hanging===

Revision as of 15:34, 6 November 2006

This page is about death by hanging. For the computer malfunction, see hang. For other meanings, see hang (disambiguation).
Suicide by hanging.

Hanging is a form of execution or a method of committing suicide. It has been used throughout history as a form of capital punishment, first in the Persian Empire, and is still used in some countries. There are four methods of hanging — The short drop, suspension hanging, the standard drop and the long drop.

Methods

The short drop

The short drop places the person with the noose around their neck on the back of a vehicle (or a cart in the past), or on the back of a horse, and then moving the vehicle away. Prior to 1850, it was the main method used. It is still used widely in Middle Eastern countries.

Suspension hanging

Suspension hanging is used when the gallows are movable, so that they can be raised once the victims are in place. This method is currently used in Iran, where tank barrels and mobile cranes are used. Other forms place weights on the opposite end of the rope to the noose so that as the weighted end falls, the noose is raised.

The standard drop

The standard drop involves a drop of between 4 and 6 feet, and was considered an advance on the short drop when it came into use in the late 19th century. However, this drop was often insufficient to break the victim's neck, although they were often knocked unconscious by the drop and the knot hitting their head and neck. However, in some cases, the drop did prove enough to decapitate the victim, such as the case of Eva Dugan in Arizona in 1928. The eleven senior Nazis executed after the Nuremberg trials, however, died slowly using this method.

The long drop

This process, introduced in 1872 by William Marwood, involved using the victim's weight to determine the proper distance to fall so that the sharp jerk as the end of the rope was reached broke the neck and caused the victim to immediately appear unconscious. Death using this method is quite rapid.

Prior to 1892, the drop was between 4 and 10 feet, depending on the weight of the victim, and was calculated to deliver a force of 1,260 lbs, which fractured the neck at either the 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. However, this force often also resulted in decapitations. Between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid this. After 1913, other factors were also taken into account and the force delivered was reduced to about 1000 lbs.

Currently hanging is still a method of capital punishment in many countries with civil law, including; India, Malaysia, Singapore, as well as Islamic countries that follow Sharia law, such as Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia

India

A recent case of capital punishment by hanging is that of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was convicted of the 1990 murder and rape of a 14 year old girl in Kolkata in India. Although the Supreme Court of India has suggested that capital punishment be given in the rarest of rare cases, Chatterjee was executed on August 14 2004 in the first execution in West Bengal for eleven years. Recently, in a high profile case, the High Court of India, has sentenced Santosh Kumar Singh to death by hanging for the rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo.

Iran

As one of several means of capital punishment in Iran, hangings are carried out by using an automotive telescoping crane to hoist the condemned aloft.

  • On July 19 2005, two Iranian boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, at the ages of 15 and 17 respectively, who had been discovered to be having homosexual relations, and had been imprisoned for fourteen months and subjected to 228 lashes each, were publicly hanged at Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, northeast Iran, on charges of homosexuality and rape. [1][2]
  • Atefeh Sahaaleh, a.k.a. Ateqeh Rajabi, (1988 to August 15, 2004) was a 16-year-old Iranian girl who was executed in Iran after being sentenced to death by an Iranian judge, for having committed "acts incompatible with chastity".

Iraq

  • On March 9 2006, an official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that Iraqi authorities executed 13 insurgents by hanging, the first official executions of insurgents carried out in the country since the restoration of the death penalty in 2004. In September 2003, three murderers were executed.[3]
  • On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging (subject to mandatory appeal, according to current Iraqi law).[4]

Japan

Singapore

In Singapore, mandatory hanging using the long-drop method is currently used as punishment for various crimes, such as drug trafficking, kidnapping and unauthorized possession of firearms. There is no evidence that this policy may be changed in the future [5].

United States

Main articles: Capital punishment in New Hampshire and Capital punishment in Washington

At present, only the states of Washington and New Hampshire still retain hanging as an option. Laws in Delaware were changed in 1996 to specify lethal injection, except for those convicted prior to 1996 who were sentenced to hanging. These convicts could choose lethal injection. Since the hanging of Billy Bailey, no Delaware prisoner fits in this category, thus the practice is ended de facto, and the gallows have been dismantled. In New Hampshire if it be found to be impractical to carry out the punishment of death by lethal injection, then the condemned will be hanged.[6]

In 1996, Billy Bailey became the last person executed by hanging in the United States to date.

Suicide

Suspension hanging is a common method of suicide. The materials necessary for suicide by hanging are relatively easily available to the average person, compared with firearms or lethal poison, as most people can obtain rope, and tree branches or wooden beams can provide something to hang oneself from. For this reason hanging is especially commonplace among suicidal prisoners.

  • In Canada, hanging is the second most common method of suicide,[7] after suffocation.
  • In the US, hanging is the second most common method of suicide, after firearms, [8].
  • In Great Britain, where firearms are less easily available, as of 2001 hanging was the most common method among men and the second-most commonplace among women (after poisoning).[9]

Famous suicides by hanging

Historical references by country

Australia

The last man executed by hanging in Australia was Ronald Ryan on February 3, 1967.

Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was executed by hanging on November 11, 1880.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria's national hero, Vasil Levski, was executed by hanging by the Ottoman court in Sofia in 1873. Every year since Bulgaria' liberation, thousands come with flowers on the date of his martyr's death, February 19, to his monument where the gallows stood.

Great Britain

Detail from a painting by Pisanello, 1436-1438
Main article: Capital punishment in the United Kingdom

As a form of judicial execution in England, hanging is thought to date from the Saxon period, approximately around 400. Records of the names of British hangmen begin with Thomas de Warblynton in the 1360s; complete records extend from the 1500s to the last hangmen, Robert Leslie Stewart and Harry Allen, who conducted the last British executions in 1964.

In 1965 Parliament passed the "Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act" abolishing capital punishment for murder. And with the introduction of the Human Rights Act in 1998, the death penalty was officially abolished for all crimes in both civilian and military cases.

The last woman to be hanged was Ruth Ellis on July 13 1955 by Albert Pierrepoint who was a prominent hangman in the 20th century in England.

Germany

In the territories occupied by Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945, strangulation hanging was a preferred means of public execution. The most common victims were partisans and black marketeers. The victims were usually left hanging for long periods of time.

Iraq

An Iraqi court on Sunday 5 November 2006 sentenced Saddam Hussein to the gallows for crimes against humanity. Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, was sentenced to join the former leader on the gallows, as was Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents. The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.

Israel

In Israel's only executed death sentence, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was killed by hanging.

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, the last persons to be sentenced to death by hanging were Andrey Vlasov and 11 other officers of his army on August 1, 1946.

United States

Main article: Capital punishment in the United States

In the United States the short-drop method was used until the 19th century, when the long drop was introduced. The short drop could be a protracted affair and was primarily for the entertainment of the watching public, the struggling of the victim giving rise to such terms as "the hangman's hornpipe." Since then, other forms of capital punishment, such as the electric chair and more recently lethal injection, have largely replaced hanging.

The last public hanging legally conducted in the United States (and also the last public execution in the United States) was that of Rainey Bethea, who was publicly hanged on August 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky.

As of 2006 the last person to have been hanged in the United States was Billy Bailey, on January 25 1996 in Delaware; that state has since changed the legal method of execution to lethal injection. Bailey was initially sentenced to hang, but later given the choice to change his mode of execution when the law was changed. However, he deferred to the original sentence.

Medical effects

The cause of death in hanging depends on the conditions related to the event. When the body is released from a relatively high position, death is usually caused by severing the spinal cord between C1 and C2, which may be functional decapitation (although even in this case, some circulation to the brain may be maintained through deep vessels, such as the vertebral arteries). High cervical fracture frequently occurs in judicial hangings, and in fact the C1-C2 fracture has been called the "Hangman's fracture" in medicine, even when it occurs in other circumstances.

In the absence of fracture and dislocation, spinal cord damage may have a role but occlusion of blood vessels becomes a major cause of death. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. Other processes that have been suggested to contribute are vagal collapse (via mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus), and compromise of the cerebral blood flow by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Only 7 lb of pressure may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness (this varies from individual to individual). When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat after the brain is no longer resurrectable.

When death occurs in such cases, is a matter of convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer, after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. Where death has been caused by strangulation, the face will typically have become engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack of oxygen).

There will be the classic sign of strangulation - petechiae - little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst blood capillaries. The tongue may protrude. Where death has occurred through carotid artery obstruction or Vagal reflex, the face will typically be pale in colour and not show petechiae. There exist many reports and pictures of actual short drop hangings which seem to show that the person died quickly and fairly peacefully, while others indicate a slow and agonising death by strangulation. There is a popular myth about sexual stimulation of hanging victims, due to the apparent erection some of them were exhibiting.

The effect is attributed to a common priapism caused by spinal cord damage that the hanging execution mechanism inflicts. (This myth fuels the auto-erotic asphyxiation, a practice that might lead to an accidental death.) After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension, e.g. bruising and rope marks on the neck. This form of asphyxial death by hanging is known medically as anoxia and is also the normal cause of death in suicide hangings. Total body death results usually within less than 20 minutes as the brain becomes starved of oxygen. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body suspended for an hour to ensure death.

Forensic experts may often be able to tell if hanging is suicide or homicide, as each leaves a distinctive ligature mark. One of the hints they use is the hyoid bone, that, if broken, often means the person has been murdered, by manual choking. Also, there have been cases of autoerotic asphyxiation leading to death; children have accidentally died playing the choking game.

A long-drop hanging may break the neck (cervical fracture) causing traumatic spinal cord injury and consequent asphyxia and brain hypoxia.[10]

A hanging may also cause one or more of the following medical conditions:

  • Close the airway causing asphyxia
  • Close the carotid arteries
  • Close the jugular veins
  • Induce carotid reflex, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest
  • Sever the cruciate ligament of the first cervical vertebrae, forcing the dens in into the central nervous system, resulting in death. This is know as pithing, and is considered by anatomists to be the most common effect of a judicial hanging (Monkhouse's Anatomy).

Grammar

Look up hanging in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Hanging to Music. – Facsimile of a Woodcut in Michault's "Doctrinal du Temps Présent": small folio, goth., Bruges, about 1490.

The correct past tense of the verb "to hang" when referring to an execution or death by hanging is "hanged".[11]

References

  1. ^ "Iran executes 2 gay teenagers". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
  2. ^ "Exclusive interview with gay activists in Iran on situation of gays, recent executions of gay teens and the future". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
  3. ^ "More bombs bring death to Iraq". Mail & Guardian Online. 2006-03-10. Retrieved 2006-04-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging". CNN.com. 2006-05-11. Retrieved 2006-5-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Singapore clings to death penalty". Sunday Times (South Africa). 2005-11-21. Retrieved 2006-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Section 630.5, Procedures in Capital Murder". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
  7. ^ "Statistics about suicide".
  8. ^ Suicide Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.
  9. ^ Trends in suicide by method in England and Wales, 1979 to 2001 (PDF), Office of National Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.
  10. ^ "How hanging causes death". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
  11. ^ "Word usage: Hanged or hung?" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-04-27.

See also

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