[HN Gopher] Surviving an Execution
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Surviving an Execution
Author : magnifique
Score : 13 points
Date : 2021-02-24 21:45 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (legalhistorymiscellany.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (legalhistorymiscellany.com)
| nl wrote:
| I believe that is wasn't unheard of in England for relatives of a
| condemned person to pay off the hangman to either (a) make sure
| the death went well (ie, they were killed by their neck being
| broken instead of strangulation) or (b) to cut them down early so
| they would survive.
| natosaichek wrote:
| I thought of the story of wenseslau moguel who was "executed" by
| firing squad, (including a shot to the head) but survived and
| crawled away from the carnage after dark.
| lcuff wrote:
| Not a fan of the death penalty in general, for multiple reasons,
| but anesthesia administered by gas, as before surgery, seems way
| more certain than searching for a vein. After that, no method of
| execution is going to be cruel, assuming the criminal doesn't
| wake up.
| aketchum wrote:
| Leaving aside the moral question of the death penalty, the use of
| lethal injection seems insane to me. Why don't they just use
| nitrogen suffocation?
| nick__m wrote:
| Not that I agree with the practice but the people pro death are
| also pro retribution; to them the suffering is a feature :/
| FDSGSG wrote:
| PR concerns, they're worried about being compared to the Nazis
| if they use gases for executions.
| john_alan wrote:
| Or carbon monoxide?
| gambiting wrote:
| Or you know, literally, just a gun to the head. Out of all
| possible execution methods that were tried in the last
| century, the lethal injection seems to be one of the most
| horrific ones, possibly beaten by the electric chair.
| wl wrote:
| Lethal injection designed and administered by a competent
| anesthesiologist who had a goal of making the process as
| painless and peaceful as possible seems like one of the
| better ways to die. It was a good idea in principle. But in
| practice, the nonsensical protocols designed by non-experts
| who don't care about the experience being pleasant and
| administered by incompetents hasn't gone well.
| marcinzm wrote:
| I suspect there's very few competent anesthesiologist who
| would be willing to do lethal injections. Even if they
| believe in the death penalty the risk to their careers
| seems not worth the non-existent reward.
| michaelt wrote:
| Plenty of people have survived execution by gunshot -
| especially in wartime, when shooting prisoners is
| commonplace. See for example,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslao_Moguel and
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Dumini
| willbudd wrote:
| I think certain French revolutionaries found a more clear-
| cut solution a long time ago.
|
| (Personally, I find the death sentence in any form
| barbaric, given how it nullifies any form of recourse in
| cases of wrongful conviction. It might however be an
| agreeable option to offer "voluntary execution" of some
| form: allow inmates convicted for life an alternative to
| using bedsheets in ways they weren't intended for. What a
| depressing topic, this.)
| m-p-3 wrote:
| Carbon monoxide is an awful way to die, as it triggers the
| hypercapnic alarm response.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercapnic_alarm_response
|
| Inert gas asphyxiation would be a more "humane" way
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation
| nick__m wrote:
| You confuse CO with CO2, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca
| rbon_monoxide_poisoning....
| mcherm wrote:
| Because there are existing court rulings declaring that lethal
| injection (with a particular cocktail of drugs) is not
| considered cruel and unusual punishment. If any other method
| were tried the accused would appeal on the grounds that the
| method was excessively cruel and the court process would take
| many years to complete.
| underseacables wrote:
| Why not a firing squad? I've never understood why we are so
| concerned with the pain and suffering of a condemned murderer. I
| get that the 8th amendment is there and we shouldn't want to make
| anyone suffer but some criminals are alive simply because it's
| illegal to kill them.
| tzs wrote:
| Firing squads can still be used in Utah if the prisoner was
| sentenced before May 2004 and chooses for that method over
| lethal injection. They can also be used if lethal injection
| drugs aren't available.
|
| For federal executions, the Trump DOJ changed the rules
| effective December 24, 2020 to allow federal executions to use
| any method that the state in which the prisoner was sentenced
| allows so federal prisoners sentenced in Utah could now be
| executed via firing squad.
| mhh__ wrote:
| Some prisoners choose the firing squad (possibly to protest
| it).
|
| > For federal executions, the Trump DOJ changed the rules
| effective December 24, 2020 to allow federal executions to
| use any method that the state in which the prisoner was
| sentenced allows
|
| What a legacy
| dnhz wrote:
| I always thought that the movie, Capote, had the most visceral
| depiction of execution I've seen in film. The idea of being led
| to your death, the hood, the waiting for the platform to drop.
| Oof, makes my heart race a bit. The hanging or shooting may be
| quick, but the moments leading up to it certainly are not. And
| imagine if you were innocent!
| pmyteh wrote:
| This is one reason why, when the UK had capital punishment, a
| premium was placed on speed. The condemned cell was set up a
| few yards from the scaffold and the idea was that the time from
| the executioner entering the cell to the trap being dropped
| could be well under one minute.
|
| The movie 'Pierrepoint' shows this pretty well (and has a very
| good performance by Timothy Spall as the eponymous professional
| but slightly conflicted hangman).
| samizdis wrote:
| Yes, but that didn't seem always to be the case when the
| British were hanging people overseas. George Orwell wrote an
| essay, _A Hanging_ [1], about an execution that he witnessed
| while serving in Burma. The prisoner, and escort, have a walk
| of several minutes from the cell to the gallows outdoors. At
| one point, with 40 yards to go to the gallows, the party is
| disrupted by a large playful dog. He notes that after the
| disturbance, the prisoner steps to one side to avoid a puddle
| on the ground. Orwell writes:
|
| _" It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized
| what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw
| the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the
| mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short
| when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive
| just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were
| working -- bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails
| growing, tissues forming -- all toiling away in solemn
| foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on
| the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of
| a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey
| walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned --
| reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men
| walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the
| same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us
| would be gone -- one mind less, one world less._
|
| It's powerful stuff, whatever your thoughts on capital
| punishment.
|
| [1]
| https://orwell.ru/library/articles/hanging/english/e_hanging
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