Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck," although it formerly also referred to crucifixion. Also known as suspending from the air, attached to something above.
The preferred past tense and past participle in English is hanged, if the question is of a judicial execution or suicide, otherwise hung.[http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/hang?view=uk]
For lack of a better term, hanging has also been used to describe a method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness and then death, by means of partial suspension or partial weight-bearing on the ligature. This method has been most often used in prisons or other institutions, where full suspension support is difficult to devise. The earliest known use in this sense was in A.D. 1300.[OED Entry, URL http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50102310?query_type=word&queryword=hang&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=4&search_id=ytyG-jULKok-8630&hilite=50102310]
Methods of judicial hanging
There are four ways of performing a judicial hanging — the short drop, suspension hanging, the standard drop, and the long drop. A mechanised form of hanging, the upright jerker, was also experimented with in the 19th century.
Short drop
The short drop is done by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, with the noose around the neck. The vehicle is then moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope. The condemned prisoner dies of strangulation. Prior to 1850, it was the main method used. A ladder was also commonly used with the condemned being forced to ascend, after which the noose was tied and the ladder pulled away or turned, leaving the condemned hanging. A stool, which the condemned is required to stand on and is then kicked away, has also been used.
Suspension hanging
Suspension hanging is similar to the long drop, except the gallows themselves are movable, so that the noose can be raised once the condemned is in place. This method is currently used in Iran, where tank gun barrels or mobile cranes are used to hoist the condemned into the air. Similar methods involve running the rope through a pulley to allow the raising of the person.
Standard drop
The standard drop, which arrived as calculated in English units, involves a drop of between four and six feet (1.2 to 1.8 m) and came into use in the mid-19th century, in English-speaking countries and those where judicial systems were under English influence. It was considered an advance on the short drop because it was intended to be sufficient to break the person's neck, causing immediate paralysis and immobilization (and probable immediate unconsciousness). This method was used to execute condemned Nazis after the Nuremberg Trials.
Long drop
This process, also known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advancement to the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the person's height, weight and strength[The history of judicial hanging in Britain 1735 - 1964] was used to determine how much slack would be provided in the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken but not so much that the person was decapitated.
Prior to 1892, the drop was between four and ten feet (about one to three meters), depending on the weight of the body, and was calculated to deliver a force of 1,260 lbf (5,600 newtons or 572 kgf), which fractured the neck at either the 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. However, this force resulted in some decapitations, such as the famous case of "Black Jack" Tom Ketchum in New Mexico Territory in 1901. Between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid decapitation. After 1913, other factors were also taken into account, and the force delivered was reduced to about 1,000 lbf (4,400 N or 450 kgf). The decapitation of a female inmate during a botched hanging in 1930 led the state of Arizona to switch to the gas chamber as its primary execution method, on the grounds that it was believed more humane.["Gruesome death in gas chamber pushes Arizona towards injections", New York Times, April 25 1992 (retrieved 7 January 2008).] One of the more recent decapitations as a result of the long drop occurred when Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was hanged in Iraq in 2007.
As suicide
Hanging is a common method of suicide. The materials necessary for suicide by hanging are easily available to the average person, compared with firearms or lethal poison. Full suspension is not required, and for this reason hanging is especially commonplace among suicidal prisoners. A type of hanging comparable to full suspension hanging may be obtained by self-strangulation using a ligature of the neck and only partial weight of the body (partial suspension). This method is dependent on unconsciousness produced by arterial blood flow restriction while the breath is held.
In Canada, hanging is the most common method of suicide.[Suicide Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.] 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).[Trends in suicide by method in England and Wales, 1979 to 2001 (PDF), Office of National Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.]
Medical effects
A hanging may induce one or more of the following medical conditions:
 Close the carotid arteries causing cerebral ischemia
Close the jugular veins
Induce carotid reflex, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest
Break the neck (cervical fracture) causing traumatic spinal cord injury
Close the airway
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. 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. Usually, accidental C1-C2 fracture victims do not immediately become unconscious; instead death occurs after some minutes. Another process that has been suggested is carotid sinus reflex death. By this theory, the mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus in the neck brings on terminal cardiac arrest.
In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death, rather than asphyxiation. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral edema and then cerebral ischemia. The face will typically 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.
Compromise of the cerebral blood flow may occur 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 31 newtons (7 lbf or 3.2 kgf) of force may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness. Where death has occurred through carotid artery obstruction or cervical fracture, the face will typically be pale in color and not show petechiae. There exist many reports and pictures of actual short-drop hangings that seem to show that the person died quickly, while others indicate a slow and agonizing death by strangulation.
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 for some period after the brain can no longer be resuscitated. The time of death 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. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body suspended for an hour to ensure death.
After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension: bruising and rope marks on the neck. Moreover, sphincters will relax spontaneously and urine and feces will be evacuated. 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. If broken, it 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.
Notable references by country (political)
Hanging has been a method of capital punishment in many countries.
Australia
Capital punishment was a part of the legal system of Australia from its early days as a penal colony for the British Empire, until 1985. During the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter. There is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large". During the 19th century, there were about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia for these crimes.
Australia abolished the death penalty in all states by 1985.[Countries that have abandoned the use of the death penalty, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, November 8 2005]
The last man executed by hanging in Australia was Ronald Ryan on 3 February, 1967, in Victoria.[Death penalty in Australia, New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties]
Brazil
Death by hanging was the customary method of capital punishment in Brazil throughout its history. Some important national heroes like Tiradentes (1792) were killed by hanging. The last man executed in Brazil was the slave Francisco, in 1876.
The death penalty was abolished for all crimes, except for those committed under extraordinary circumstances such as war or military law, in 1890.[Capital Punishment Worldwide, MSN Encarta]
Bulgaria
Bulgaria's national hero, Vasil Levski, was executed by hanging by the Ottoman court in Sofia in 1873. Every year since Bulgaria's liberation, thousands come with flowers on the date of his death, February 19, to his monument where the gallows stood.
The last execution was in 1989, and the death penalty was abolished for all crimes in 1998.
Canada
Historically, hanging was the only method of execution used in Canada and was in use as punishment for all murders until 1961, when murders were reclassified into capital and non-capital offenses. The death penalty was restricted to only apply for certain offenses to the National Defence Act in 1976 and was completely abolished in 1998.[Susan Munroe, History of Capital Punishment in Canada, About: Canada Online, ]
The last hangings in Canada took place on December 11, 1962.
Germany
In the territories occupied by Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945, strangulation hanging was a preferred means of public execution, although more criminal executions were performed by guillotine than hanging. The most common sentenced were partisans and black marketeers, whose bodies were usually left hanging for long periods of time. There are also numerous reports of concentration camp inmates being hanged. Hanging was continued in post-war Germany in the British and US Occupation Zones under their jurisdiction, and for Nazi war criminals, until well after (western) Germany itself had abolished the death penalty by the German constitution as adopted in 1949. The German Democratic Republic did not abolish the death penalty until 1987. The last execution in West Germany was carried out by guillotine in Moabit prison 1949. The last known execution in East Germany was in 1982, but by a pistol shot to the neck. Date for the last known hanging is sought.
Hungary
The prime minister of Hungary during the 1956 revolution, Imre Nagy, was secretly tried, executed by hanging, and buried unceremoniously by the new Soviet-backed Hungarian government, in 1958. Nagy was later publicly rehabilitated by Hungary.[U.S. President To Honor 1956 Uprising] - Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2008]].
Capital punishment was abolished for all crimes in 1990.
India
Nathuram Godse, Mohandas Gandhi’s assassin, was executed by hanging in 1949.
The modern Supreme Court of India has suggested that capital punishment should be given only in the "rarest of rare cases".[Sakhrani, Monica; Adenwalla, Maharukh; Economic & Political Weekly, "Death Penalty - Case for Its Abolition"]
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. The manner in which the crime was committed (the accused bludgeoned the victim with a blunt object and raped her as she was slowly dying) was considered brutal enough by the supreme court to warrant the death penalty. An appeal for clemency was made to the president of India but was turned down. Chatterjee was executed on August 14, 2004, in the first execution in India since 1995.[Kumara, Sarath; World Socialist Web Site; "West Bengal carries out first hanging in India in a decade"]
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. The death penalty is used for many offenses and is the only punishment for rape, murder and child molestation, with all hangings taking place in public.
On July 19, 2005, two boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, ages 15 and 17 respectively, who had been convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old boy, were publicly hanged at Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, on charges of homosexuality and rape.[ ]
On August 15, 2004, a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Sahaaleh (a.k.a. Ateqeh Rajabi), was executed for having committed "acts incompatible with chastity".
At dawn on 27 July 2008, the Iranian Government executed a total of 29 people at Evin Prison in Tehran.style="width:100%;" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0> | |
Hanging was used under the regime of Saddam Hussein,[Clark, Richard; The process of Judicial Hanging] but was suspended along with capital punishment in 2003 when the United States-led coalition invaded and overthrew the previous regime. The death penalty was reinstated in May 2005.
In September 2005, three murderers were the first people to be executed since the restoration. Then on March 9 2006, an official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that Iraqi authorities had executed the first insurgents by hanging.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity
By contrast, Barzan Ibrahim, the head of the Mukhabarat, Saddam's security agency, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge, were executed on January 15, 2007, also by the long drop method, but Barzan was decapitated by the rope at the end of his fall indicating that the drop was too long.[AP: Saddam’s half brother and ex-official hanged January 15 2007]
Also, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan had been sentenced to life in prison on November 5, 2006, but the sentence was changed to death by hanging on February 12, 2007.[Top Saddam aide sentenced to hang February 12 2007] He was the fourth and final man to be executed for the 1982 crimes against humanity on March 20, 2007. This time, the execution went smoothly and without obvious mistake or problem.[Saddam's former deputy hanged in Iraq March 20 2007]
At the Anfal genocide trial, Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka Chemical Ali), former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tay, and former deputy Hussein Rashid Mohammed were sentenced to hang for their role in the Al-Anfal Campaign against the Kurds on June 24, 2007.[Iraq's "Chemical Ali" sentenced to death, MSNBC.com, June 24, 2007. Retrieved on June 24, 2007.]
Israel
Although Israel has provisions in its criminal law to use the death penalty for extraordinary crimes, it has only been used twice, and only once by hanging. On June 1, 1962, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging. | |
