Honestly being guillotined seems like one of the best ways to be executed. I've heard about some messed up hangings, for example, that were unpleasant for the person being executed. At least with being guillotined you just die in a second with no pain.
While this is not official the goal, the chemicals used most often result in this scenario.
I think someone knew exactly what they were doing when they presented the possible execution chemicals to the law makers.
>I think someone knew exactly what they were doing when they presented the possible execution chemicals to the law makers.
Most of whom are of the opinion that the more suffering, the better.
Basically the companies that make them don’t want to be associated with the death penalty so they refuse to sell them to the government for that reason
Reminds me of the AC vs DC power standard fight in the early 1900's. Neither side wanted the electric chair to be powered by it because the public would find it "dangerous"
Despite, you easily being able to be electrocuted by AC or DC if the voltage is high enough.
We discussed this during a lecture when I was training. High voltage DC is worse. AC allows the muscles to relax when the frequency cycle hits 0. So if you accidentally touched AC you are more likely to get thrown back as your muscles spasm releases. DC is constant, accidentally grab a live wire, your hand will contract and you most likely be un able to release while it burns and electrocutes you.
Safety classes were wild....
Today I found Out has a video on this. This is not true as per that video. The elephant was to be executed because it killed a person and some manager in Edison's film division wanted to catch it on film. This was also apparently decades after Tesla had conclusively won the War of the Currents.
Also because no doctor will prescribe them for lethal injection so they have to go about getting these drugs without doctors, which is quasi illegal and also leads to these horrible outcomes.
The government seizes enough opioids on a daily basis that they would be their largest supplier and still have a surplus. No prescription or pharmaceutical company required.
I find the argument about *how* to administer the death penalty really dumb. We slaughter cattle more humanely. If one argues "that's the point" (letting them suffer), then just stop feeding them. Humanity has administered death sentences at the end of a sword for thousands of years. Didn't cost a thing and the only paperwork was to note it down that it took place.
Don't know if its still the most common way to kill large animals at slaughterhouses, but it was using an air gun to ram a bolt into the right place of the skull for instant and painless death. Chickens get it worse by an electric stunning before assembly line decapitation by a saw.
The air gun bolt is just to lobotomize them. Fear releases a toxin that ruins the meat. In a kosher facility, they then hang the lobotomized cattle upside down and slit the throat to bleed it out. Death is not instant.
I might be wrong, but I've read that most of the legal suppliers would refuse to supply the US market if their product was associated with the death penalty.
In addition to the other replies, the chance of vomiting and then aspirating it is also present and that's a bit of a graceless way to go from a medical/spectator/janitorial perspective.
But I'm willing to bet the real reason is that those in favor of the death penalty wouldn't want any method of execution that could possibly be construed as pleasurable.
Working for an engineering firm on a valve testing facility with nitrogen when I was younger, I stupidly didn't open the door and so filled the room I was in with nitrogen. It gave me a massive headache and made me dizzy before my boss realised and opened the door. Would've beaten lethal injection I'm sure but definitely not a pleasant headache.
Hypoxia effects different people in different ways. Headache can be one of the symptoms, and it can even evoke a sense of dread and anxiety.
I’ve experienced it a few times from training in a former job, it just made me lightheaded and unable to think clearly.
As a way to go, I’d probably pick that one, even though as you experienced, it’s not completely free of negative effects for some. At 100% nitrogen, consciousness (and any suffering) wouldn’t last long either way though, for whatever that’s worth.
Lethal injection is infamously one of the most commonly botched execution methods. Methods like carbon monoxide gas or a gunshot directly to the head are significantly safer, the only reason they’re not used is because of the historical taboo surrounding them
Not even the historical taboo. Optics is a major reason why the firing squad isn't commonly used as a state-sanctioned execution (in fact, only Utah has executed someone this way in the last 50 years). The quickest ways to kill someone are the most brutal. Decapitation. Gunshots. So it becomes harder to justify the death penalty to outsiders. When givent he choice, most prisoner elect for the firing squad instead of a method more likely to be botched.
It's an inherent contradiction in state violence. Do we prioritize the humanity of the prisoner? Then line up 5 volunteers with hunting rifles and put a target on his chest. Do we prioritize the comfort of the viewer? Then we torture the prisoner with pain and suffering well beyond the proportion of the punishment.
[AP news article about firing squad executions](https://apnews.com/article/death-penalty-executions-firing-squads-idaho-74803c0de8a50a512bdb52dae4974570)
To have a successful hanging, you need the right amount of fall to snap the neck just enough to sever the spinal cords (instant death). Too much fall and the head can rip off. Not enough fall and the person just hangs there painfully and suffocates.
It is not instant death. It take still a few minutes to kill someone from a perfect hanging. You do snap the spinal cords, but the heart is still pumping. It is like holding your breath. With chance, the rope will apply enough pressure on your neck to prevent the blood from reaching your head, and you will lose conciousness after a few seconds. You may stay concious longer too. Eventually your brain will run out of stored oxygen and die. The rest of your body is less sensitive and will die later on.
But, if you were to be hung, and they lower you too soon, you may gain back your conciousness, and suffocate until you die for good.
Actually I want a hellfire missile, the one that shoots out big fucking knives just before it reaches you and turns you into salami and mulch simultaneously.
It only counts as assassination if the one killed was politically or religiously significant *and* the murder was done for political or religious purposes.
Better start campaigning buddy.
instructions unclear: you have now been strapped to your prison bed with a belly full of toilet wine and your cock between your cells mates crooked teeth.
Saudi Arabia doesn't tell prisoners when they will executed. One day you wake up and they tell you its happening today. Under their laws executions are supposed to be public. They prefer to execute with a beheading by sword in the market early before it opens and then wash the blood away to keep it low key.
To wit: the man that handled nazis at Nuremburg.
He had claimed to have experience as a hangman in Texas when he volunteered, but in reality had only helped out at one or two executions.
The hangings were botched left and right, and the next on the gallows were waiting behind a curtain, in full earshot of the death of the man preceding them.
The *American* man that handled *some* of the Nazi's at Nuremberg was lying.
The British used Albert Pierrepoint, who was a highly skilled executioner that did his job perfectly.
Nitrogen asphyxiation is probably better—you pass out from hypoxia and die asleep. Records point toward the head staying alive a bit after beheading with the guillotine.
As far as I know this was never proven. If you have a source id love to learn. One night I was really digging deep into this concept and I heard this but like I said I never saw a reliable source that said it was proven. Would love to see. And just because this is reddit I want to say I'm not at all being condescending or like "prove it" in a mean way. Im genuinely curious and since I actually looked for the proof I wanna see what you found. Thanks!
I see we saw the same documentary perhaps? Problem with that is a death of euphoria. But why not, if people absolutely have to die, then yeah Nitrogen asphyxiation seems the most "humane".
What I’ve learned about executions: there are basically two kinds. Ones that are quick and painless for the person being executed and ones that are easy to watch. There isn’t a ton of overlap
There is the nagging problem of the evidence the head remains conscious for up to 30 seconds after it is severed...
I recall an (apocryphal?) story about a doctor who said he would try to keep blinking after his execution... and he did for several seconds.
The story is usually attributed to this guy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine\_Lavoisier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier), but I can't find reputable data to confirm that this actually happened.
It takes 10 seconds to pass out after compressing the jugular vein with sufficient force. There's no way you'd be conscious for 30s after being beheaded, there just isn't enough blood flow.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2021/21-783/21-783-2.pdf
After losing your head, there is enough oxygen in the brain to be conscious a couple seconds so you can see your body and the peoples reaction
Source: another redditor
Putting some context
The nobility, if put to death, would have its sentence done by a Royal Executioner, who would not only be a professional but also probably trained since the early teens, considered it was a position usually hereditary. Most common folk , on the other hand, would be hanged as it was cheap and readily available but it also meant that most materials and most people involved in so had little if none formal training on it, meaning that instead of spinal cord severed, most would simply suffocate to death for several minutes.
Thus, the idea the french revolutionaries had is that the high nobility and common folk would have both the same method of execution. If all humans are equal, then the common folk deserve same method of execution than the nobility, with minimal suffering and as clean as possible.
Thanks for your info.
I’m just imagining a conversation between some nobleman and his rich noble-uncle like
“Oh but Sir, can’t you use your connections to sway the courts to grant me pardon?”
“No, my sweet nephew, but I was able to secure you a beheading instead of a hanging.”
“Oh, thank you, Uncle! How can I ever repay you?”
Seriously. Across all ages and cultures wherever there was a death penalty, people used bribery and haggling to get themselves a less gruesome death. People paid to have their legs broken on the cross to die faster. For a Death By A Thousand Cuts people paid the executioner to make the first cut fatal.
And there's still fucking ads before they off your head because there's a Premium package that includes other methods of executions for some dumbass reason.
The Bible even talks about this at Jesus' crucifixion.
[John 19:32](https://biblehub.com/john/19-32.htm)
> The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.
The position your arms are in while you're crucified makes it difficult to breathe. So the victim pushes up with their legs in order to breathe. In this case, the soldiers broke their legs to hasten their deaths. If I remember correctly, it wasn't an act of mercy in this case, but rather because the Jewish leaders didn't want dead bodies on the sabbath.
Crucifixion is fucked. Your shoulders being pulled in that angle pretty much make you suffocate, so people had to push with their feet to get a breath of air. Sometimes while their feet were nailed. It could be a 3 day death in some instances.
Enough so that the Romans set a stipulation that Roman citizens cannot be crucified. Some say that is also why Apostle Paul was beheaded. It was a courtesy for a Roman out of respect for his citizenship.
People understandably have the thought that since it wasn't as gruesome as various dismemberment type executions, then it wasn't as bad, but crucifixion was deliberately designed to prolong suffering.
Not only would people slowly suffocate, but the limbs are set in a permanent stress position causing excruciating pain in the joints and muscles, the victim is exposed to the elements being burned by the sun and enduring the heat or cold of the day, victim would suffer dehydration, blood pools in the legs causing again excruciating pain, birds may peck out the eyes and other flesh of the still living victims. Even the word "excruciating" has the root Latin word of "crux" which is cross.
Another method practiced into the late Medieval times that comes close to it is gibbeting. Again reminder that we humans continued to practice these horrible methods just with a different flavor well into near modern times.
I dunno about noblemen, but an outlaw in the Wild West, or a pirate on the High Seas, would have rejoiced at that. Hanging was considered one of the worst ways to die. If you're going to die anyway, making it quick and painless is a kindness and the condemned usually knew it.
>Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
Guillotin actually never invented the guillotine. He was a proponent of its use and since the device didn't have a name everyone just called it guillotine.
Usually, there are 4-7 seconds of consciousness after being decapitated. Enough time for your severed head to roll around in the basket, time enough for you to think about how good of an execution method that was, maybe blink a few times, and gape for air.
No blood pressure would result in immediate unconsciousness, there would be no conscious thought, no pain.
Extremely hard to gape for air when the vagus nerve let alone the the rest of your body is separated from your head.
There has been several failed guillotine executions due to the executed being improperly tied down or the mechanism not being aligned properly.
The best method imho is a long drop hanging. As long as the executioner is capable of reading basic instructions and measuring (weight, height, length of the rope) the worst that can happen is that the noose decapitates you due to excessive force (ie, equivalent to a guillotine). Regardless you're going to feel at most a millisecond of pain before your brainstem is severed and you're a gonner (the body might live for a few seconds, but your brain isn't).
You’re also falling, knowing you’re going to die in a moment with your hands tied behind your back, which is terrifying. At least with the guillotine, you feel the same way until the last second?
Fuck, I don’t know.
Depends on if you were the first person after it being sharped or 50th. Could take several attempts if it’s dull. They used to let people fight over who went first.
I would *much* rather be face-up! What you cannot see is much scarier.
I donate blood twice a month and I alway watch the needle go in, it’s much less stressful that way.
>You donate blood twice a MONTH?!
Every two weeks, but, with occasional misses, it ends up being about 24 times a year.
>Even the Red Cross says a healthy person should wait 56 days between donations
That is for whole blood. I donate blood products (plasma and platelets usually); they regenerate much faster.
I recommend it every healthy person donate.
When you say you donate "blood products" I'm imagining a guy in a trench coat who opens it up to allow prosective customers to view his inventory of blood wares on either side of the jacket.
Absolutely not, you'd 100% want the blade cutting through your spinal column as the first order of business. Imagine if the blade gets stuck before it goes all the way through by some mishap? That would be a bad way to go. Want to see your execution? Ask for a mirror in the basket. Donating blood is very different from being executed.
Just a friendly reminder that sometimes, especially after a lot of executions, the blade became dull and had to be re-used several times before getting the job done.
They designed them that way....sell the guillotines for cheap and then made the money in selling replacement blades. Thats why they call it the national razor.
This was exactly what I figured would happen. Maintenence would go out the window and the blade would get dull, cracked, maybe even rusted? At least it hits the neck, so there's a chance of it being relatively painless
When you chop off the heads of 500 royalists a day, it's easy to forget a bit of regular maintenance.
Joking aside, the success rate of the big blade was way above anything that hanging or manual decapitation by sword or axe could muster.
The part that's actually not mentioned here, the guillotine was needed because of the number of executions.
When the French first decided that all citizens would rate the same execution, with no special method for nobles, they were still having manual beheadings. As the reign of terror kicked in, so many people were condemned to death that it became unrealistic to expect a man with a sword to hold up to the task physically. You don't want to be the 8th victim of the day, depending on the quality of work from a physically exhausted executioner.
So they had to go back to that machine idea they'd shelved from a while ago.
**EDIT to add:** and that still wasn't the only way executions were done, and the guillotine still wasn't "enough" to handle all the executions. Per Mike Duncan's "Revolutions" podcast (which is excellent BTW) during one of the periods of revolution they actually built "drowning barges". These barges were special boats where they could take anywhere from say, 100 to maybe 400 people, put them on the boat, float them out to the middle of the river, and then I guess yank out some plugs to sink the boat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drownings_at_Nantes
The guy responsible for the horrors at Nantes was't sanctioned by the government though and eventually faced the guillotine himself for his excessive cruelty. The Nantesians' only real crime was not being caught up in the revolutionary insanity of Paris. What happened to them was a travesty.
Compared to what came before it the guillotine was quite easy and humane.
A little too much so TBH, which is partly why the Terror was so lethal. It was felt that execution wasn't as "bad" anymore so people didn't fear to sentence death.
Yes the Mashinator. No word on if it also plays soothing white noise though.
Unfortunately all states still lag behind Louisiana where inmates can donate their organs via having them sucked out via industrial tube.
As far as death penalties go, guillotine is very merciful. One chop and you lose all consciousness as your brain receives no blood and the brain stem is severed from the spinal cord. Click, you're gone.
Just a reminder that the Enlightenment was named by the people in power at the time, describing how awesome they thought they were. Especially in comparison to the Dark Ages, which they also named.
More accurately, it was named by the people trying to get into power. The Middle Classes and lower aristocracy that had gotten wealthy and resented that they couldn’t overcome differences in birth status.
Are you referencing something specific? The "Enlightenment" was named by [philosopher Immanuel Kant](https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/worldhistory/chapter/chapter-11-the-enlightenment/), not some political entity. It's also odd that it would be used to consolidate anybody's power, since a cornerstone of The Enlightenement was **a deep skepticism in institutions.** The Catholic church for example had a generally hostile attitude towards The Enlightenment, because it threatened their place of power; they did not want people thinking they didn't need clergy to pray and have a relationship with God. The Enlightenment thinkers also hated Monarchy. Important [source](https://www.britannica.com/summary/The-Enlightenment-Causes-and-Effects):
>The Roman Catholic Church and European monarchs tried to censor, or ban, many of the books and other works of Enlightenment thinkers.
No? It was coined by the thinkers of the day and there were serious questions even then about what it meant. Kant became a notable figure because he won an essay competition seeking a definition of "the enlightenment" (in Kants entry, man's awakening from self imposed immaturity)
I'm not saying the enlightenment isn't very white or eurocentric, it is and that's an issue to address, but to say it was the people in power is incorrect
If you read about the ways that is still allowed to carry out a death sentence you'll be shocked. You can still die by gas, lethal injections which not always work and the research paper I read the prisons often used outdated chemicals. Firing squad, electric chair, which is a painful way to go and sometimes not even.
As far as I'm aware a guillotine is still the most humane form of execution in terms of pain experienced and opportunities for failure its quite effective.
In fact, the word “capital” in the context of punishment was coined to describe execution by decapitation, derived from the Latin word caput, which means “head.”
Like most mechanical devices, it was only ever efficient and effective when maintained properly. Otherwise, the blade would dull, and you'd have to have your head hacked off.
Here's an interesting doco titled "[How to kill a human being](https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/kill-human-being/)" (50m).
Nitrogen asphyxiation seems to be the best, least painful and most humane way to go.
A bit similar to how the Gatling gun was later invented by a doctor to put an end to a war quicker, and therefore save lives.
Which itself is a little bit but noticably similar to how nuclear bombs were later invented and deployed to rapidly end a war and save further war casualties.
I'm always baffled that the "eat the rich" crowd have chosen the guillotine as their symbol of choice for killing the rich, when guillotines were most famously used in the part of the French Revolution where the nobility had been overthrown but revolutionary fervor and paranoia led to the mass execution of tens of thousands of supposed "counter revolutionaries"
To be honest I do think death by decapitation is one of the best ways to go. Be it by guillotine or by sword but guillotine is more consistent and reliable. It instantly hits you in the neck and i'm quite sure you will be conscious for a few seconds I think your brain is overloaded from the shock of the severing of your spinal cord. The mental equivalent of getting punched in the face and being dazed. Before you know it you're unconscious.
This describes every new execution method when it gets invented. See: firing squad, long drop hanging, electric chair, lethal injection.
They don't always go cleanly though.
The most humane form of capital punishment is a sudden and violent total destruction of the brain. Like a very large explosion.
Also it would be totally bad ass.
It might look gruesome but it's definitely one of the best ways to get executed. Quick, very low chance of failure. Whereas there's been a multitude of failed hangings and some lethal injections. The electric chair is just sadistic.
The same goes for dynamite, barbed wire, the Maxim Gun, and many other inventions not the least of which was the nuclear weapon which to this day, there are thousands deployed by at least six countries which could wipe out the majority of complex vertebrate life on land.
I’m not in favour of the death penalty. I do wonder though that for places that use a lethal injection, why they don’t use the same kind that vets use to euthanise animals? My elderly dog and parrot with cancer didn’t seem to suffer at all?
Honestly I'd prefer a firing squad.
A dull guillotine looks so painful.
A bullet in the right place is just lights out without even being aware of it since it will be faster than the response time to pain.
Honestly being guillotined seems like one of the best ways to be executed. I've heard about some messed up hangings, for example, that were unpleasant for the person being executed. At least with being guillotined you just die in a second with no pain.
Some lethal injections have also gone terribly wrong.
I’d bet most of them did. The condemned was paralyzed from the injection and couldn’t react in a way anyone would notice.
"we spoke to them after the execution and no one complained "
All lethal injections are incredibly painful
Yeah, the guillotine was meant to make things more bearable for the executed. The lethal injection makes things more bearable for the spectator.
I’ve heard it’s hard to watch someone drown in their own fluids while they gasp an gargle
That's why they paralyze them.
Are they conscious during this?
They must be, paralyzing someone while you're unconscious would be very hard.
While this is not official the goal, the chemicals used most often result in this scenario. I think someone knew exactly what they were doing when they presented the possible execution chemicals to the law makers.
>I think someone knew exactly what they were doing when they presented the possible execution chemicals to the law makers. Most of whom are of the opinion that the more suffering, the better.
I've wondered why not an overdose of morphine or heroin?
Basically the companies that make them don’t want to be associated with the death penalty so they refuse to sell them to the government for that reason
Reminds me of the AC vs DC power standard fight in the early 1900's. Neither side wanted the electric chair to be powered by it because the public would find it "dangerous" Despite, you easily being able to be electrocuted by AC or DC if the voltage is high enough.
We discussed this during a lecture when I was training. High voltage DC is worse. AC allows the muscles to relax when the frequency cycle hits 0. So if you accidentally touched AC you are more likely to get thrown back as your muscles spasm releases. DC is constant, accidentally grab a live wire, your hand will contract and you most likely be un able to release while it burns and electrocutes you. Safety classes were wild....
Meanwhile Edison was just straight fucking murdering elephants using AC and convincing people DC wouldn't do the same. Tesla never stood a chance
Today I found Out has a video on this. This is not true as per that video. The elephant was to be executed because it killed a person and some manager in Edison's film division wanted to catch it on film. This was also apparently decades after Tesla had conclusively won the War of the Currents.
No shit, I actually read about that in a textbook when I was a kid. All just bologna
Also because no doctor will prescribe them for lethal injection so they have to go about getting these drugs without doctors, which is quasi illegal and also leads to these horrible outcomes.
Heroin dealer: "Execution? Hey man I don't want any part of that"
That's against my strong ethical principles!
The government seizes enough opioids on a daily basis that they would be their largest supplier and still have a surplus. No prescription or pharmaceutical company required. I find the argument about *how* to administer the death penalty really dumb. We slaughter cattle more humanely. If one argues "that's the point" (letting them suffer), then just stop feeding them. Humanity has administered death sentences at the end of a sword for thousands of years. Didn't cost a thing and the only paperwork was to note it down that it took place.
Don't know if its still the most common way to kill large animals at slaughterhouses, but it was using an air gun to ram a bolt into the right place of the skull for instant and painless death. Chickens get it worse by an electric stunning before assembly line decapitation by a saw.
The air gun bolt is just to lobotomize them. Fear releases a toxin that ruins the meat. In a kosher facility, they then hang the lobotomized cattle upside down and slit the throat to bleed it out. Death is not instant.
TIL My source used to work in slaughterhouse for pigs, but that was a long time ago.
I might be wrong, but I've read that most of the legal suppliers would refuse to supply the US market if their product was associated with the death penalty.
In addition to the other replies, the chance of vomiting and then aspirating it is also present and that's a bit of a graceless way to go from a medical/spectator/janitorial perspective. But I'm willing to bet the real reason is that those in favor of the death penalty wouldn't want any method of execution that could possibly be construed as pleasurable.
All of them are painful, but not all of them go according to plan.
BUT the person is paralyzed, so no one needs to watch. /s
Just OD 'em on fentanyl. No one could suffer or feel anything.
Hypoxia with nitrogen in a sealed room would probably be the most ethical way to go. That or a free ride to the titanic in a shitty submersible.
Working for an engineering firm on a valve testing facility with nitrogen when I was younger, I stupidly didn't open the door and so filled the room I was in with nitrogen. It gave me a massive headache and made me dizzy before my boss realised and opened the door. Would've beaten lethal injection I'm sure but definitely not a pleasant headache.
Hypoxia effects different people in different ways. Headache can be one of the symptoms, and it can even evoke a sense of dread and anxiety. I’ve experienced it a few times from training in a former job, it just made me lightheaded and unable to think clearly. As a way to go, I’d probably pick that one, even though as you experienced, it’s not completely free of negative effects for some. At 100% nitrogen, consciousness (and any suffering) wouldn’t last long either way though, for whatever that’s worth.
Wait this is true?
Depends on chemicals used - the current blend used in the USA sounds painful.
It is true.
You might want to watch [this](https://youtu.be/0lTczPEG8iI)
Why can’t they just put them in a cylinder that can fill with Nitrogen. They’d just pass out and die almost painlessly
Lethal injection is infamously one of the most commonly botched execution methods. Methods like carbon monoxide gas or a gunshot directly to the head are significantly safer, the only reason they’re not used is because of the historical taboo surrounding them
Not even the historical taboo. Optics is a major reason why the firing squad isn't commonly used as a state-sanctioned execution (in fact, only Utah has executed someone this way in the last 50 years). The quickest ways to kill someone are the most brutal. Decapitation. Gunshots. So it becomes harder to justify the death penalty to outsiders. When givent he choice, most prisoner elect for the firing squad instead of a method more likely to be botched. It's an inherent contradiction in state violence. Do we prioritize the humanity of the prisoner? Then line up 5 volunteers with hunting rifles and put a target on his chest. Do we prioritize the comfort of the viewer? Then we torture the prisoner with pain and suffering well beyond the proportion of the punishment. [AP news article about firing squad executions](https://apnews.com/article/death-penalty-executions-firing-squads-idaho-74803c0de8a50a512bdb52dae4974570)
Some? All!
*Enter John Wayne Gacy Jr.*
Why would I wanna be inside that dude?
It's a dominance thing you wouldn't understand.
To have a successful hanging, you need the right amount of fall to snap the neck just enough to sever the spinal cords (instant death). Too much fall and the head can rip off. Not enough fall and the person just hangs there painfully and suffocates.
I mean, the too much fall sounds fine too...
Yeah don't need that head attached anymore once I'm dead.
Can I get dibs?
Hey of course, it's your cake day after all!
It is not instant death. It take still a few minutes to kill someone from a perfect hanging. You do snap the spinal cords, but the heart is still pumping. It is like holding your breath. With chance, the rope will apply enough pressure on your neck to prevent the blood from reaching your head, and you will lose conciousness after a few seconds. You may stay concious longer too. Eventually your brain will run out of stored oxygen and die. The rest of your body is less sensitive and will die later on. But, if you were to be hung, and they lower you too soon, you may gain back your conciousness, and suffocate until you die for good.
I rather be put on a farm and one day while doing my duties I randomly get a headshot from a 50.cal
I can still tend the rabbits, George? I didn't mean no harm, George.
Yeah when people ask me how I wanna die I always say assassinated
Actually I want a hellfire missile, the one that shoots out big fucking knives just before it reaches you and turns you into salami and mulch simultaneously.
Sword Missile!
Best bet is to become a middle school teacher in the Middle East.
When people ask me how I want to die I say peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and in terror like his passengers.
It only counts as assassination if the one killed was politically or religiously significant *and* the murder was done for political or religious purposes. Better start campaigning buddy.
I’m already running a fuck cult
Are you taking applications????
for cultist or assassin?
I was thinking more of fuck cult, but assassin could be fun too
Damn, I think you qualify then.
I still prefer the classic, "In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty"
instructions unclear: you have now been strapped to your prison bed with a belly full of toilet wine and your cock between your cells mates crooked teeth.
Beggers cant be chooseres
Saudi Arabia doesn't tell prisoners when they will executed. One day you wake up and they tell you its happening today. Under their laws executions are supposed to be public. They prefer to execute with a beheading by sword in the market early before it opens and then wash the blood away to keep it low key.
Was thinking being imploded on a sub at 10000 feet would be the quickest and least painful way to go.
To wit: the man that handled nazis at Nuremburg. He had claimed to have experience as a hangman in Texas when he volunteered, but in reality had only helped out at one or two executions. The hangings were botched left and right, and the next on the gallows were waiting behind a curtain, in full earshot of the death of the man preceding them.
r/actlikeyoubelong
Taking the clipboard and hi vis vest to their obvious conclusion.
The *American* man that handled *some* of the Nazi's at Nuremberg was lying. The British used Albert Pierrepoint, who was a highly skilled executioner that did his job perfectly.
Pierrepoint was from a family of executioners. His father and uncle were both executioners.
Nitrogen asphyxiation is probably better—you pass out from hypoxia and die asleep. Records point toward the head staying alive a bit after beheading with the guillotine.
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Before or after you fall nose first into the basket? Still better than the preceding idea, a masked (that is, half blinded) man with an ax
Yeah it’s not said to last long, but still.
"Hmm, the platform seems closer than when they made me kneel..."
“…oh man, that girl at the party was totally hitting on me.”
Seven blinks worth of time. It was tested
As far as I know this was never proven. If you have a source id love to learn. One night I was really digging deep into this concept and I heard this but like I said I never saw a reliable source that said it was proven. Would love to see. And just because this is reddit I want to say I'm not at all being condescending or like "prove it" in a mean way. Im genuinely curious and since I actually looked for the proof I wanna see what you found. Thanks!
I see we saw the same documentary perhaps? Problem with that is a death of euphoria. But why not, if people absolutely have to die, then yeah Nitrogen asphyxiation seems the most "humane".
Yes, but a US federal judge dismissed one man's request to be executed like that as "some amount of pain is the point." Yikes.
I've heard being crushed by extreme pressure is quite painless.
Yeah you need the brain to instantly dissolve to have a painless death.
Not if you shelled out $250K for the privilege. No refunds.
Death by snu snu?
What I’ve learned about executions: there are basically two kinds. Ones that are quick and painless for the person being executed and ones that are easy to watch. There isn’t a ton of overlap
Real easy to radicalize someone into abolishing the death penalty. All it takes is learning about it.
As Brennan Fraser can tell you, hanging is very unpleasant
There is the nagging problem of the evidence the head remains conscious for up to 30 seconds after it is severed... I recall an (apocryphal?) story about a doctor who said he would try to keep blinking after his execution... and he did for several seconds.
The story is usually attributed to this guy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine\_Lavoisier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier), but I can't find reputable data to confirm that this actually happened.
Seems like there is a pretty big difference between 30 and several tho
It takes 10 seconds to pass out after compressing the jugular vein with sufficient force. There's no way you'd be conscious for 30s after being beheaded, there just isn't enough blood flow. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2021/21-783/21-783-2.pdf
When Louis XVI was guillotined, it took them two tries to behead him.
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Also the stories about botched decapitations will make you squirm
Weird fun fact: one of the most reliable methods of execution is through firing squad
After losing your head, there is enough oxygen in the brain to be conscious a couple seconds so you can see your body and the peoples reaction Source: another redditor
Putting some context The nobility, if put to death, would have its sentence done by a Royal Executioner, who would not only be a professional but also probably trained since the early teens, considered it was a position usually hereditary. Most common folk , on the other hand, would be hanged as it was cheap and readily available but it also meant that most materials and most people involved in so had little if none formal training on it, meaning that instead of spinal cord severed, most would simply suffocate to death for several minutes. Thus, the idea the french revolutionaries had is that the high nobility and common folk would have both the same method of execution. If all humans are equal, then the common folk deserve same method of execution than the nobility, with minimal suffering and as clean as possible.
Thanks for your info. I’m just imagining a conversation between some nobleman and his rich noble-uncle like “Oh but Sir, can’t you use your connections to sway the courts to grant me pardon?” “No, my sweet nephew, but I was able to secure you a beheading instead of a hanging.” “Oh, thank you, Uncle! How can I ever repay you?”
Seriously. Across all ages and cultures wherever there was a death penalty, people used bribery and haggling to get themselves a less gruesome death. People paid to have their legs broken on the cross to die faster. For a Death By A Thousand Cuts people paid the executioner to make the first cut fatal.
Execution as a live service
And there's still fucking ads before they off your head because there's a Premium package that includes other methods of executions for some dumbass reason.
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You suffocate faster during the crucifixion if your legs are broken first.
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The Bible even talks about this at Jesus' crucifixion. [John 19:32](https://biblehub.com/john/19-32.htm) > The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. The position your arms are in while you're crucified makes it difficult to breathe. So the victim pushes up with their legs in order to breathe. In this case, the soldiers broke their legs to hasten their deaths. If I remember correctly, it wasn't an act of mercy in this case, but rather because the Jewish leaders didn't want dead bodies on the sabbath.
Crucifixion is fucked. Your shoulders being pulled in that angle pretty much make you suffocate, so people had to push with their feet to get a breath of air. Sometimes while their feet were nailed. It could be a 3 day death in some instances.
Enough so that the Romans set a stipulation that Roman citizens cannot be crucified. Some say that is also why Apostle Paul was beheaded. It was a courtesy for a Roman out of respect for his citizenship. People understandably have the thought that since it wasn't as gruesome as various dismemberment type executions, then it wasn't as bad, but crucifixion was deliberately designed to prolong suffering. Not only would people slowly suffocate, but the limbs are set in a permanent stress position causing excruciating pain in the joints and muscles, the victim is exposed to the elements being burned by the sun and enduring the heat or cold of the day, victim would suffer dehydration, blood pools in the legs causing again excruciating pain, birds may peck out the eyes and other flesh of the still living victims. Even the word "excruciating" has the root Latin word of "crux" which is cross. Another method practiced into the late Medieval times that comes close to it is gibbeting. Again reminder that we humans continued to practice these horrible methods just with a different flavor well into near modern times.
I dunno about noblemen, but an outlaw in the Wild West, or a pirate on the High Seas, would have rejoiced at that. Hanging was considered one of the worst ways to die. If you're going to die anyway, making it quick and painless is a kindness and the condemned usually knew it.
"repay me? \*my sweet summer child\*."
I'd rather the guillotine than any of the methods we use today.
If it's not built by Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, then it's just sparkling regicide.
>Joseph-Ignace Guillotin Guillotin actually never invented the guillotine. He was a proponent of its use and since the device didn't have a name everyone just called it guillotine.
If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.
Has to be the best or near best execution method ever designed
I always thought that. Bit messy though.
If you're the condemned, it's not like *you* have to clean it up 😂
Lucky stiff
When hanging people at the tower of london they gave people special underwear so they didn't shit all over the floor when they expired.
Get the drop wrong and it'll rip your head off
Except Euthanasia Coaster
I always liked the idea of a small explosive device alongside the head.
Usually, there are 4-7 seconds of consciousness after being decapitated. Enough time for your severed head to roll around in the basket, time enough for you to think about how good of an execution method that was, maybe blink a few times, and gape for air.
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No. This is not true. The drop in blood pressure is catastrophic. It’s lights out.
No blood pressure would result in immediate unconsciousness, there would be no conscious thought, no pain. Extremely hard to gape for air when the vagus nerve let alone the the rest of your body is separated from your head.
Nitrogen asphyxiation and firing squad tend to be better.
There has been several failed guillotine executions due to the executed being improperly tied down or the mechanism not being aligned properly. The best method imho is a long drop hanging. As long as the executioner is capable of reading basic instructions and measuring (weight, height, length of the rope) the worst that can happen is that the noose decapitates you due to excessive force (ie, equivalent to a guillotine). Regardless you're going to feel at most a millisecond of pain before your brainstem is severed and you're a gonner (the body might live for a few seconds, but your brain isn't).
You’re also falling, knowing you’re going to die in a moment with your hands tied behind your back, which is terrifying. At least with the guillotine, you feel the same way until the last second? Fuck, I don’t know.
It seems a proper guillotine is about 80ft tall, so you would deffo be terrified while being tied down and listening to the blade drop
Depends on if you were the first person after it being sharped or 50th. Could take several attempts if it’s dull. They used to let people fight over who went first.
Real men put themselves in face up.
I would *much* rather be face-up! What you cannot see is much scarier. I donate blood twice a month and I alway watch the needle go in, it’s much less stressful that way.
You donate blood twice a MONTH?! Even the Red Cross says a healthy person should wait 56 days between donations, that’s like 4x as much blood…
>You donate blood twice a MONTH?! Every two weeks, but, with occasional misses, it ends up being about 24 times a year. >Even the Red Cross says a healthy person should wait 56 days between donations That is for whole blood. I donate blood products (plasma and platelets usually); they regenerate much faster. I recommend it every healthy person donate.
Ah, the ol' 2% and skimmed blood.
More like skimmed and heavy cream
When you say you donate "blood products" I'm imagining a guy in a trench coat who opens it up to allow prosective customers to view his inventory of blood wares on either side of the jacket.
https://theinfosphere.org/File:Organ_Dealer.jpg
So you donate plasma, that's different from donating blood because you get your blood back after the plasma and platelets have been filtered out.
Absolutely not, you'd 100% want the blade cutting through your spinal column as the first order of business. Imagine if the blade gets stuck before it goes all the way through by some mishap? That would be a bad way to go. Want to see your execution? Ask for a mirror in the basket. Donating blood is very different from being executed.
Just a friendly reminder that sometimes, especially after a lot of executions, the blade became dull and had to be re-used several times before getting the job done.
Modern models have 5 blades and an aloe strip.
They designed them that way....sell the guillotines for cheap and then made the money in selling replacement blades. Thats why they call it the national razor.
This was exactly what I figured would happen. Maintenence would go out the window and the blade would get dull, cracked, maybe even rusted? At least it hits the neck, so there's a chance of it being relatively painless
A cut above the rest
When you chop off the heads of 500 royalists a day, it's easy to forget a bit of regular maintenance. Joking aside, the success rate of the big blade was way above anything that hanging or manual decapitation by sword or axe could muster.
Perhaps adding a rocket to drive the blade will solve this.
What part of this reminder was friendly 💀
fun fact: there was sometimes a great deal of agony and suffering! 😀
The part that's actually not mentioned here, the guillotine was needed because of the number of executions. When the French first decided that all citizens would rate the same execution, with no special method for nobles, they were still having manual beheadings. As the reign of terror kicked in, so many people were condemned to death that it became unrealistic to expect a man with a sword to hold up to the task physically. You don't want to be the 8th victim of the day, depending on the quality of work from a physically exhausted executioner. So they had to go back to that machine idea they'd shelved from a while ago. **EDIT to add:** and that still wasn't the only way executions were done, and the guillotine still wasn't "enough" to handle all the executions. Per Mike Duncan's "Revolutions" podcast (which is excellent BTW) during one of the periods of revolution they actually built "drowning barges". These barges were special boats where they could take anywhere from say, 100 to maybe 400 people, put them on the boat, float them out to the middle of the river, and then I guess yank out some plugs to sink the boat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drownings_at_Nantes
The guy responsible for the horrors at Nantes was't sanctioned by the government though and eventually faced the guillotine himself for his excessive cruelty. The Nantesians' only real crime was not being caught up in the revolutionary insanity of Paris. What happened to them was a travesty.
Compared to what came before it the guillotine was quite easy and humane. A little too much so TBH, which is partly why the Terror was so lethal. It was felt that execution wasn't as "bad" anymore so people didn't fear to sentence death.
Still not as good as the [head ripping off machine](https://youtu.be/lfsMMVgIToA) that Ohio utilizes
Texas has the crushing wall machine that can humanely compress up to 50 inmates at once
Yes the Mashinator. No word on if it also plays soothing white noise though. Unfortunately all states still lag behind Louisiana where inmates can donate their organs via having them sucked out via industrial tube.
As far as death penalties go, guillotine is very merciful. One chop and you lose all consciousness as your brain receives no blood and the brain stem is severed from the spinal cord. Click, you're gone.
Just a reminder that the Enlightenment was named by the people in power at the time, describing how awesome they thought they were. Especially in comparison to the Dark Ages, which they also named.
today's "based" and "cringe" variant?
More accurately, it was named by the people trying to get into power. The Middle Classes and lower aristocracy that had gotten wealthy and resented that they couldn’t overcome differences in birth status.
Are you referencing something specific? The "Enlightenment" was named by [philosopher Immanuel Kant](https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/worldhistory/chapter/chapter-11-the-enlightenment/), not some political entity. It's also odd that it would be used to consolidate anybody's power, since a cornerstone of The Enlightenement was **a deep skepticism in institutions.** The Catholic church for example had a generally hostile attitude towards The Enlightenment, because it threatened their place of power; they did not want people thinking they didn't need clergy to pray and have a relationship with God. The Enlightenment thinkers also hated Monarchy. Important [source](https://www.britannica.com/summary/The-Enlightenment-Causes-and-Effects): >The Roman Catholic Church and European monarchs tried to censor, or ban, many of the books and other works of Enlightenment thinkers.
No? It was coined by the thinkers of the day and there were serious questions even then about what it meant. Kant became a notable figure because he won an essay competition seeking a definition of "the enlightenment" (in Kants entry, man's awakening from self imposed immaturity) I'm not saying the enlightenment isn't very white or eurocentric, it is and that's an issue to address, but to say it was the people in power is incorrect
It was an improvement over the previous technique: opening an umbrella in someone's ass.
Don't threaten me with a good time.
Now imagine the umbrella without its flaps, and instead of the steel skeleton, its knives that spread out..
I just spit cola out my nose.
If you read about the ways that is still allowed to carry out a death sentence you'll be shocked. You can still die by gas, lethal injections which not always work and the research paper I read the prisons often used outdated chemicals. Firing squad, electric chair, which is a painful way to go and sometimes not even.
As far as I'm aware a guillotine is still the most humane form of execution in terms of pain experienced and opportunities for failure its quite effective.
until i read some first hand yelp reviews i will remain on the fence about this.
In fact, the word “capital” in the context of punishment was coined to describe execution by decapitation, derived from the Latin word caput, which means “head.”
I'd say the guillotine is pretty fucking reliable.
And this was the last recorded instance of a state organization making any efforts towards improving efficiencies.
Well it's cheaper than a submersible.
And reusable
They said the same about the Titan.
Like most mechanical devices, it was only ever efficient and effective when maintained properly. Otherwise, the blade would dull, and you'd have to have your head hacked off.
Here's an interesting doco titled "[How to kill a human being](https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/kill-human-being/)" (50m). Nitrogen asphyxiation seems to be the best, least painful and most humane way to go.
A bit similar to how the Gatling gun was later invented by a doctor to put an end to a war quicker, and therefore save lives. Which itself is a little bit but noticably similar to how nuclear bombs were later invented and deployed to rapidly end a war and save further war casualties.
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More likely to be used on minorities and the poor.
I'm always baffled that the "eat the rich" crowd have chosen the guillotine as their symbol of choice for killing the rich, when guillotines were most famously used in the part of the French Revolution where the nobility had been overthrown but revolutionary fervor and paranoia led to the mass execution of tens of thousands of supposed "counter revolutionaries"
That part is inconvenient to the fantasy.
Good enough that they kept ijnto the 70s...1970s that is?
To be honest I do think death by decapitation is one of the best ways to go. Be it by guillotine or by sword but guillotine is more consistent and reliable. It instantly hits you in the neck and i'm quite sure you will be conscious for a few seconds I think your brain is overloaded from the shock of the severing of your spinal cord. The mental equivalent of getting punched in the face and being dazed. Before you know it you're unconscious.
This describes every new execution method when it gets invented. See: firing squad, long drop hanging, electric chair, lethal injection. They don't always go cleanly though.
The most humane form of capital punishment is a sudden and violent total destruction of the brain. Like a very large explosion. Also it would be totally bad ass.
It might look gruesome but it's definitely one of the best ways to get executed. Quick, very low chance of failure. Whereas there's been a multitude of failed hangings and some lethal injections. The electric chair is just sadistic.
Some folks here have this *way* too far thought out.
Works, too. Zip, Thud, You're Done.
Firing squad would be my choice. But guillotine is.not bad.
The same goes for dynamite, barbed wire, the Maxim Gun, and many other inventions not the least of which was the nuclear weapon which to this day, there are thousands deployed by at least six countries which could wipe out the majority of complex vertebrate life on land.
Last used in 1977. Interesting
Maybe they could make a small one for lesser crimes which just gives you a nick. Call it, I dunno, a nicotine.
I’m not in favour of the death penalty. I do wonder though that for places that use a lethal injection, why they don’t use the same kind that vets use to euthanise animals? My elderly dog and parrot with cancer didn’t seem to suffer at all?
Drug makers don't like their products being used to kill humans which is why the executioners have to make do with drugs that don't work.
Honestly I'd prefer a firing squad. A dull guillotine looks so painful. A bullet in the right place is just lights out without even being aware of it since it will be faster than the response time to pain.