Modern types of death penalty (13 photos). Types and variations of the death penalty. Decapitation

29.09.2019

Most people these days hope that they will die peacefully in their sleep, surrounded by loved ones. But for the victims of these 15 methods of execution practiced throughout history, everything turned out to be not so rosy. Whether it's being burned alive or limbs being slowly cut off, these deaths are sure to shock you. Particularly sophisticated methods of torture were used in the Middle Ages, but in other periods of time torture was one of the most popular methods of punishment or obtaining information. It is amazing that just 100 years ago such a practice was considered everyday, thousands of people gathered for it, just as in our time they gather for a concert or exhibition.

15. Burial alive.

Burial alive begins our list of common executions. Dating back to BC, this punishment was used for individuals as well as groups. The victim is usually tied up and then placed in a hole and slowly buried in soil. One of the most widespread uses of this form of execution was the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, when Japanese soldiers executed Chinese civilians en masse alive in what was referred to as the "Ten Thousand Corpse Ditch."

14. Pit with snakes.

One of the oldest forms of torture and execution, snake pits were a very standard form of capital punishment. The criminals were thrown into deep hole with poisonous snakes, dying after the irritated and hungry snakes attacked them. Several famous leaders were executed this way, including Ragnar Lothbrok, the Viking warlord, and Gunnar, King of Burgundy.

13. Spanish tickler.

This torture device was commonly used in Europe during the Middle Ages. Used to rip through the victim's skin, this weapon could easily rip through anything, including muscle and bone. The victim would be tied down, sometimes publicly, and then the torturers would begin to mutilate her. Usually they started with the limbs, the neck and torso were always saved for completion.

12. Slow cutting.

Ling Shi, which translates to "slow cutting" or "continuous death", is described as death by a thousand cuts. Performed from 900 to 1905, this form of torture was spread over a long period of time. The torturer slowly cuts the victim, prolonging his life and torture as long as possible. According to Confucian principle, a body that is cut into pieces cannot be whole in the spiritual afterlife. Therefore, it was understood that after such an execution the victim would suffer in the afterlife.

11. Burning at the stake.

Death by burning has been used as a form of capital punishment for centuries, often associated with crimes such as treason and witchcraft. Today it is considered cruel and unusual punishment, but back in the 18th century, burning at the stake was a normal practice. The victim was tied up, often in the city center with spectators, and then burned at the stake. It is considered one of the slowest ways to die.

10. African necklace.

Usually carried out in South Africa, the execution called the Necklace is unfortunately still quite common today. Rubber tires filled with gasoline are placed around the victim's chest and arms and then set on fire. Essentially, the victim's body is reduced to a molten mass, which explains why this makes the top ten on our list.

9. Execution by an elephant.

In South and Southeast Asia, the Elephant has been a method of capital punishment for thousands of years. The animals were trained to perform two actions. Slowly, over a long period of time torturing the victim, or with a crushing blow destroying it almost immediately. Usually used by kings and nobles, these killer elephants only increased the fear of the common people, who thought that the king had supernatural power to control wild animals. This method of execution was eventually adopted by the Roman military. This is how soldiers who deserted were punished.

8. Execution "Five Punishments".

This form of Chinese capital punishment is a relatively simple act. It begins with the victims' nose being cut off, then one arm and one foot are cut off, and finally the victim is castrated. The inventor of this punishment, Li Sai, the Chinese Prime Minister, was eventually tortured and then executed in the same manner.

7. Colombian tie.

This method of execution is one of the bloodiest. The victim's throat was cut and then the tongue was pulled out through the open wound. During La Violencia, a period in Colombian history fraught with torture and war, this was the most common form of execution.

6. Hanging, stretching and quartering.

Execution for treason in England, with hanging, drawing and quartering, was common during medieval times. Although torture was abolished in 1814, this form of execution was responsible for the deaths of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people.

5. Cement boots.

Introduced by the American Mafia, this method of execution involves placing the victim's feet in cinder blocks and then filling them with cement, then throwing the victim into water. This form of execution is rare but is still carried out today.

4. Guillotine.

The guillotine is one of the most known forms executions. The guillotine blade was sharpened so perfectly that it decapitated the victim almost instantly. The guillotine is a seemingly humane method of execution until you learn that people could potentially still be alive for several moments after the act. People in the crowd said that those executed who were beheaded could blink their eyes or even speak words after their heads were cut off. Experts theorized that the speed of the blade did not cause loss of consciousness.

3. Republican wedding.

Republican Wedding may not be the worst death on this list, but it is certainly one of the most interesting. Originating in France, this form of execution was common among the Revolutionaries. It involved tying up two people, usually of the same age, and drowning them. In some cases, where water was not available, the couple was executed by sword.

2. Crucifixion.

This ancient method of execution is one of the most famous, apparently due to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The victim was hung by the hands on a cross, forced to hang there until death occurred, which usually took days until the victim died of thirst.

1. Copper bull.

The Brazen Bull, sometimes known as the Sicilian Bull, is one of the most brutal methods of torture. Designed in ancient Greece the method involved creating a hollow bull made of copper, with a door on the side that opened and locked. To begin the execution, the victim was placed in a copper bull and a fire was placed underneath. The fire was maintained until the metal was literally yellow, causing the victim to "fry to death." The bull was designed to allow the screams of the victim to come out to the delight of the executioner and the many villagers who came to watch. Sometimes all the residents of the city came to watch the execution. Predictably, the inventor of this execution ended up being burned in a bull.

Continue reading about the instruments of torture of the 17th and 18th centuries in a separate article.

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison because being in prison was a slow death. The stay in prison was paid for by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the culprit be killed.
Convicts were not kept in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, they could take their loved one for support (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) was the stocks. The most common type of last is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were shackled in this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.

Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the repeat offender caught the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment more severe, the judges came up with an execution called “carry out five types of punishment.” The criminal should have been branded, his arms or legs cut off, beaten to death with sticks, and his head put on display in the market for everyone to see.

In Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the prolonged torment inherent in strangulation.
The Chinese believed that the human body is a gift from his parents, and therefore returning a dismembered body into oblivion is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.

Removal. The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take several convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

"Cage", or "standing stocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles tied into a cage, at a height of approximately 2 meters. The convicted person was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, and then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck pinched by the block, which began to choke him, this could continue for months until all the stands were removed.

Lin-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "sea pike bites" - the most terrible execution by cutting small pieces from the victim's body over a long period of time.
Such execution followed for high treason and parricide. Ling-chi, for the purpose of intimidation, was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers.

For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The criminal was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 pieces. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body was cut into only 8 pieces as a sign of imperial favor.
The criminal was cut into 24 pieces as follows: eyebrows were cut off with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - arm muscles between the hand and elbow; 9 and 10 - arm muscles between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves; 15 - a blow pierced the heart; 16 - the head was cut off; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: cut off the eyebrows with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - a blow pierced the heart; 8 - the head was cut off.

But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.

Pod names

Description text:

1. Garrote

A device that strangles a person to death. Used in Spain until 1978, when the death penalty was abolished. This type of execution was performed on a special chair with a metal hoop placed around the neck. Behind the criminal was the executioner, who activated a large screw located behind him. Although the device itself has not been legalized in any country, training in its use is still carried out in the French Foreign Legion. There were several versions of the garrote, at first it was just a stick with a loop, then a more “terrible” instrument of death was invented. And the “humanity” was that a sharp bolt was mounted into this hoop, at the back, which stuck into the neck of the condemned person, crushing his spine, getting to the spinal cord. In relation to the criminal, this method was considered “more humane” because death came faster than with a regular noose. This type of death penalty is still common in India. Garrote was also used in America, long before the electric chair was invented. Andorra was the last country in the world, which would outlaw its use in 1990.

2. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism was popular in ancient Persia. The victim was placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains, fed with milk and honey to cause severe diarrhea, then the victim’s body was coated with honey, thereby attracting various kinds of living creatures. Human excrement also attracted flies and other nasty insects, which literally began to devour the person and lay eggs in his body. The victim was fed this cocktail every day, in order to prolong the torture, attracting more insects that would feed and breed within his increasingly dead flesh. Death ultimately occurred, probably due to a combination of dehydration and septic shock, and was painful and prolonged.

3. Half-hanging, drawing and quartering.

Execution of Hugh le Despenser the Younger (1326). Miniature from "Froissart" by Louis van Gruuthuze. 1470s.

Hanging, drawing and quartering (eng. hanged, drawn and quartered) is a type of capital punishment that arose in England during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272) and his successor Edward I (1272-1307) and was officially established in 1351 as punishments for men found guilty of treason. The condemned were tied to a wooden sled that resembled a piece of wicker fence, and dragged by horses to the place of execution, where they were successively hanged (without allowing them to suffocate to death), castrated, gutted, quartered and beheaded. The remains of those executed were displayed in the most famous public places of the kingdom and capital, including London Bridge. Women sentenced to death for treason were burned at the stake for reasons of “public decency.”
The severity of the sentence was dictated by the seriousness of the crime. High treason, which jeopardized the authority of the monarch, was considered an act deserving extreme punishment - and although during the entire time it was practiced, several of those convicted had their sentence commuted and they were subjected to a less cruel and shameful execution, most traitors to the English crown (including scores of Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and a group of regicides involved in the death of King Charles I in 1649) were subject to the highest sanction of medieval English law.
Although the Act of Parliament defining the concept of high treason is still part of the current legislation of the United Kingdom, during the reform of the British legal system, which lasted most of the 19th century, execution by hanging, drawing and quartering was replaced by horse dragging, hanging to death, post-mortem beheading and quartering, then was considered obsolete and abolished in 1870.

The above-mentioned execution process can be observed in more detail in the film “Braveheart”. The participants of the Gunpowder Plot, led by Guy Fawkes, were also executed, who managed to escape from the arms of the executioner with a noose around his neck, jump from the scaffold and break his neck.

4. Russian version of quartering - tearing by trees.
They bent two trees and tied the executed person to the tops of their heads and released them “to freedom.” The trees unbent - tearing apart the executed man.

5. Lifting on pikes or spears.
A spontaneous execution, usually carried out by a crowd of armed people. Usually practiced during all kinds of military riots and other revolutions and civil wars. The victim was surrounded on all sides, spears, pikes or bayonets were stuck into her carcass from all sides, and then synchronously, on command, they were lifted up until she stopped showing signs of life.

6. Keelhauling (passing under the keel)
Special naval version. It was used both as a means of punishment and as a means of execution. The offender was tied with a rope to both hands. After which he was thrown into the water in front of the ship, and with the help of the specified ropes, his colleagues pulled the patient along the sides under the bottom, taking him out of the water from the stern. The keel and bottom of the ship were slightly more than completely covered with shells and other sea life, so the victim received numerous bruises, cuts and some water in the lungs. After one iteration, as a rule, they survived. Therefore, for execution this had to be repeated 2 or more times.

7. Drowning.
The victim is sewn into a bag alone or with different animals and thrown into the water. It was widespread in the Roman Empire. According to Roman criminal law, execution was imposed for the murder of the father, but in reality this punishment was imposed for any murder by a younger person of an elder. A monkey, a dog, a rooster or a snake was placed in the bag with the parricide. It was also used in the Middle Ages. Interesting option- add quicklime to the bag, so that the executed person will also be scalded before choking.

14. Burning in a log house.
A type of execution that arose in the Russian state in the 16th century, especially often applied to Old Believers in the 17th century, and used by them as a method of suicide in the 17th-18th centuries.
Burning as a method of execution began to be used quite often in Rus' in the 16th century during the time of Ivan the Terrible. Unlike Western Europe, in Russia those sentenced to burning were executed not at the stake, but in log houses, which made it possible to avoid turning such executions into mass spectacles.
The burning house was a small structure made of logs filled with tow and resin. It was erected specifically for the moment of execution. After reading the verdict, the condemned man was pushed into the log house through the door. Often a log house was made without a door or roof - a structure like a plank fence; in this case, the convict was lowered into it from above. After this, the log house was set on fire. Sometimes a bound suicide bomber was thrown inside an already burning log house.
In the 17th century, Old Believers were often executed in log houses. In this way, Archpriest Avvakum and three of his companions were burned (April 1 (11), 1681, Pustozersk), the German mystic Quirin Kulman (1689, Moscow), and also, as stated in Old Believer sources [which?], an active opponent of the patriarch’s reforms Nikon Bishop Pavel Kolomensky (1656).
In the 18th century, a sect took shape, whose followers considered death through self-immolation a spiritual feat and necessity. Self-immolation in log cabins was usually practiced in anticipation of repressive actions by the authorities. When soldiers appeared, the sectarians locked themselves in the house of worship and set it on fire, without entering into negotiations with government officials.
The last known burning in Russian history took place in the 1770s in Kamchatka: a Kamchadal sorceress was burned in a wooden frame on the orders of the captain of the Tengin fortress Shmalev.

15. Hanging by the rib.

A form of capital punishment in which an iron hook was driven into the victim's side and suspended. Death occurred from thirst and loss of blood within a few days. The victim's hands were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporozhye Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnevetsky”, was executed in this way.

16. Frying in a frying pan or iron grill.

The boyar Shchenyatev was fried in a frying pan, and the Aztec king Cuauhtemoc was fried on a grill.

When Cuauhtemoc was roasted on coals along with his secretary, trying to find out where he had hidden the gold, the secretary, unable to withstand the heat, began to beg him to surrender and ask the Spaniards for leniency. Cuauhtemoc mockingly replied that he enjoyed it as if he were lying in a bath.

The secretary didn't say another word.

17. Sicilian Bull

This capital punishment device was developed in ancient Greece for the execution of criminals. Perillos, a coppersmith, invented the bull in such a way that the inside of the bull was hollow. A door was built into this device on the side. The condemned were locked inside the bull, and a fire was set underneath, heating the metal until the man was roasted to death. The bull was designed so that the screams of the prisoner would be converted into the roar of an enraged bull.

18. Fustuary(from Latin fustuarium - beating with sticks; from fustis - stick) - one of the types of executions in the Roman army. It was also known in the Republic, but came into regular use under the Principate; it was appointed for serious violation of guard duty, theft in the camp, perjury and escape, sometimes for desertion in battle. It was carried out by a tribune who touched the condemned person with a stick, after which the legionnaires beat him to death with stones and sticks. If a whole unit was punished with a fustuary, then all the guilty were rarely executed, as happened in 271 BC. e. with the legion in Rhegium during the war with Pyrrhus. However, taking into account factors such as the soldier’s age, length of service or rank, the fustuary could be cancelled.

19. Welding in liquid

Was a common type of death penalty in different countries peace. IN ancient Egypt this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. The slaves of the pharaoh at dawn (especially so that Ra would see the criminal) lit a huge fire, above which there was a cauldron with water (and not just with water, but with the very dirty water, where waste was dumped, etc.) Sometimes entire families were executed in this way.
This type of execution was widely used by Genghis Khan. IN medieval Japan Boiling was used primarily on ninjas who failed to kill and were captured. In France, this penalty was applied to counterfeiters. Sometimes the attackers were boiled in boiling oil. There is evidence of how in 1410 a pickpocket was boiled alive in boiling oil in Paris.

20. Pit with snakes- a type of death penalty when the executed person is placed with poisonous snakes, which should have resulted in his quick or painful death. Also one of the methods of torture.
It arose a very long time ago. Executioners quickly found practical use for poisonous snakes, which caused painful death. When a person was thrown into a pit filled with snakes, the disturbed reptiles began to bite him.
Sometimes prisoners were tied up and slowly lowered into a hole on a rope; This method was often used as torture. Moreover, they tortured this way not only in the Middle Ages; during the Second World War, Japanese militarists tortured prisoners during battles in South Asia.
Often the interrogated person was brought to the snakes, his legs pressed against them. A popular torture used on women was when the interrogated woman was brought a snake to her bare chest. They also loved to bring poisonous reptiles to women’s faces. But in general, snakes that were dangerous and lethal to humans were rarely used during torture, since there was a risk of losing a prisoner who did not testify.
The plot of execution through a pit with snakes has long been known in German folklore. Thus, the Elder Edda tells how King Gunnar was thrown into a snake pit on the orders of the Hun leader Attila.
This type of execution continued to be used in subsequent centuries. One of the most famous cases is the death of the Danish king Ragnar Lodbrok. In 865, during a Danish Viking raid on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, their king Ragnar was captured and, on the orders of King Aella, was thrown into a pit with poisonous snakes, dying a painful death.
This event is often mentioned in folklore in both Scandinavia and Britain. The plot of Ragnar's death in the snake pit is one of central events two Icelandic legends: “The Sagas of Ragnar Leatherpants (and his Sons)” and “The Strands of the Sons of Ragnar.”

21. Wicker Man

Made from willow twigs a cage in the shape of a man, which, according to Julius Caesar's Notes on the Gallic War and Strabo's Geography, the Druids used for human sacrifices, burning it along with the people locked there, convicted of crimes or destined for sacrifice to the gods. At the end of the 20th century, the ritual of burning the “wicker man” was revived in Celtic neo-paganism (in particular, the teachings of Wicca), but without the accompanying sacrifice.

22. Execution by elephants

For thousands of years, it was a common method of killing prisoners sentenced to death in the countries of South and Southeast Asia and especially in India. Asian elephants were used to crush, dismember, or torture prisoners in public executions. Trained animals were versatile, capable of killing victims outright or torturing them slowly over long periods of time. In service to rulers, elephants were used to show the ruler's absolute power and his ability to control wild animals.
The sight of prisoners of war being executed by elephants usually aroused horror, but at the same time also the interest of European travelers and was described in many contemporary magazines and stories about the life of Asia. The practice was eventually suppressed by the European empires that colonized the region where executions were common in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although execution by elephants was primarily an Asian practice, the practice was sometimes used by ancient Western powers, particularly Rome and Carthage, primarily to deal with rebellious soldiers.

23. Iron maiden

An instrument of capital punishment or torture, which was a cabinet made of iron in the form of a woman dressed in the costume of a 16th-century townswoman. It is assumed that having placed the convict there, the cabinet was closed, and the sharp long nails with which the inner surface of the chest and arms of the “iron maiden” were seated were pierced into his body; then, after the death of the victim, the movable bottom of the cabinet was lowered, the body of the executed person was thrown into the water and carried away by the current.

The “Iron Maiden” dates back to the Middle Ages, but in fact the weapon was not invented until the end of the 18th century.
There is no reliable information about the use of the iron maiden for torture and execution. There is an opinion that it was fabricated during the Enlightenment.
Additional torment was caused by the cramped conditions - death did not occur for hours, so the victim could suffer from claustrophobia. For the comfort of the executioners, the thick walls of the device muffled the screams of those being executed. The doors closed slowly. Subsequently, one of them could be opened so that the executioners could check the condition of the subject. The spikes pierced the arms, legs, stomach, eyes, shoulders and buttocks. Moreover, apparently, the nails inside the “iron maiden” were located in such a way that the victim did not die immediately, but after quite a long time, during which the judges had the opportunity to continue the interrogation.

24. Devil's wind(English Devil wind, also found as a variant of the English Blowing from guns - literally “Blowing from guns”) in Russia is known as the “English execution” - the name of a type of death penalty that involved tying a condemned person to the muzzle of a cannon and then shooting it through the body victims of a blank charge.

This type of execution was developed by the British during the Sepoy Mutiny (1857-1858) and was actively used by them to kill rebels.
Vasily Vereshchagin, who studied the use of this execution before painting his painting “The Suppression of the Indian Uprising by the British” (1884), wrote the following in his memoirs:
Modern civilization was scandalized mainly by the fact that Turkish massacres were carried out close by, in Europe, and then the means of committing atrocities were too reminiscent of Tamerlane’s times: they chopped, cut the throats, like sheep.
The case with the British is different: firstly, they did the work of justice, the work of retribution for the trampled rights of the victors, far away, in India; secondly, they did the job on a grand scale: they tied hundreds of sepoys and non-sepoys who rebelled against their rule to the muzzles of cannons and, without a shell, with only gunpowder, they shot them - this is already a great success against cutting their throats or ripping open their stomachs.<...>I repeat, everything is done methodically, in a good way: the guns, however many there are, are lined up in a row, one more or less criminal Indian citizen is slowly brought to each barrel and tied by the elbows, different ages, professions and castes, and then on command all the guns fire at once.

They are not afraid of death as such, and execution does not frighten them; but what they are avoiding, what they are afraid of, is the need to appear before the highest judge in an incomplete, tormented form, without a head, without arms, with a lack of limbs, and this is not only probable, but even inevitable when shot from cannons.
A remarkable detail: while the body is shattered into pieces, all the heads, detached from the body, spiral upward. Naturally, they are then buried together, without a strict analysis of which of the yellow gentlemen belongs to this or that part of the body. This circumstance, I repeat, greatly frightens the natives, and it was the main motive for introducing execution by shooting from cannons in especially important cases, such as during uprisings.
It is difficult for a European to understand the horror of an Indian high caste if necessary, only touch a fellow lower: he must, in order not to close off the possibility of salvation, wash himself and make sacrifices after that endlessly. It’s also terrible that when modern orders accounts for, for example, railways sit elbow to elbow with everyone - and then it may happen, no more, no less, that the head of a Brahmin on three cords will lie in eternal rest near the spine of a pariah - brrr! This thought alone makes the soul of the most determined Hindu tremble!
I say this very seriously, in full confidence that no one who has been in those countries or who has impartially familiarized themselves with them from the descriptions will contradict me.
(Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878 in the memoirs of V.V. Vereshchagin.)

May 20th, 2012

To date, the death penalty on our planet has been abolished in an area equal to South America... So
that if you think that the electric chair is a relic of the past, you are sadly mistaken. Is it true,
the guillotine is no longer used - since 1939...

It's terrible, but everything you read about in the most terrible books is in democratic North America
still exists happily... And this country still has something to boast about in terms of weapons
executions, and in different states they have very different modifications!.. And it all started with the courts
Lynching - that is, mass hangings...

Sometimes the perpetrators were also burned to be sure...

Blacks were hanged, at least in the South, everywhere (lynching has great amount victims in the 20th century, in 1901
130 people were lynched last year...

Indians were often executed by punitive forces who took revenge for the slaughter of the white population. In the Wild West at the same time
sheriffs acted and executed at their own discretion (sometimes with their own hands). The death penalty was used in the USA
also on political reasons against socialists, communists, anarchists.

By the end of the 19th century, they were no longer hanged somehow, but professionally. A “professional” gallows, so to speak, was approved,
on which people of any height could be hanged... She is in front of you...

The prisoner's hands were necessarily tied...

And a special bag was put on the head so that those watching the execution would not be shocked by the facial expression
hanged man...

IN late XIX century, the electric chair was invented in the USA, first used in 1890... It was a breakthrough...

It very soon came into general use and replaced hanging in many states. And also with the advent of the chair
came up with so-called “open executions”, where the city administration was invited (in special cases
state) and relatives of the victim of the criminal...

Gradually the chair was improved and improved...

They began to put a special mask on the condemned person’s head...

Attach separate contacts to the hands...

But these improvements made little difference to the prisoner’s suffering...

Although death comes quickly for the average person, there are cases in the history of executions where the condemned
I had to “kill” 20-30 minutes...

The Americans introduced the gas chamber even earlier than in Germany, namely in 1924...

Steam is used for execution potassium cyanide, and if the condemned man breathes deeply, death comes almost
immediately...

Then a truly hellish invention appeared - the Chair of Death. The method is still performed in Utah and Idaho.
as an alternative to lethal injection. To carry out the execution, the prisoner is tied to a chair with leather straps.
across the waist and head. The stool is surrounded by sandbags that absorb blood. The black hood is worn on
the head of the condemned man. The doctor locates the heart and attaches a round target. At a distance of 20
five shooters stand. Each of them aims a rifle through a slit in the canvas and fires. A prisoner
dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or large blood vessel, or rupture
lungs. If the arrows miss the heart, either by accident or on purpose, the condemned man dies a slow death...

Soon the last type of American execution appeared, now the most common, and in many states the only one:
lethal injection... In front of you is a special couch (gurney) for those sentenced...

The composition of the lethal injection was developed by physician Stanley Deutsch. It consists of three chemical components. First
the substance - sodium pentothal - plunges the condemned into deep sleep. Pavulon - paralyzes the muscles. Finally,
Potassium chloride stops the heart muscle. After examination at the University of Texas, this
the method was approved. It soon became widespread. Opponents of the death penalty gave him
the name of the "Texas cocktail". Today, of the 38 states that, after 1976, reintroduced
the death penalty, only Nebraska does not resort to injections, preferring the electric chair.

Poisons are stored this way...

A prisoner is killed by poison injected into a vein in his right leg...

But the most terrible state of affairs with executions is still in Asia and the Middle East... Means still exist here
executions used since ancient times: stoning, beheading with a sword and hanging. The frame is in front of you
city execution - a man is simply lynched by a crowd...

But these quite decent people throw these stones at him...

And they are simply trying to dissuade the guilty person...

A corpse being dragged to be shown to the “boss”...

Hanging...

And just lynching...

And in China, execution is still widely used. Brothel keepers are shot in this country,
dishonest officials, dissidents, etc., etc....

Moreover, especially mass executions occur before the New Year...

Among other things, such sentences are pronounced publicly, in front of a large crowd of people...

The execution is carried out by conscript soldiers...

And the bodies are buried in specially designated places - they are not given to relatives...

Russia... On May 16, 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree “On the gradual reduction
application of the death penalty in connection with Russia’s entry into the Council of Europe.” Since August 1996, in accordance with this
By decree, death sentences are not carried out. Death row inmates are serving life sentences...
Here is a very rare photograph of prisoners of the Orenburg prison "Black Dolphin"...

There are three more similar prisons in Russia. They don't come out. Nobody ever. So human rights activists joke bitterly, “If only they
the inhabitants were able to vote on the use of the death penalty, the majority of them would vote in favor.

Look how discreet it looks, this most famous prison in Russia... Those who are inside this
red brick building dating back to Catherine's time, when there was already lifelong hard labor here, never
we haven’t seen the sculptures of those very dolphins from the fountains that gave this terrible establishment such
poetic title...

Today in Russia there are over three and a half thousand people sentenced to life
conclusion. And "Black Dolphin" is today the largest specialized prison for death row...

Since ancient times, people have cruelly dealt with their enemies, some even ate them, but mostly they executed them and took their lives in terrible and sophisticated ways. The same was done with criminals who violated the laws of God and man. Behind thousand-year history extensive experience has accumulated in executing convicts.

Decapitation
The physical separation of the head from the body using an ax or any military weapon (knife, sword); later, a machine invented in France - the Guillotine - was used for these purposes. It is believed that with such an execution, the head, separated from the body, retains vision and hearing for another 10 seconds. Beheading was considered a “noble execution” and was reserved for aristocrats. In Germany, beheading was abolished in 1949 due to the failure of the last guillotine.

Hanging
Strangulation of a person on a rope noose, the end of which is fixed motionless. Death occurs within a few minutes, but not from suffocation, but from squeezing the carotid arteries. In this case, the person first loses consciousness and later dies.
The medieval gallows consisted of a special pedestal, a vertical pillar (pillars) and a horizontal beam, on which the condemned were hanged, placed above something like a well. The well was intended for falling off body parts - the hanged remained hanging on the gallows until complete decomposition.
In England, a type of hanging was used, when a person was thrown from a height with a noose around the neck, and death occurs instantly from rupture of the cervical vertebrae. There was an “official table of falls”, with the help of which the required length of the rope was calculated depending on the weight of the convict (if the rope is too long, the head is separated from the body).
A type of hanging is garrote. A garrote (an iron collar with a screw, often equipped with a vertical spike on the back) is generally not used to strangle. They break her neck. In this case, the executed person dies not from suffocation, as happens if he is strangled with a rope, but from a crushed spine (sometimes, according to medieval evidence, from a fracture of the base of the skull, depending on where to wear it) and a fracture of the cervical cartilage.
The last high-profile hanging was Saddam Hussein.

Quartering
It is considered one of the most cruel executions, and was applied to the most dangerous criminals. During quartering, the victim was strangled (not to death), then the stomach was ripped open, the genitals were cut off, and only then the body was cut into four or more parts and the head was cut off. Body parts were put on public display “wherever the king deemed it convenient.”
Thomas More, the author of Utopia, sentenced to quartering with his entrails burned out, was pardoned on the morning before his execution, and the quartering was replaced by beheading, to which More replied: “God spare my friends from such mercy.”
In England, quartering was used until 1820; it was formally abolished only in 1867. In France, quartering was carried out with the help of horses. The condemned man was tied by the arms and legs to four strong horses, which, whipped up by the executioners, moved in different directions and tore off the limbs. In fact, the convict’s tendons had to be cut.
Another execution by tearing the body in half, noted in pagan Rus', involved tying the victim by the legs to two bent saplings and then releasing them. According to Byzantine sources, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans in 945 because he wanted to collect tribute from them twice.

Wheeling
A type of death penalty widespread in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages it was common in Europe, especially in Germany and France. In Russia, this type of execution has been known since the 17th century, but wheeling began to be regularly used only under Peter I, having received legislative approval in the Military Regulations. Wheeling ceased to be used only in the 19th century.
Professor A.F. Kistyakovsky in the 19th century described the wheeling process used in Russia as follows: St. Andrew's cross, made of two logs, was tied to the scaffold in a horizontal position. On each of the branches of this cross two notches were made, one foot apart from each other. On this cross they stretched the criminal so that his face was turned to the sky; each extremity of it lay on one of the branches of the cross, and at each place of each joint it was tied to the cross.
Then the executioner, armed with an iron rectangular crowbar, struck the part of the penis between the joints, which lay just above the notch. This method was used to break the bones of each member in two places. The operation ended with two or three blows to the stomach and breaking the backbone. The criminal, broken in this way, was placed on a horizontally placed wheel so that his heels converged with the back of his head, and he was left in this position to die.

Burning at the stake
Capital punishment in which the victim is burned at the stake in public. Along with walling up and imprisonment, burning was widely used in the Middle Ages, since, according to the church, on the one hand it happened without “shedding of blood,” and on the other hand, the flame was considered a means of “purification” and could save the soul. Especially often, heretics, “witches” and those guilty of sodomy were subject to burning.
Execution became widespread during the period of the Holy Inquisition, and about 32 thousand people were burned in Spain alone (excluding the Spanish colonies).
The most famous people, burned at the stake: Giordano Bruno - as a heretic (engaged in scientific activities) and Joan of Arc, who commanded the French troops in the Hundred Years' War.

Impalement
Impalement was widely used in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East; its first mentions date back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution became especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of particularly serious crimes. On Assyrian reliefs there are two options: in one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it was especially widespread in Ancient Rome I didn't receive it.
For much of medieval history, impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful capital punishment. It became widespread in France during the time of Fredegonda, who was the first to introduce this type of execution, condemning a young girl of a noble family to it. The unfortunate person was laid on his stomach, and the executioner drove a wooden stake into his anus with a hammer, after which the stake was dug vertically into the ground. Under the weight of the body, the person gradually slid down until after a few hours the stake came out through the chest or neck.
The ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III the Impaler (“impaler”) Dracula, distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, the top of which was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was installed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the weight of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and death sometimes occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal crossbar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other important organs. In this case, the death of the gap internal organs and large blood loss did not occur soon.
The English homosexual king Edward was executed by impalement. The nobles rebelled and killed the monarch by driving a hot iron rod into his anus. Impalement was used in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the 18th century, and many Zaporozhye Cossacks were executed in this way. With the help of smaller stakes, they also executed rapists (they drove a stake into the heart) and mothers who killed their children (they were pierced with a stake after burying them alive in the ground).

Hanging by the rib
A form of capital punishment in which an iron hook was driven into the victim's side and suspended. Death occurred from thirst and loss of blood within a few days. The victim's hands were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporozhye Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporozhye Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnevetsky”, was executed in this way.

Stoning
After the corresponding decision of the authorized legal body (the king or the court), a crowd of citizens gathered and killed the culprit by throwing stones at him. In this case, the stones should be chosen small so that the person sentenced to execution would not suffer too quickly. Or, in a more humane case, it could be one executioner dropping one big Stone.
Currently, stoning is practiced in some Muslim countries. As of January 1, 1989, stoning remained in the legislation of six countries around the world. The Amnesty International report provides an eyewitness account of a similar execution that took place in Iran:
“Near the vacant lot, a lot of stones and pebbles were poured out of a truck, then they brought two women dressed in white, with bags put on their heads... A hail of stones fell on them, painting their bags red... The wounded women fell, and then the guards of the revolution struck shovel their heads to kill them completely.”

Throwing to predators
The oldest type of execution, common among many peoples of the world. Death occurred because the victim was mauled by crocodiles, lions, bears, snakes, sharks, piranhas, and ants.

Walking in circles
A rare method of execution, practiced, in particular, in Rus'. The executed man's stomach was cut open in the intestinal area so that he would not die from blood loss. Then they took out the gut, nailed it to a tree and forced it to walk in a circle around the tree. In Iceland, a special stone was used for this, around which they walked according to the verdict of the Thing.

Buried alive
A type of execution not very common in Europe, which is believed to have come to the Old World from the East, but there are several documentary evidence of the use of this type of execution that have survived to this day. Burial alive was used for Christian martyrs. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. In Germany, female child killers were buried alive in the ground. In Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to their necks.

Crucifixion
The person condemned to death had his hands and feet nailed to the ends of the cross or his limbs were fixed with ropes. This is exactly the way Jesus Christ was executed. The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia, caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal muscles and muscles involved in the breathing process abdominals. The main support of the body in this pose is the arms, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the entire body, which led to their rapid fatigue. Also, compression of the chest by tense muscles shoulder girdle and chest caused stagnation of fluid in the lungs and pulmonary edema. Additional causes of death were dehydration and blood loss.

Boiling in boiling water
Boiling in liquid was a common type of death penalty in different countries of the world. In ancient Egypt, this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. At dawn, the pharaoh’s slaves (especially so that Ra could see the criminal) lit a huge fire, over which there was a cauldron of water (and not just water, but the dirtiest water, where waste was poured, etc.) Sometimes entire people were executed in this way. families.
This type of execution was widely used by Genghis Khan. In medieval Japan, boiling was used primarily on ninjas who failed to kill and were captured. In France, this penalty was applied to counterfeiters. Sometimes the attackers were boiled in boiling oil. There is evidence of how in 1410 a pickpocket was boiled alive in boiling oil in Paris.

Pouring lead or boiling oil down your throat
It was used in the East, in Medieval Europe, in Rus' and among the Indians. Death occurred from burns to the esophagus and suffocation. The punishment was usually established for counterfeiting, and often the metal from which the criminal cast the coins was poured. Those who did not die for a long time had their heads cut off.

Execution in a bag
lat. Poena cullei. The victim was sewn into a bag with different animals (snake, monkey, dog or rooster) and thrown into the water. Practiced in the Roman Empire. Under the influence of the reception of Roman law in the Middle Ages, it was adopted (in a slightly modified form) in a number of European countries. Thus, the French code of customary law “Livres de Jostice et de Plet” (1260), created on the basis of Justinian’s Digest, speaks of “execution in a sack” with a rooster, a dog and a snake (the monkey is not mentioned, apparently for reasons of rarity this animal for medieval Europe). Somewhat later, execution based on poena cullei also appeared in Germany, where it was used in the form of hanging a criminal (thief) upside down (sometimes the hanging was carried out by one leg) together (on one gallows) with a dog (or two dogs hanged on the right and left from the executed). This execution was called the “Jewish execution” because over time it began to be applied exclusively to Jewish criminals (it was applied to Christians in rare cases in the 16th-17th centuries).

Excoriation
Skin picking has a very ancient history. The Assyrians also skinned captured enemies or rebel rulers and nailed them to the walls of their cities as a warning to those who would challenge their power. The Assyrian ruler Ashurnasirpal boasted that he tore off so many skins from the guilty nobility that he covered the columns with it.
It was especially often used in Chaldea, Babylon and Persia. IN Ancient India the skin was removed by fire. With the help of torches they burned her down to the flesh all over her body. The convict suffered from burns for several days before death. IN Western Europe used as a method of punishment for traitors and traitors, as well as ordinary people who were suspected of having love affairs with women of royal blood. Skin was also torn off from the corpses of enemies or criminals for intimidation.

Ling-chi
Ling chi (Chinese: “death by a thousand cuts”) is a particularly torturous method of execution by cutting small pieces from the victim’s body over a long period of time.
It was used in China for high treason and parricide in the Middle Ages and during the Qing Dynasty until its abolition in 1905. In 1630, the prominent Ming military leader Yuan Chonghuan was subjected to this execution. The proposal to abolish it was made back in the 12th century by the poet Lu Yu. During the Qing dynasty, ling chi was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers for the purpose of intimidation. Surviving accounts of the execution differ in detail. The victim was usually drugged with opium, either out of mercy or to prevent him from losing consciousness.

In his All-Time History of Torture, George Riley Scott quotes from the accounts of two Europeans who had the rare opportunity to witness such an execution: their names were Sir Henry Norman (who witnessed the execution in 1895) and T. T. May-Dows:

“There is a basket there, covered with a piece of linen, in which there is a set of knives. Each of these knives is designed for a specific part of the body, as evidenced by the inscriptions engraved on the blade. The executioner takes one of the knives at random from the basket and, based on the inscription, cuts off the corresponding part of the body. However, at the end of the last century, this practice was, in all likelihood, supplanted by another, which left no room for chance and involved cutting off body parts in a certain sequence using a single knife. According to Sir Henry Norman, the condemned man is tied to the likeness of a cross, and the executioner slowly and methodically cuts off first the fleshy parts of the body, then cuts the joints, cuts off individual members of the limbs and ends the execution with one sharp blow to the heart...