Hanging

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

Suicide by hanging.

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

The typical sentence involving hanging is that the condemned person "be hanged by the neck until dead". A more elaborate sentence, once used for particularly heinous crimes such as high treason in England, was for the person to be hanged, drawn and quartered — here the victim was saved from asphyxiation in order to endure further ordeals.

History of hanging

Punishment

Hanging has historically been the method of execution used for common criminals; in feudal England, for example, peasants were usually hanged for crimes, while the nobility were usually beheaded 'according to their station' (death from a bladed weapon being considered not ignoble as it is like the military 'field of honor'). Since as a result hanging has become associated with dishonorable execution, the courts in the post-World War II which presided over trials for war crimes in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, such as the Nuremberg Trials mandated its use for war criminals rather than execution by firing squad.

Extra-legal primitive forms of hanging persisted well into the 20th century in the United States in the form of lynchings, where torture or mutilation of the corpse often accompanied the hanging. Hanging is commonly the method of executing penalties of death in Commonwealth countries that still retain the death penalty, such as India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Suicide

Suspension hanging is a common method of suicide. The materials necessary for suicide by hanging are relatively easily available to the average person, compared with, for example, firearms or lethal poison: most people can obtain rope, and tree branches or wooden beams can provide something to hang oneself from.In the US, hanging is the second most common method of suicide, after firearms, Suicide Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16., while in the UK, where firearms are less easily available, as of 2001 hanging was the most popular method among men and the second most-popular among women (after poisoning).Trends in suicide by method in England and Wales, 1979 to 2001 (PDF), Office of National Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16. Well-known suicides by hanging include Judas Iscariot, a prominent figure in the Christian gospels.

Medical effects

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

In the absence of fracture and dislocation, spinal cord damage may have a role but occlusion of blood vessels becomes a major cause of death. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. Other processes that have been suggested to contribute are vagal collapse (via mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus), and compromise of the cerebral blood flow by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Only 7 lb of pressure may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness (this varies from individual to individual). When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat after the brain is no longer resuscitatable. When death occurs in such cases, is a matter of convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer, after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. Where death has been caused by strangulation, the face will typically have become engorged and cyanosed (turned blue through lack of oxygen). There will be the classic sign of strangulation - petechiae - little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst blood capillaries. The tongue may protrude. Where death has occurred through carotid or Vagal reflex, the face will typically be pale in colour and not show petechiae. There exist many reports and pictures of actual short drop hangings which seem to show that the person died quickly and fairly peacefully, while others indicate a slow and agonising death by strangulation. Male prisoners can sometimes have penile erections and it is claimed, even orgasms on the rope. Some say this is a myth but it is notable that in the handwritten autopsy notes of a hanging by Sir Bernard Spilsbury (a very famous pathologist), he states that there was no "seminal effusion" (ejaculation) which implies that he had found this on occasion. Photo of asphyxiation induced erection of hanging victim The original photograph of the execution of the Lincoln conspirators in America in 1865 appears to show one of the men, Lewis Powell, had an erection after he was hanged.After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension, e.g. bruising and rope marks on the neck. In some cases there will have been effusions of urine, semen and faeces.This form of asphyxial death by hanging is known medically as anoxia and is also the normal cause of death in suicide hangings. Total body death results usually within less than 20 minutes as the brain becomes starved of oxygen. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body suspended for an hour to ensure death.Forensic experts may often be able to tell if hanging is suicide or homicide, as each leaves a distinctive ligature mark. One of the hints they use is the hyoid bone, that, if broken, often means the person has been murdered, by manual choking. Also, there have been cases of autoerotic asphyxiation leading to death; children have accidentally died playing the choking game.

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

A hanging may also cause one or more of the following medical conditions:
* Close the airway causing asphyxia
* Close the carotid arteries
* Close the jugular veins
* Induce carotid reflex, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest

Hanging by country

Britain

Detail from a painting by Pisanello, 1436-1438

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

Early methods of hanging simply involved a hangman's noose on a rope placed around the victim's neck, with the loose end thrown over or tied to a tree branch; the hangman then drew up the criminal, who was slowly strangled. An early refinement had the victim climb a ladder or stand in a cart that the hangman then removed. As the number of executions increased, purpose-built gallows, which usually consisted of two posts joined by a crossbeam, replaced trees. Soon virtually every major town and city in Britain had its own gallows.

Although hangmen had introduced the "drop" by the late 1700s, it was initially only a substitute for the ladder or the cart. The first well-known practitioner of "the drop" was William Calcraft. His successor however, William Marwood, who was often quoted as saying "Calcraft hanged them, I execute them", introduced the "long drop". Marwood realised that each person required a different drop, based on the prisoner's weight, which would dislocate the cervical vertebrae resulting in "instantaneous" death.

A process of sometimes grisly experimentation led to the discovery that an energy of 1260 foot pounds (1710 joules) would have the desired effect, so one could calculate the required drop by dividing 1260 by the weight of the victim: a person weighing 112 pounds (50.8 kg) required a drop of 11 ft 4 in (3.43 m). Over time, Marwood refined this basic formula to take account of the prisoner's age, stature, and physical condition, especially after some early mistakes when too great a drop resulted in decapitation. Marwood also experimented with the positioning of the knot, and discovered that placing it under the left ear or under the angle of the left jaw would jerk the head backwards at the end of the drop and instantly sever the spinal cord and dislocate the cervical vertebrae. Prison governors and staff who were required, following the abolition of public executions in 1868, to witness executions at close quarters, welcomed the development of swift and "clean" methods of hanging.

Until 1808 the law in Britain offered the death penalty for some 200 offenses, including attempting suicide, being in the company of gypsies for one month, and vagrancy (for soldiers and sailors); even children aged 7–14 years old could be executed if they committed a capital crime and showed "strong evidence of malice".

A variety of loopholes in British criminal law, together with judicial leniency, tempered the law's tendency to prescribe hanging for what many would today consider minor offences. First-time offenders could escape a capital sentence for some crimes through the benefit of clergy, and of those criminals actually sentenced to death, many were later pardoned. Only about half the death sentences pronounced at common law in the 18th century were carried out, and by the beginning of the 19th century, growing doubt over the appropriateness of capital punishment led to nearly 90% of British capital sentences being commuted to lesser punishments.

Between 1832 and 1834 Parliament abolished the death penalty for shoplifting goods worth five shillings (Â£0.25) or less, returning from transportation, letter-stealing, and sacrilege; in 1861, the number of capital crimes was reduced to four — murder, treason, arson in Royal Dockyards, and piracy with violence. Public hangings were stopped in 1868 and the hanging, beheading and quartering of traitors was formally abolished in 1870.

As time went by, hanging became more of a science than an art. By the mid-20th century the average time between taking a victim from the cell and death was around fifteen seconds — although on May 8, 1951 Albert Pierrepoint conducted the fastest hanging on record when James Inglis, whom a court had only three weeks earlier convicted and sentenced for the murder of a prostitute, fell through the trap only seven seconds after leaving his cell.

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

The United States

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

Mass hanging in Mankato, Minnesota. A drawing of the mass hanging was long a familiar icon in Minnesota.

Thirty-eight Dakota men convicted of murder and rape in the Sioux Uprising were executed by hanging in a single day on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. At the signal of three drumbeats, a single blow from an ax cut the rope that held the platform and the prisoners (except for one whose rope had broke, and who consequently had to be restrung) fell to their deaths. It was and still is the largest execution in the history of the United States.

The last public hanging legally conducted in the United States was that of Rainey Bethea, who was publicly hanged on August 14, 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky. Although Bethea confessed to murdering seventy-year-old Lichia Edwards, he was only convicted of rape in order to avoid a legal question under Kentucky law as to whether he should be hanged (for rape) or electrocuted (for murder). While other hangings have taken place in the United States since 1936, all of them were conducted privately. Since 1938, the laws of almost all states have specified that executions must take place "within the walls" of a prison "to exclude public view."

At present, only Washington and New Hampshire still retain hanging as an option. Laws were changed in 1996 to specify that penalties of death must be executed by injection unless the convict chooses hanging, but no hangings have taken place ever since. In New Hampshire if it be found "... to be impractical to carry out the punishment of death ..." by lethal injection, then the condemned will be hanged.

In Washington, the default method is lethal injection, though the condemned can choose hanging. Serial killer and child molester Westley Allan Dodd chose to be hanged in 1992. (See the book Driven to Kill.) Charles Campbell was hanged in the same State on 27 May 1994.

As of 2006 the last person to have been hanged in the United States was Billy Bailey, on January 25 1996 in Delaware; that state has since changed the legal method of execution to lethal injection.

Other countries

In Iran, hangings are carried out by using an automotive telescoping crane to hoist the condemned aloft. This method may have been adapted from yardarm hangings carried out by the Royal Navy.

In Singapore, mandatory hanging using the long-drop method is currently used as punishment for various crimes, such as drug trafficking, kidnapping and unauthorised possession of firearms. There is no evidence that this policy may be changed in the future , and an artwork commenting on it (with reference to the Van Tuong Nguyen case) was modified in the name of self-censorship.

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

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

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

Recent hangings

Iranian minority Arab youths Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni on the scaffold. (Mashhad, July 19, 2005).

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

On February 27 2004 the mastermind of the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Shoko Asahara, was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Hanging is the common method of execution in capital punishment cases in Japan, although the punishment is rarely carried out.

A 16-year old girl, Ateqeh Rajabi, was hanged in August 2004 in Iran for sexual misdemeanours. On July 19 2005, two Iranian boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, were publicly hanged at Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, northeast Iran, on charges of homosexuality and rape. At the ages of 15 and 17, respectively, they were discovered to be having sexual relations, imprisoned for fourteen months and subjected to 228 lashes each, then executed.

In Singapore, a 25-year old Australian, Nguyen Tuong Van, was hanged on December 2, 2005 after being convicted of drug trafficking in 2002. Numerous efforts from both the Australian government, Queen's Counsels and petitions from organisations such as Amnesty International failed to persuade Singapore to rescind its decision.

On March 9 2006, an official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that Iraqi authorities executed 13 insurgents by hanging, the first official executions of insurgents carried out in the country since the restoration of the death penalty in 2004. In September 2003, three murderers were executed.

Grammar

Hanging to Music. â€" Facsimile of a Woodcut in Michault's "Doctrinal du Temps PrÃ©sent": small folio, goth., Bruges, about 1490.

The term "hanging" is the focus of a famous bit of grammatical trivia. Traditionally, the past tense and past participle of the verb "to hang" are "hung" when referring to the abstract idea of hanging things, but "hanged" when referring to an execution or death by hanging.

A useful way of remembering this is the old school saying, "Meat is hung, men are hanged."

The distinction is not always followed; but in cases where it is not, such as when Professor Higgins sings in the song "Why Can't the English?" from the musical My Fair Lady,

By rights she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue

the choice often appears to have been made to suit the rhyme and meter. (Professor Higgins is a linguist, so there may also be an element of intentional irony in his phrasing.)

This grammatical distinction is also used for comedic effect in the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles. Upon Bart's unexpected return to the railroad workers' camp, his friend says, "They said you was hung!" Bart, playing to the stereotype of the well-endowed Afro-American man replies, "And they was right!"