Posted on 08/27/2010 2:43:00 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Japan has opened its execution chamber to the public for the first time in a move designed to inspire discussion over whether the country should scrap death penalty.
TV footage from inside the Tokyo Detention House showed the trap door, the viewing room and rooms where the inmate can meet a cleric, with a Buddhist altar and a Buddha statue. The noose was not shown.
Footage also showed the "button room", where three prison officers press a button at the same time to open the trap door, so it is not clear which button opened the door.
Japan and the United States are the only Group of Eight rich countries that retain capital punishment. Japan currently has 107 inmates on death row.
Most Japanese support the death penalty. Last year, 86 per cent said in a government survey that retaining the death penalty was unavoidable, up from 80 per cent in 1999, though a recent NHK public TV survey put support at 57 per cent.
But experts are concerned at how little the public knows about the death penalty. The Justice Ministry in 2007 started releasing the names and crimes of inmates sentenced to death, but critics say the ministry still restricts information.
"(We) demand that the Japanese government ... fully disclose the reality of the death penalty system
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The room is well appointed. I like the wood paneling. The dining service probably sucks though. (sarc off)
I would have thought some guy with a nice, shiny and very sharp katana would have done the deed.
AKA: Dangle & strangle.
It doesn’t look to me like a short drop. If the roof of the recessed area is where the condemned is standing I’m guessing a drop of six to eight feet.
That might allow for the occasional decapitation but darned if I care.
I kinda liked the idea of burying them up to the neck
at a cross roads, and letting random passersby
saw at them with a split bamboo...
Ah the good old days...
I think the recessed area is where the noose is tied off. The red rectangle is the platform.
If that is the case, and on looking again I think you’re right, then it would be a short drop. I’m still good with that.
they would die very old...
“But experts are concerned at how little the public knows about the death penalty. “
Experts = Agenda Consumed Morons.
Okay, the trap’s at the center of the floor, the rope runs up to the overhead pulley and (I assume) down through the rings running down that far right pillar to the floor, witness area’s at the back through the window...I’m trying to figure out what those fixtures off to the right of the pulley are.
Air-conditioning ducts.
I was thinking either vents, or maybe...and this is incredibly stupid for an execution chamber...recessed projection screens.
Hmm, target practice charts. I wonder if they have a gun range attached to the side!
:^)
I was going to say that, I believe that is reserved for an honorable/warrior death.
And btw, all three buttons drop the floor.
The Japanese had plenty of practice against my father’s generation. They ought to be very good at it.
If the Japanese "public TV" is supported by individual contributors and government aid like our "public TV" then I would be suspicious of any surveys they put out.
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