Posted on 12/21/2004 2:31:12 PM PST by reaganaut
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lankan hangman Suranimala has never seen an execution, confesses the sight of the gallows makes him a little nervous and lacks the most crucial tool of his trade -- a rope.
The slight, soft-spoken 24-year-old has spent his first three years in the job pushing papers in the chief jailer's office at Welikada prison in Colombo, but all that is about to change.
Sri Lanka reactivated its dormant death penalty last month after a near 30-year-lull to combat a surge in grisly crimes and contract killings, which means it is now finally time for Suranimala to learn the ropes.
"I have not received any training yet but I am supposed to practice with a sand bag each time before I hang someone," he said, surrounded by dusty folders in the prison guards' office.
He gave only his nickname to hide his identity.
"My girlfriend is not particularly pleased about the fact that I must hang people for a living, so she doesn't want anyone else to know about my profession," he said. His girlfriend's parents are still in the dark.
The last hanging in Sri Lanka was in 1976, and while there are 49 convicted murderers, drug smugglers and rapists on death row, they have been serving life prison terms. Another 152 prisoners are pending appeal.
Now, their fate lies in the hands of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who must decide whether to sign their death warrants on a case by case basis.
Kumaratunga reimposed the death penalty in November after respected High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya was shot dead outside his home in an upmarket Colombo neighborhood by suspected underworld hitmen.
NO ALTERNATIVE
"The situation in the country warrants introduction of the death penalty in order to curb ever-escalating serious crimes," Justice Minister W.D.J.Seneviratne told Reuters in an interview. "We are not happy about it, but we have no alternative."
Curiously, not one of Sri Lanka's most notorious killers, the Tamil Tigers, are on death row. Even feared rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran faces a 200 year jail sentence for his part in a 1996 central bank bombing that killed 100 people if ever caught, rather than death.
"That is owing to political issues," Seneviratne said. The rebels' two-decade war with the state for autonomy, which has killed more than 64,000 people on both sides, is in limbo thanks to a two-year truce, and any harsh treatment of the rebels would likely upset efforts to forge permanent peace.
Prison officials say the mood on death row has grown decidedly somber, particularly among those sentenced to die for gory crimes. They are likely to be hanged first as an example.
Human rights groups are up in arms at the decision to resume "barbaric" hangings, which were first introduced in 1884 under British colonial rule.
Commissioner General of Prisons Rumy Marzook has searched from Europe to Asia for a suitable hangman's rope, finally settling on one from Manila. Sri Lanka produces vast amounts of rope made from coconut fibers, but they stretch and so are not suitable.
"This needs a very special rope, and we are hoping we might get it in a week or two," he said in his office at Welikada prison, showing a diagram of the 13-foot-long rope with leather-lined noose.
However, former judge Marzook has found his own way to deal with violent criminals, teaching them to paint, meditate and tame their rage with breathing exercises.
He has framed some of the art work on the walls outside his office. One drawing shows an arm raising a bloody knife above an aghast, bare-breasted woman. Another shows whiskey bottles, playing cards, guns and women's legs, spread-eagled.
MEDITATION THE KEY?
"I'm giving them training in art and according to their skills," said Marzook. "Prisoners cannot be kept idling. The idle mind is the devil's workshop."
Inmates dressed in white cotton shorts and short-sleeved shirts stained yellow with sweat clean the prison grounds outside and sweep the jail's main internal courtyard, where a leafy Bo tree arcs over a statue of Buddha.
A mural on the orange prison wall reminds them: "Prisoners are human beings."
Suranimala, whose father was hangman before him and also escaped having to hang anyone thanks to the death penalty moratorium, is taking the job in hand.
He is dusting off the gallows, which he has inspected once a week since he stepped into his father's shoes.
"Except for a few cobwebs, the gallows are in good condition," he smiled timidly. "The gallows make me a bit nervous. But it's my job to hang people. I will have to carry out my duties whether I like it or not."
"If you want my opinion on capital punishment, well, I think it's the need of the hour. Murderers and rapists deserve to hang," he said.
He would be hated here by the Left, who oppose capital punishment as a rule...except in the case of the unborn.
bump for later read
He is employed by the Department of Corrections, processing paperwork.
Untrained hangman means a lot of botched hangings. This could get quite grisly.
Hope he reads Mr. Pierrepoint's autobiography (he was the official British hangman for many years, was very proud of his technical skill. He calculated the length of the drop and weight of the convict with great precision, and is said to have never had a botched hanging.)
If this bureaucrat has a few thousand relatives, please ask him to send them to the Sheeples Republic of FloriDUH where most of our 'crats take their paychecks but don't do their jobs.
I wonder if these were the same "human rights" groups who were silent when Saddam and his Baathists threw people into plastic shredders feet first, gassed entire villages and filled mass graves.
A properly performed hanging is a technical skill and a powerful disincentive to follow in the footsteps of the hangee.
Actually, a poorly performed hanging is a powerful incentive.
"The slight, soft-spoken 24-year-old has spent his first three years in the job pushing papers in the chief jailer's office at Welikada prison..."
All he's done so far is push paper. Even when executions are ramped up, he'll still be doing more paperwork than anything else. I'll bet if you ask a relative of an executioner in a U.S. state what he does, they'll say "employed by the Department of Corrections", not "state executioner".
I should have enquoted "processing paperwork", though.
:^)
The known fact of a proper hanging is that the subject will violently convulse, most probably lose control of his bowels and bladder, and have post mortum twitching of the large muscles. This is to be expected with a proper hanging. The subject is dead at impact the rest of the things that take place are simply the body reacting to death. It really was and is a merciful form of execution. It's also cheap.
The hangman who executed the Nazis at Nuremberg was very proud of his skill.
I had always understood that it was John C. Woods, but a recent AP article says that an MP named Joseph Malta was the hangman. Maybe Woods was in charge and Malta just sprang the trap.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.