It was a huge noose; no doubt about it. Notice the big area of abrasion on his left cheek--probably caused by the rope hitting him as he hit bottom. There's quite a bit of blood too, apparently, on the rope. I saw how loosely they fit the noose around his neck and thought there might be problems, but the knot tightened right up at the end. If his neck hadn't been broken he would have succumbed to strangulation within a few seconds.
from the stills I've seen, (I won't watch the video), it appears as though the knot was on the side of his neck which results in an instant broken neck..if it were in back, it's more strangulation..IMHO the executioner did him a favor with a "here you are, now you aren't" way of placing the knot..
The hangman's noose was designed to snap the neck as the person gets to the end of the rope. Not sure where but I'm pretty certain one could look it up. If I'm right, I thought it was invented in the USA as a more humane way of execution.
Hangman's knot.
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=hangman%27s+noose&gwp=13