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How a Hanging is Supposed to Work
www.livescience.com ^ | 15 January 2007 | Maria Cheng

Posted on 01/17/2007 10:51:51 AM PST by Vote 4 Nixon

LONDON (AP)—There is nothing kind or gentle about a hanging. It is a process scientifically designed to break the neck and choke a person to death as efficiently as possible. In the recent Iraqi executions, former president Saddam Hussein and two of his accomplices, his half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were hanged from a gallows.

In such judicial hangings, the victims are typically dropped a distance greater than their height through a trapdoor. At this point, the rope becomes rigid, and the force of the noose should break the victim's neck, causing immediate paralysis and unconsciousness.

The procedure causes a classic "hangman's fracture''—a break between the head and the neck, effectively snapping the upper cervical spine. In most cases, the victim dies of asphyxiation.

Though nobody really knows how long it takes a person to die from hanging, experts say it is probably anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.

In judicial hangings, as opposed to suicides, there is significant damage to the spinal cord. If the victims fall more than the prescribed distance, they may even pick up enough speed that the noose itself decapitates them, as happened Monday to the former Iraqi dictator's half brother Barzan Ibrahim. In rare cases, intense fear can cause the victim to die of cardiac arrest.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: hang; hanging
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To: Vote 4 Nixon
I have to admit that my reaction to the picture of Saddam on the scaffold was that the noose was almost cartoonish. According to the autobiography of 19th Century British hangman James Berry, the rope should be 5/8" in diameter and the 'hangman's knot' was actually just an eye at the end of the rope (IIRC).

In comparison, Saddam looked like he was set to be towed through the Panama Canal: I suspect there was quite a bit of Dramatic License involved.

Oh, well, it worked.

21 posted on 01/17/2007 11:43:35 AM PST by Grut
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To: Grut

ROTFLMAO.


22 posted on 01/17/2007 11:44:45 AM PST by Vote 4 Nixon (EAT...FISH...SLEEP...REDUX)
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To: Vote 4 Nixon

Hanging is just as good as anything else, done right, and they did a fairly good job with these executions.

Personally I like the idea of scoring the rope before the hanging so the weight of the condemned breaks it and he tumbles to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Repeat as necessary or desired.

Broken neck, severed neck, it's all the same in the end. Doing the end-of-the-rope dance would have been good too.

There was a Republican analyst on H&C last night. Very attractive young A-A woman, Amy something, who I liked very well. Colmes tried to get her to admit hanging was barbarous. "If it's done correctly, no I don't think it's a barbarous form of execution." she stated clearly. I really liked that.


23 posted on 01/17/2007 11:47:07 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx.")
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To: Grut

"the rope should be 5/8" in diameter"

That's the problem. They used a metric rope.


24 posted on 01/17/2007 11:49:23 AM PST by Londo Molari
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To: Vote 4 Nixon

OK! Thanks! I'm assuming no human rights protests other than the usual that occur at a death sentence being carried out.


25 posted on 01/17/2007 11:50:43 AM PST by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: lilylangtree

Because Hanging is the specified, official manner of execution of the Iraqi government. Like LI would do any good, now you've got bleeding heart criminal lovers claiming THAT'S cruel and unusual.

Note that the phrase is "cruel AND unusual", not "cruel OR unusual." Therefore, the way I see it, hanging is quite usual, and therefore legit, regardless of any cruelty involved.

I swear we ought to make every adult kill a puppy in this country as a rite of passage. Got to get over this blasted weak stomach.


26 posted on 01/17/2007 11:51:05 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx.")
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To: CougarGA7

An overdose of kinetic energy was what the Saddam brother got.


27 posted on 01/17/2007 11:51:41 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx.")
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To: Calvin Locke

Oh yeah -- another thing I've learned. People say we should use rope hanging to execute cuz it's cheap. It's not. You can't reuse the rope or it WILL break.


28 posted on 01/17/2007 11:53:13 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx.")
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To: stm
Hi stm-

You asked for it, you've got it:

~ Blue Jays ~

29 posted on 01/17/2007 11:53:58 AM PST by Blue Jays (Rock Hard, Ride Free)
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To: Vote 4 Nixon
How a Hanging is Supposed to Work
It prevents a repeat offense and protects the public.
30 posted on 01/17/2007 11:54:17 AM PST by WildBill2275 (The Second Amendment guarantees all of your other rights)
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To: Grut

I'm not sure what the deal was with that knot. The rope itself didn't look too big. There is a prescribed number of times the rope is supposed to wrap around... seven if memory serves. Maybe we're just not used to seeing them.


31 posted on 01/17/2007 11:54:42 AM PST by ichabod1 ("Liberals read Karl Marx. Conservatives UNDERSTAND Karl Marx.")
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To: ichabod1

Thanks. If that's the form of capital punishment for Iraqis, then so be it.


32 posted on 01/17/2007 11:56:51 AM PST by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Blue Jays
Alternative to hanging
33 posted on 01/17/2007 11:58:38 AM PST by Dr.Deth
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To: Vote 4 Nixon
I am reminded of this exchange:

Mudd: Worse than that; do you know what the penalty for fraud is on Deneb V?
Spock: The guilty party has his choice: death by electrocution, death by gas, death by phaser, death by hanging--

34 posted on 01/17/2007 12:01:59 PM PST by steve-b (It's hard to be religious when certain people don't get struck by lightning.)
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To: Vote 4 Nixon

Near as I can tell, all three hangings worked perfectly. The convicted are dead.

Fin


35 posted on 01/17/2007 12:24:10 PM PST by AbeKrieger (God Bless America. In God We Trust.)
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To: Vote 4 Nixon
I'm sure these "human rights advocates" are plastic-shredder deniers.

Meaning they conveniently don't believe that Saddam put living victims through plastic-shredders, feet-first.

36 posted on 01/17/2007 12:27:11 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam is a religion of peace, and Muslims reserve the right to kill anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: ichabod1

I thought it was 13


37 posted on 01/17/2007 12:29:53 PM PST by RatRipper
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To: Grut
"In comparison, Saddam looked like he was set to be towed through the Panama Canal..."

LOL...maybe they should have just tied that rope around Saddam's nuts and dropped him through the trap door...then the guards could use baseball bats to whack him around like a piñata!!!

...now that would have made for interesting viewing.
38 posted on 01/17/2007 12:36:26 PM PST by Towed_Jumper (I faithfully fart toward Mecca five times a day.)
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To: Vote 4 Nixon

Fine. Forget the hanging. A good sized bullet to the brain from Point blank range is just as efficient and it is harder to screw up as their is less planning and thought involved. Maybe more to spend on the clean-up, but who is counting.


39 posted on 01/17/2007 12:45:41 PM PST by Tenacious 1 (No to nitwit jesters with a predisposition of self importance and unqualified political opinions!)
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