With 1.2 Billion People, India Seeks a Good Hangman

The New York Times ^ | 15 Jun 2011 | Jim Yardley

[Cronos]

India has 1.2 billion people, among them bankers, gurus, rag pickers, billionaires, snake charmers, software engineers, lentil farmers, rickshaw drivers, Maoist rebels, Bollywood movie stars and Vedic scholars, to name a few. Humanity runneth over. Except in one profession: India is searching for a hangman.

Usually, India would not need one, given the rarity of executions. The last was in 2004. But in May, India’s president unexpectedly rejected a last-chance mercy petition from a convicted murderer in the Himalayan state of Assam. Prison officials, compelled to act, issued a call for a hangman.

No one answered.

Not initially.

[Cronos]

Any takers?

[Psalm 144]

What did the defendant do and what does it pay?

[Joe 6-pack]

Too bad the Brits shut down the Thuggee cult. They’d have had a deep recruiting pool.

[Lazamataz]

I’d hit it.

[Psalm 144]

Condemned is a murderer, stipend of $75 a month, $900 per annum. You in?

[No Truce With Kings]

Jobs Indians won’t do?

[ansel12]

I just wanted to try my new tag line.

[Cronos]

:)

what about

?

[apillar]

Hey, if the pay to fly me all expenses paid to India and back. I’ll work on an as needed basis.

[Roccus]

Will I need the Indian equivalent of an H1B?

[Vigilanteman]

Singapore gets plenty of practice and is quite proficient in the art. Some years back, I believe the State of Washington contracted with them to perform a proper hanging.

America could stand to get a lot more practice. Our prisons are full of gallows birds whose date with the hangman is long overdue.

[Yo-Yo]

[Lazamataz]

Nope. Done with all women.

[Tax-chick]

If the convicted man is non-Moslem, they could get a Moslem to cut his head off for the brownie-points with Allah. If the convicted man is non-Hindu, they could find a Hindu to set him on fire out of religious enthusiasm.

[August West]

Who is she?

[Jack Hammer]

Hangman, not ‘hung’ man.

[TexasRepublic]

Toss in a side trip to see the Taj Mahal, and I’ll consider it.

[OldPossum]

a retired jailer who supervised the execution. “On one hand, I needed to perform my duty as a jailer, yet on the other, I sympathized with the person being hanged.”

I wonder if he had any sympathy for the person(s) he killed?

[Tijeras_Slim]

It’s the off season and Le Bron knows all about choking.

[tarawa]

Ah yes, the Dr. Gillespie killings....