Posted on 07/16/2014 6:23:56 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Actually strangulation by hanging was the only way used until 1866 when calculating rope length by weight was introduced to break necks instead.
Interesting. Forgive my ignorance. But that fact further punctuates my point. That wasn’t considered cruel or unusual. It sure as heck is cheaper than these stupid drugs they use now.
Sacco and Vanzetti tried that too, at the last minute. There supporters had delayed execution for seven years with absurd and at the time novel legal maneuvers. At the last minute, they complained that the seven year hiatus between the crime and execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The courts didn’t buy it. In the nearly contemporaneous and equally infamous “Double Indemnity” murder trial, the interval between the murder and the double execution was 10 months.
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