Talk: Hanging
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Should discuss hanging in United States and other countries than U.K. --Daniel C. Boyer
There's a certain amount of duplication with Capital punishment in the United Kingdom. I think most content should be merged in with that article. Mintguy (T) 23:33, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The article is certainly quite anglocentric. The timeline of penalties should certainly be moved, and probably the stuff about quartering/public executions too PRB 14:36, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)
[[1]] has quite a bit of text especially on US use. It would seem a good source or reference link. --blades 17:56, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)
The contention that (after the institution of hanging methods that caused severing of the spinal cord at the cervical level C1 or C2) "(Actually strangulation remained the cause of death, but as the prisoner was rendered unconscious by the drop while this was happening, this was undoubtedly a kindness to both the victim and the witnesses)" seems wrong. After the spinal cord is severed there will be no spontaneous attempt to breathe (the phrenic nerve stems from cervical roots C3, C4, C5, below the transection), and I don't think strangulation can really be said to occur in the absence of an attempt to breathe. I'm also not certain that it's correct to say the "drop" causes unconsciousness: unconsciousness probably results from brain hypoxia. - Nunh-huh 21:54, 16 May 2004 (UTC)
Can the page really be right when it uses "seconds", as in the record being seven *seconds* from the time a prisoner leaves his cell until death? Surely this should be seven *minutes*?
- Seconds is correct. In British prisons the prisoner was kept in the "condemned cell" next to the gallows so there wasn't far to take the prisoner. In the case of James Inglis it's probably not correct to say he was "pronounced dead" in 7 seconds, but it is recorded that he was very eager for his execution to take place, and practically put the noose around his own neck; the drop did take place that quickly. The British judicial system didn't believe in delaying executions for an unconscionable period as happens now in the US -- if you take a look at murderfile.net you'll see that for most of the period of the death penalty in the 20th century, executions usually took place between 3 and 7 weeks after the trial (the main exceptions being the executions at Shepton Mallet in 1943-1945, which were of US military personnel, where the execution was sometimes delayed for several months). -- Arwel 18:19, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)
