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This page is about death by hanging. For the computer malfunction, see hang. For other meanings, see hang (disambiguation).

Hanging is the suspension of a person by a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. Throughout history it has been used as a form of capital punishment, first in the Persian Empire approximately 2500 years ago, and is still used in some countries. It is also a common method of committing suicide.

Methods of judicial hanging

There are four methods of performing a judicial hanging — the short drop, suspension hanging, the standard drop, and the long drop.

The short drop

The short drop is done by placing the condemned person on the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, with the noose around his neck. The vehicle is then moved away leaving the person dangling from the rope. Prior to 1850, it was the main method used. It is still used widely in Middle Eastern countries. A ladder was also commonly used with the condemned being forced to ascend, after which the noose was tied and the ladder pulled away or turned, leaving the victim hanging. A person hanged in this way would be said to have been "turned off".

Suspension hanging

Suspension hanging is similar, except the gallows themselves are movable, so that the noose can be raised once the condemned is in place. This method is currently used in Iran, where tank gun barrels or mobile cranes are used to hoist the condemned into the air. Similar methods involve running the rope through a pulley to allow raising of the person.

The standard drop

The standard drop, which arrived as calculated in English units, involved a drop of between four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) and came into use in the mid 19th century in English-speaking countries and those where judicial systems were under English influence. It was considered an advance on the short drop because it was intended to be sufficient to break the person's neck, causing immediate paralysis and immobilization (and perhaps immediate unconsciousness--though this matter is questioned).

The long drop

This process, also known as the measured drop, was introduced in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advancement to the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the persons's weight was used to determine how much slack would be provided in the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken.

Prior to 1892, the drop was between four and ten feet (about one to three meters), depending on the weight of the body, and was calculated to deliver a force of 1,260 lbf (5,600 newtons or 572 kgf), which fractured the neck at either the 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. However, this force resulted in some decapitations, such as the famous case of "Black Jack" Tom Ketchum in New Mexico in 1901 (see illustration). Between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid doing so. After 1913, other factors were also taken into account and the force delivered was reduced to about 1000 lbf (4,400 N or 450 kgf). (see also British Official Table of Drops)

Suicide

Suspension hanging is a common method of suicide. The materials necessary for suicide by hanging are relatively easily available to the average person, compared with firearms or lethal poison, as most people can obtain rope, and tree branches or wooden beams can provide something from which to hang one's self. Full suspension is not required and for this reason hanging is especially commonplace among suicidal prisoners. A type of hanging comparable to full suspension hanging may be obtained by self-strangulation using a ligature of the neck and only partial weight of the body (partial suspension). This method is dependent on unconsciousness produced by arterial blood flow restriction, while the breath is held.

• In Canada, hanging is the second most common method of suicide, after suffocation.
• In the US, hanging is the second most common method of suicide, after firearms, .
• In Great Britain, where firearms are less easily available, as of 2001 hanging was the most common method among men and the second-most commonplace among women (after poisoning).

Notable suicides by hanging

• Chongzhen Emperor, emperor of China's Ming Dynasty.
• Judas Iscariot, a prominent figure in the Christian gospels.
• Jocasta and Antigone in Sophocles' Three Theban Plays.
• Ludwig Boltzmann, physicist, pioneer of statistical mechanics
• Jonathan Brandis, an American actor.
• Hans Berger, German inventor of electroencephalography.
• Harold Shipman, English doctor, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division
• Phil Ochs, political folksinger
• Tom Hepburn, brother of Katharine Hepburn
• Fred West, serial killer
• Hideto Matsumoto, Japanese rock musician
• Paul Hester, former drummer of Crowded House
• Michael Hutchence, former lead singer of INXS
• Santos Dumont, Brazilian aviation pioneer
• Stuart Adamson, Former lead singer and guitarist of Big Country
• Ray Combs, former host of Family Feud
• Pete Ham, guitarist and singer of rock band Badfinger
• Justin Fashanu, footballer

Medical effects

A hanging may cause one or more of the following medical conditions:

• Close the carotid arteries
• Close the jugular veins
• Induce carotid reflex, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest
• Break the neck (cervical fracture) causing traumatic spinal cord injury
• Close the airway causing cerebral ischemia
• Decapitation

The cause of death in hanging depends on the conditions related to the event. When the body is released from a relatively high position, death is usually caused by severing the spinal cord between C1 and C2, which may be functional decapitation. High cervical fracture frequently occurs in judicial hangings, and in fact the C1-C2 fracture has been called the "Hangman's fracture" in medicine, even when it occurs in other circumstances. Usually, accidental C1-C2 fracture victims do not immediately become unconscious; instead death occurs after some minutes, from asphyxia.

In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. Other processes that have been suggested to contribute are vagal collapse (via mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus), and compromise of the cerebral blood flow by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Only 31 newtons (7 lbf or 3.2 kgf) of pressure may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness (this varies from individual to individual).

Where death has been caused by blocking the veins, the face will typically have become engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack of oxygen). There will be the classic sign of strangulation - petechiae - little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst blood capillaries. The tongue may protrude. Where death has occurred through carotid artery obstruction or cervical fracture, the face will typically be pale in colour and not show petechiae. There exist many reports and pictures of actual short drop hangings which seem to show that the person died quickly and fairly peacefully, while others indicate a slow and agonising death by strangulation.

When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat for some period after the brain is no longer resuscitatable. When death occurs in such a case is a matter of convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer, after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body suspended for an hour to ensure death.

There is a popular myth about sexual stimulation of hanged men, due to the apparent erection some exhibited. The effect is attributed to gravity causing the blood to settle in the legs and lower torso, thereby engorging the penis. (This myth fuels the auto-erotic asphyxiation, a practice that might lead to an accidental death.)

After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension, e.g. bruising and rope marks on the neck. Forensic experts may often be able to tell if hanging is suicide or homicide, as each leaves a distinctive ligature mark. One of the hints they use is the hyoid bone, that, if broken, often means the person has been murdered, by manual choking. Also, there have been cases of autoerotic asphyxiation leading to death; children have accidentally died playing the choking game.

References by country

Currently hanging is still a method of capital punishment in many countries with civil law, including India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan as well as Islamic countries that follow Sharia law, such as Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia

Australia

Capital punishment was a part of the legal system of Australia from its early days as a penal colony for the British Empire, until 1985. During the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included from burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter. There is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large". During the 19th century, these crimes saw about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia.

Australia abolished the death penalty in all states by 1985

• The last man executed by hanging in Australia was Ronald Ryan on 3 February, 1967 in the state Victoria.

Brazil

Death by hanging was the customary method of capital punishment in Brazil throughout its history. Some important national heroes like Tiradentes (1792) were killed by hanging. The last man executed in Brazil was Manoel da Motta Coqueiro, in 1855.

The death penalty was abolished for all crimes, except for those committed under extraordinary circumstances such as war or military law in 1979.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria's national hero, Vasil Levski, was executed by hanging by the Ottoman court in Sofia in 1873. Every year since Bulgaria' liberation, thousands come with flowers on the date of his martyr's death, February 19, to his monument where the gallows stood.

• The last execution was in 1989, and the death penalty was abolished for all crimes in 1998

Canada

Historically hanging was the only method of execution used in Canada, and were in use as punishment for all murders until 1961, when they were reclassified into capital and non-capital offenses. Death penalty was restricted to only apply for certain offenses to the National Defence Act in 1976, and completely abolished in 1998.

• The last hangings in Canada took place on December 11, 1962.

Germany

In the territories occupied by Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945, strangulation hanging was a preferred means of public execution. The most common sentenced were partisans and black marketeers, whose bodies were usually left hanging for long periods of time. There are also numerous reports of concentration camp inmates being hanged.

Death penalty is not allowed according to the current constitution as adopted in 1949, but the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany did not abolish the death penalty until 1987.

Hungary

In a newspaper interview in 1957, Khrushchev commented regarding the failed late-1956 Hungarian revolution that "support by United States ... is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man.". In keeping with the metaphor, the prime minister of Hungary during the 1956 revolution, Imre Nagy, was secretly tried, executed by hanging, and buried unceremoniously by the new Soviet-backed Hungarian government, in 1958. Nagy was later publically rehabilitated by Hungary .

Capital punishment was abolished for all crimes in 1990.

India

The Supreme Court of India has suggested that capital punishment should be given only in the "rarest of rare cases".

A recent case of capital punishment by hanging is that of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was convicted of the 1990 murder and rape of a 14 year old girl in Kolkata in India. The manner in which the crime was committed (the accused first bludgeoned the victim with a blunt object, and raped her even as she was slowly dying) was considered brutal enough by the supreme court to warrant the death penalty. An appeal for clemency was made to the president of India, but was turned down. Chatterjee was executed on August 14 2004 in the first execution in India since 1995.

It should also be noted that Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mohandas Gandhi was excuted by hanging.

Iran

As one of several means of capital punishment in Iran, hangings are carried out by using an automotive telescoping crane to hoist the condemned aloft. The death penalty is used for a number of offenses, and is the only punishment for rape, murder and child molestation, with all hangings taking place in public.

• On July 19 2005, two boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, at the ages of 15 and 17 respectively, who had been discovered to be having homosexual relations, were publicly hanged at Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, on charges of homosexuality and rape.
• On August 15, 2004, a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Sahaaleh (a.k.a. Ateqeh Rajabi), was executed for having committed "acts incompatible with chastity".

Iraq

Hanging was used under the regime of Saddam Hussein, but was suspended along with capital punishment in 2003 when the United States invaded and overthrew the previous regime. The death penalty was reinstated in May 2005.

• On March 9 2006, an official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council confirmed that Iraqi authorities executed 13 insurgents by hanging, the first official executions of insurgents carried out in the country since the restoration of the death penalty in 2004. In September 2003, three murderers were executed.
• Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity on November 5, 2006, and was executed on December 30, 2006 at approximately 6:05 AM local time.

Israel

Although Israel has provisions in its constitution to use the death penalty for extraordinary crimes, it has only been used once, when Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging in 1962.

Japan

• On February 27 2004 the mastermind of the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Shoko Asahara, was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. On December 25 2006 four men were hanged in Japan. Hanging is the common method of execution in capital punishment cases in Japan; at present there are 94 people reported to be on death row in Japan.

Pakistan

On April 4, 1979 a Pakistani military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq hanged Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after imposing Martial Law in the country. The prosecution produced a witness in Masood Mahmood, who had been chief of the Federal Security Force under Bhutto. Mahmood testified that Bhutto had ordered the killing of Kasuri. 4 men who were arrested and charged as Kasuri's assassins testified to confirm Mahmood's testimony. Bhutto charged that the army had fabricated the evidence and accused the Justice Maulvi Mushtaq Ali of taking orders from Zia. The Lahore High Court sentenced Bhutto to death on March 18, 1978; he was also to pay Rs. 25,000 in fines or face six months rigourous imprisonment.

While General Zia-ul-Haq published a white paper accusing Bhutto of rigging the 1977 elections, the Supreme Court of Pakistan agreed to hear Bhutto's appeal. Chief Justice S. Anwarul Haq adjourned the court until the end of July 1978, supposedly because 5 of the 9 appeals court judges were willing to overrule the Lahore verdict. One of the pro-Bhutto judges was due to retire in July. Chief Justice S. Anwarul Haq presided over the trial, despite being close to Zia-ul-Haq, even serving as Acting President when Zia-ul-Haq was out of the country. Bhutto's lawyers managed to secure Bhutto the right to conduct his own defense before the Supreme Court. On December 18, 1978, Bhutto made his appearance in public before a packed courtroom in Rawalpindi and addressed the court for four days continuously. On February 6, 1979 the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Bhutto appealed to the court to review its decision but the plea was rejected on March 24.

International pressure had mounted on General Zia-ul-Haq to commute Bhutto's death sentence. Despite personal appeals from various heads of state, Zia refused to commute the sentence. Bhutto was executed by hanging in the early hours of the morning of April 4. His remains were taken to Larkana, where he was buried in a public ceremony near his family home.

Singapore

In Singapore, mandatory hanging using the long-drop method is currently used as punishment for various crimes, such as drug trafficking, kidnapping and unauthorized possession of firearms. .

• A 25-year old Australian, Nguyen Tuong Van, was hanged on December 2, 2005 after being convicted of drug trafficking in 2002. Numerous efforts from both the Australian government, Queen's Counsels and petitions from organizations such as Amnesty International failed to persuade Singapore to rescind its decision.
• A 24-year old Malaysian, Took Leng How, was hanged on November 2, 2006 after being convicted of the murder of Huang Na in 2004.

Soviet Union

Similar to many other countries, the Russian Empire used the death penalty for a wide range of crimes. The death penalty was officially outlawed shortly after the revolution of 1917, but later permitted the use of such penalty for soldiers on the front. In the next several decades, the death penalty was alternatively permitted and prohibited, but during Stalin's reign, the death penalty was used in a large number of cases. Death penalty is still technically allowed, but currently under a moratorium. Hanging is no longer among the methods of execution.

• In the Soviet Union, the last persons to be sentenced to death by hanging were Andrey Vlasov and 11 other officers of his army on August 1, 1946.

United Kingdom

As a form of judicial execution in England, hanging is thought to date from the Saxon period, approximately around 400. Records of the names of British hangmen begin with Thomas de Warblynton in the 1360s; complete records extend from the 1500s to the last hangmen, Robert Leslie Stewart and Harry Allen, who conducted the last British executions in 1964.

In 1965 Parliament passed the "Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act" abolishing capital punishment for murder. And with the introduction of the Human Rights Act in 1998, the death penalty was officially abolished for all crimes in both civilian and military cases.

• The last woman to be hanged was Ruth Ellis on July 13 1955 by Albert Pierrepoint who was a prominent hangman in the 20th century in England.
• The last hanging in Great Britain happened in 1964, when Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester was executed for the murder of John Alan West.

United States

At present, only the states of Washington and New Hampshire still retain hanging as an option. Laws in Delaware were changed in 1996 to specify lethal injection, except for those convicted prior to 1996 who were sentenced to hanging. These convicts were allowed to choose lethal injection, but in 1996 Billy Bailey, who was given the choice, chose to hang. This was the last hanging in the country. Since the hanging of Bailey, no Delaware prisoner fits in this category, thus the practice is ended de facto, and the gallows have been dismantled. In New Hampshire, if it is found to be "impractical" to carry out the punishment of death by lethal injection, then the condemned will under the law be hanged. Other forms of capital punishment, such as the electric chair and more recently lethal injection, have largely replaced hanging.

The last public hanging legally conducted in the United States (and also the last public execution in the United States) was that of Rainey Bethea, who was publicly hanged on August 14 1936, in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Hanging in popular culture

• The word game hangman uses a stick-figure drawing of a hanged person as a method of keeping score; when the figure is complete, the player has lost.

• In some films, for example, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Back to the Future Part III, victims are often saved by their accomplices who shoot the rope with a gun just in time. The television show MythBusters asserted that this was not possible, and that it took several well-placed shots to break the rope.

• According to urban legend, hanging frequently produces an erection in men at death. Supposedly this is where the term "well hung" originated as witnesses to the hanging would remove the men's pants and examine the size of his penis if the erection was particularly large or noticeable.

Grammar

In standard usage, the past tense of the verb "to hang" when referring to an execution or death by hanging is "hanged", whereas in other contexts it is "hung". It should also be noted that when speaking of the punishment "hung, drawn and quartered"; "hung" is the correct usage, due to the fact that the victim is not intended to die from the hanging itself.

References

1. The process of judicial hanging, Capital Punishment U.K., www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk
2. "Statistics about suicide". WrongDiagnosis.com.
3. Suicide Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.
4. Trends in suicide by method in England and Wales, 1979 to 2001 (PDF), Office of National Statistics. URL accessed on 2006-05-16.
5. "How hanging causes death". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
6. ^ Countries that have abandoned the use of the death penalty, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, November 8, 2005
7. Death penalty in Australia, New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties
8. ^ Capital Punishment Worldwide, MSN Encarta
9. Susan Munroe, History of Capital Punishment in Canada, About: Canada Online,
10. Simpson, James (1997). Simpson's Contemporary Quotations. Collins. pp. 672 pages. ISBN 0-06-270137-1.
11. Sakhrani, Monica; Adenwalla, Maharukh; Economic & Political Weekly, "Death Penalty - Case for Its Abolition"
12. Kumara, Sarath; World Socialist Web Site; "West Bengal carries out first hanging in India in a decade"
13. "Iran executes 2 gay teenagers". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
14. "Exclusive interview with gay activists in Iran on situation of gays, recent executions of gay teens and the future". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
15. Clark, Richard; The process of Judicial Hanging
16. "More bombs bring death to Iraq". Mail & Guardian Online. 2006-03-10. Retrieved 2006-04-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging". CNN.com. 2006-05-11. Retrieved 2006-05-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
18. Frank, Katherine (2002). Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. USA: Houghton Mifflin. p. 438. ISBN 0-395-73097-X.
19. "Singapore clings to death penalty". Sunday Times (South Africa). 2005-11-21. Retrieved 2006-04-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
20. "Section 630.5, Procedures in Capital Murder". Retrieved 2006-04-27.
21. "Word usage: Hanged or hung?" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-04-27.

See also

• Autoerotic asphyxiation
• Capital punishment
• Death erection
• Executioner
• Gallows
• Hangman (game)
• Hand of Glory
• Hanging in NDH (Croatia)
• Hanging Judge
• Hangman's knot
• Jack Ketch
• Lists of executed people
• List of suicides
• Lynching
• Official Table of Drops

External links

• Hanging injuries and strangulation

• Execution methods
• Human body positions
• Deaths by hanging