FEATURED POST

Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

Published
Image
Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Why the guillotine was the first “egalitarian” execution tool

Published
Most of us know the basics of the guillotine - it's a French contraption suitable for killing royalty and any pesky roving Highlanders. But while we associate the old chopper with taking care of princes of the universe, its real purpose was egalitarianism. Or, at least, that was its stated purpose. Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin was sickened by the spectacle of public execution and wanted to abolish it completely. In the late 1700s, this was unthinkable. After some strategizing, Guillotin got an angle on it. There was a reason why the rich paid a purse to executioners. They wanted to ensure that their deaths were quick and painless. The poor didn't have that luxury. They often didn't even have the luxury or the power to bribe their way into deaths that might be made painless. Slow hanging, draw-and-quartering, and burning weren't unusual. The rich, on the other hand, got themselves such sweet deals that some nobility demanded that they be hanged with a silk rope, as a sign of status.

In the 1790s, after the resentment of the privileges of the rich and titled had boiled over, Guillotin and his supporters made the point that "The Machine" meant a humane, painless death for rich and poor. They figured that taking away the spectacle was the first step towards abolishing the death penalty altogether. They were, to put it mildly, wrong. A civilian assembly granted the quick, painless death to everyone, but the sheer scale of the executions made them a spectator sport. The man who wanted to abolish the death penalty saw his name forever associated with a machine designed for execution.


Source: io9.com, August 9, 2012

Related article:
Death Penalty News: The search for a humane way to kill
14 hours ago
The search for a humane way to kill. The 14 December 2006 execution of inmate Angel Diaz in Florida took a total of 34 minutes, and a second round of injections to complete. Witnesses to the execution reported that Diaz...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/




On October 9, 2011, France celebrated the 30th anniversary of the enactment by President François Mitterrand of the law abolishing the death penalty. Thanks to the abolitionists of the time, chief among them Justice Minister Robert Badinter, France became the 35th country to abolish capital punishment. Today, France's voice continues to be heard, through advocacy groups such as Ensemble Contre La Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty - ECPM), to achieve one day universal abolition. http://www.abolition.fr
Location: France
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
Image
Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
Read more

Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

Published
Image
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
Read more

Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

Published
Image
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Read more

Missouri | Man Facing Execution Next Month Is Hospitalized With Heart Problem

Published
Image
David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.
Read more

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

Published
Image
The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
Read more