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126-557: In modern usage the term has come to mean almost exclusively a scaffold or gibbet used for execution by hanging . The term " gallows " was derived from a Proto-Germanic word galgô that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term galga in his Gothic Testament to refer to the cross of Christ , until the use of the Latin term (crux = cross) prevailed. Gallows can take several forms: Gallows may be permanent, partly acting as

252-471: A global moratorium on executions , with support for eventual abolition. Execution of criminals and dissidents has been used by nearly all societies since the beginning of civilisations on Earth. Until the nineteenth century, without developed prison systems, there was frequently no workable alternative to ensure deterrence and incapacitation of criminals. In pre-modern times the executions themselves often involved torture with painful methods, such as

378-601: A guillotine -like device known as a Fallbeil ("falling axe") since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution in Germany until the abolition of the death penalty in West Germany in 1949. It was last used in communist East Germany in 1966. In Nazi Germany , the Fallbeil was reserved for common criminals and people convicted of political crimes , including treason . Members of

504-406: A guillotine . An executioner who carries out executions by beheading is sometimes called a headsman. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, a car or industrial accident, improperly administered execution by hanging or other violent injury. The national laws of Saudi Arabia and Yemen permit beheading. Under Sharia , which exclusively applies to Muslims, beheading is also

630-567: A sword , and commoners with an axe . The last executions by decapitation in Finland in 1825, Norway in 1876, Faroe Islands in 1609, and in Iceland in 1830 were carried out with axes. The same was the case in Denmark in 1892. Sweden continued the practice for a few decades, executing its second to last criminal—mass murderer Johan Filip Nordlund —by axe in 1900. It was replaced by the guillotine, which

756-608: A UN report from Congolese refugees, they believed the Bana Mura and Kamuina Nsapu militias have "magical powers" as a result of drinking the blood of decapitated victims, making them invincible. Besides the massive decapitations (like the beheading of 40 members of the State Police), a globally notorious case happened in March 2017 to Swedish politician Zaida Catalán and American UN expert Michael Sharp, who were kidnapped and executed during

882-546: A basic right in its Poljica Statute of 1440. Sir Thomas More 's Utopia , published in 1516, debated the benefits of the death penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm conclusion. More was himself executed for treason in 1535. More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene (" On Crimes and Punishments "), published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not only

1008-560: A broken neck rather than through strangulation , especially if extra weights were fixed to their ankles. During the era of public execution in London , England, a prominent gallows stood at Tyburn , on what is now Marble Arch . Later executions occurred outside Newgate Prison , where the Old Bailey now stands. Execution (legal) Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Capital punishment , also known as

1134-530: A cherry tree in an orchard. In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty theft or stealing cattle. The severity of the so-called Bloody Code was often tempered by juries who refused to convict, or judges, in the case of petty theft, who arbitrarily set the value stolen at below the statutory level for a capital crime. In Nazi Germany , there were three types of capital punishment; hanging, decapitation, and death by shooting. Also, modern military organisations employed capital punishment as

1260-491: A coffin while desecrating a tomb. Decapitation was the method of execution prescribed for more serious crimes such as treason and sedition. Despite the great discomfort involved, most of the Tang Chinese preferred strangulation to decapitation, as a result of the traditional Tang Chinese belief that the body is a gift from the parents and that it is, therefore, disrespectful to one's ancestors to die without returning one's body to

1386-579: A few actively retain it; less than half of countries in Africa retain it; and the majority of countries in Asia retain it, for example, China , Japan and India . Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when countries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it became an entry condition for the EU. The United States is a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital punishment for decades,

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1512-591: A firing squad was used (including that of Jean Bastien-Thiry ), the guillotine was the only legal method of execution from 1791, when it was introduced by the Legislative Assembly during the last days of the kingdom French Revolution , until 1981. Before the revolution, beheading had typically been reserved for noblemen and carried out manually. In 1981, President François Mitterrand abolished capital punishment and issued commutations for those whose sentences had not been carried out. The first person executed by

1638-439: A form of deterrence as opposed to retribution, can be traced back to Cesare Beccaria , whose influential treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764) was the first detailed analysis of capital punishment to demand the abolition of the death penalty. In England, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, called for the abolition of the death penalty. Beccaria, and later Charles Dickens and Karl Marx noted

1764-478: A legal punishment in Zamfara State , Nigeria . In practice, Saudi Arabia is the only country that continues to behead its offenders regularly as a punishment for capital crimes. Cases of decapitation by suicidal hanging, suicide by train decapitation and by guillotine are known. Less commonly, decapitation can also refer to the removal of the head from a body that is already dead. This might be done to take

1890-463: A limited time even after connection to the brain is lost, responding to any nearby stimulus. In addition, the bodies of chickens and turtles may continue to move temporarily after decapitation. Although head transplantation by the reattachment of blood vessels has seen some very limited success in animals, a fully functional reattachment of a severed human head (including repair of the spinal cord , muscles, and other critically important tissues)

2016-407: A means of maintaining military discipline. In the past, cowardice , absence without leave, desertion , insubordination , shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often crimes punishable by death (see decimation and running the gauntlet ). One method of execution, since firearms came into common use, has also been firing squad, although some countries use execution with a single shot to

2142-418: A means of protection of the latter vis-à-vis criminals. In the last several centuries, with the emergence of modern nation states , justice came to be increasingly associated with the concept of natural and legal rights . The period saw an increase in standing police forces and permanent penitential institutions. Rational choice theory , a utilitarian approach to criminology which justifies punishment as

2268-616: A mission near the village of Ngombe in Kasaï Province . The UN was reportedly horrified when video footage of the executions surfaced in April that same year, where some grisly details led to assume ritual components of the beheading: the perpetrators first cut the hair of both victims, and then one of them beheaded Catalán only, because it would "increase his power", which may be linked to the fact that Congolese militias are particularly brutal in their acts of violence toward women and children. In

2394-570: A more honorable instrument of death. Those who could verify that they were Roman citizens were to be beheaded, rather than undergoing crucifixion . In the Roman Republic of the early 1st century BC, it became the tradition for the severed heads of public enemies—such as the political opponents of Marius and Sulla —to be publicly displayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum after execution. Perhaps

2520-417: A more unified system of justice which formalized the relation between the different "social classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest and most famous example is Code of Hammurabi which set the different punishment and compensation, according to the different class or group of victims and perpetrators. The Torah/Old Testament lays down the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, practicing magic, violation of

2646-521: A period of 10 seconds that have been linked to nociception across a number of different species of animals, including rats. Some animals (such as cockroaches ) can survive decapitation and die not because of the loss of the head directly, but rather because of starvation . A number of other animals, including snakes , and turtles , have also been known to survive for some time after being decapitated, as they have slower metabolisms and their nervous systems can continue to function at some capacity for

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2772-430: A pit, enclosed in a small shed, built into the gallery of a prison wing (with the beam resting in brackets on opposite walls), or in a purpose-built execution suite. Gallows can also be temporary. In some of the cases, they were even moved to the location of the crime. In England, pirates were typically executed using a temporary gallows, at low tide in the intertidal zone , then left for the sea to wash over them during

2898-482: A rapid fall of intracranial perfusion of blood"). A laboratory study testing for humane methods of euthanasia in awake animals used EEG monitoring to measure the time duration following decapitation for rats to become fully unconscious, unable to perceive distress and pain. It was estimated that this point was reached within 3–4 seconds, correlating closely with results found in other studies on rodents (2.7 seconds, and 3–6 seconds). The same study also suggested that

3024-406: A relatively painless form of death . If the instrument is blunt or the executioner is clumsy, repeated strokes might be required to sever the head, resulting in a prolonged and more painful death. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , and Mary, Queen of Scots required three strikes at their respective executions. The same could be said for the execution of Johann Friedrich Struensee , favorite of

3150-484: A religious context and compensation system. Compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material (for example, cattle, slaves, land) compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property or blood money or in some case an offer of a person for execution. The person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of

3276-427: A result, tens of thousands of women were prosecuted for witchcraft and executed through the witch trials of the early modern period (between the 15th and 18th centuries). The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as sodomy . In the early history of Islam (7th–11th centuries), there is a number of "purported (but mutually inconsistent) reports" ( athar ) regarding the punishments of sodomy ordered by some of

3402-471: A sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could: and thus, shaking her venerable grey locks, she ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck before he was able to give the fatal stroke. To ensure that the blow would be fatal, executioners' swords usually were blade-heavy two-handed swords. Likewise, if an axe

3528-548: A significant proportion of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to convert to Islam. Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would sell them as slaves to Muslim households where they were forced to convert to Islam . Many Christian martyrs were executed under

3654-567: A six-year moratorium on executions after the Peshawar school massacre during which 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar were killed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists, a group distinct from the Afghan Taliban , who condemned the attack. Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 convicts. In 2017, two major countries, Turkey and

3780-453: A sovereign collectivity, identifies itself with positive or the law in force of the city. In fact, it finds its guarantee in the death penalty which threatens all those who do not respect it." Plato saw the death penalty as a means of purification, because crimes are a "defilement". Thus, in the Laws , he considered necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of the object which caused

3906-850: A status beyond one's control, or without employing any significant due process procedures. Judicial murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of an innocent person by means of capital punishment. For example, the executions following the show trials in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge of 1936–1938 were an instrument of political repression. The top 3 countries by the number of executions are China , Iran and Saudi Arabia . As of 2021, 56 countries retain capital punishment , 111 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, seven have abolished it for ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 24 are abolitionist in practice. Although

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4032-423: A symbol of justice. The French word for gallows, potence , stems from the Latin word potentia , meaning "power". Many old prints of European cities show such a permanent gallows erected on a prominent hill outside the walls, or more commonly near the castle or other seat of justice. In the modern era the gallows were often installed inside a prison; freestanding on a scaffold in the yard, erected at ground level over

4158-473: A thousand cuts, was used from the close of the Tang dynasty (around 900) to its abolition in 1905. When a minister of the fifth grade or above received a death sentence the emperor might grant him a special dispensation allowing him to commit suicide in lieu of execution. Even when this privilege was not granted, the law required that the condemned minister be provided with food and ale by his keepers and transported to

4284-480: A trend toward abolishing capital punishment. Capital punishment has been completely abolished by 108 countries, a further seven have done so for all offences except under special circumstances and 26 more have abolished it in practice because they have not used it for at least 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice against carrying out executions. In the United States between 1972 and 1976

4410-523: Is decapitatus which was used to create decapitatio , the noun form of decapitatus , in Medieval Latin, whence the French word décapitation was produced. Humans have practiced capital punishment by beheading for millennia. The Narmer Palette (c. 3000 BCE) shows the first known depiction of decapitated corpses. The terms "capital offence", "capital crime", "capital punishment", derive from

4536-495: Is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent man to death." He argued that executing an accused criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof , until we would be convicting merely "according to the judge's caprice". Maimonides's concern was maintaining popular respect for law, and he saw errors of commission as much more threatening than errors of omission. While during

4662-556: Is commonly referred to as being "on death row ". Etymologically, the term capital ( lit.   ' of the head ' , derived via the Latin capitalis from caput , "head") refers to execution by beheading , but executions are carried out by many methods , including hanging , shooting , lethal injection , stoning , electrocution , and gassing . Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes , capital offences , or capital felonies , and vary depending on

4788-496: Is controversial, with many people, organisations, and religious groups holding differing views on whether it is ethically permissible. Amnesty International declares that the death penalty breaches human rights, specifically "the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." These rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , adopted by

4914-450: Is estimated that some 16,500 persons were guillotined in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945, a number that includes resistance fighters both within Germany itself and in countries occupied by Nazi forces . As these resistance fighters were not part of any regular army , they were considered common criminals and were in many cases transported to Germany for execution. Decapitation

5040-466: Is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of an arbitration system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour. "Acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies (as well as potential allies) that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished." In most countries that practice capital punishment, it

5166-635: Is not likely. Early versions of the guillotine included the Halifax Gibbet , which was used in Halifax , England, from 1286 until the 17th century, and the " Maiden ", employed in Edinburgh from the 16th through the 18th centuries. The modern form of the guillotine was invented shortly before the French Revolution with the aim of creating a quick and painless method of execution requiring little skill on

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5292-483: Is now reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries, sexual crimes , such as rape, fornication , adultery , incest , sodomy , and bestiality carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as Hudud , Zina , and Qisas crimes, such as apostasy (formal renunciation of the state religion ), blasphemy , moharebeh , hirabah , Fasad , Mofsed-e-filarz and witchcraft. In many countries that use

5418-619: The Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad (most notably al-Mu'tadid ), were often cruel in their punishments. In early modern England, the Buggery Act 1533 stipulated hanging as punishment for " buggery ". James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be executed for sodomy in 1835. In 1636 the laws of Puritan governed Plymouth Colony included a sentence of death for sodomy and buggery. The Massachusetts Bay Colony followed in 1641. Throughout

5544-477: The Anglo-Afghan Wars would behead enemy soldiers who were captured, such as British and Sikh soldiers. In Japan , decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offences. Samurai were often allowed to decapitate soldiers who had fled from battle, as it was considered cowardly. Decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment ). After

5670-499: The Bosnian Army . At least one case is documented and proven in court by the ICTY where mujahedin, members of 3rd Corps of Army BiH, beheaded Bosnian Serb Dragan Popović. In British history , beheading was typically used for noblemen, while commoners would be hanged; eventually, hanging was adopted as the standard means of non-military executions. The last actual execution by beheading

5796-513: The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Partly as a response to such excesses, civil rights organisations started to place increasing emphasis on the concept of human rights and an abolition of the death penalty. By continent, all European countries but one have abolished capital punishment; many Oceanian countries have abolished it; most countries in the Americas have abolished its use, while

5922-913: The Philippines , saw their executives making moves to reinstate the death penalty. In the same year, passage of the law in the Philippines failed to obtain the Senate's approval. On 29 December 2021, after a 20-year moratorium, the Kazakhstan government enacted the 'On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Abolition of the Death Penalty' signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as part of series of Omnibus reformations of

6048-739: The Sabbath , blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence suggests that actual executions were exceedingly rare, if they occurred at all. A further example comes from Ancient Greece , where the Athenian legal system replacing customary oral law was first written down by Draco in about 621 BC: the death penalty was applied for a particularly wide range of crimes, though Solon later repealed Draco's code and published new laws, retaining capital punishment only for intentional homicide, and only with victim's family permission. The word draconian derives from Draco's laws. The Romans also used

6174-582: The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War . In traditional China , decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment than strangulation , although strangulation caused more prolonged suffering. This was because in Confucian tradition, a person's body was a gift from their parents, and so it was therefore disrespectful to their ancestors to return their bodies to the grave dismembered. The Chinese, however, had other punishments, such as dismembering

6300-689: The Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 . One of the most notable executions by decapitation in Britain was that of King Charles I of England , who was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall in 1649, after being captured by parliamentarians during the English Civil War and tried for treason . In England, a bearded axe was used for beheading, with the blade's edge extending downwards from

6426-482: The Tang dynasty (618–907) when the death penalty was abolished. This was in the year 747, enacted by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756). When abolishing the death penalty, Xuanzong ordered his officials to refer to the nearest regulation by analogy when sentencing those found guilty of crimes for which the prescribed punishment was execution. Thus, depending on the severity of the crime a punishment of severe scourging with

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6552-688: The United Nations in 1948. In the European Union (EU), Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment. The Council of Europe , which has 46 member states, has worked to end the death penalty and no execution has taken place in its current member states since 1997. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, throughout the years from 2007 to 2020, eight non-binding resolutions calling for

6678-534: The White Rose resistance movement, a group of students in Munich that included siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl , were executed by decapitation. Contrary to popular myth, executions were generally not conducted face-up, and chief executioner Johann Reichhart was insistent on maintaining "professional" protocol throughout the era, having administered the death penalty during the earlier Weimar Republic . Nonetheless, it

6804-488: The breaking wheel , keelhauling , sawing , hanging, drawing and quartering , burning at the stake , crucifixion , flaying , slow slicing , boiling alive , impalement , mazzatello , blowing from a gun , schwedentrunk , and scaphism . Other methods which appear only in legend include the blood eagle and brazen bull . The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history. Most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that

6930-410: The death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide , is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence , and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution . A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and

7056-513: The early caliphs . Abu Bakr , the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate , apparently recommended toppling a wall on the culprit, or else burning him alive , while Ali ibn Abi Talib is said to have ordered death by stoning for one sodomite and had another thrown head-first from the top of the highest building in the town; according to Ibn Abbas , the latter punishment must be followed by stoning. Other medieval Muslim leaders, such as

7182-401: The 16th and 17th centuries, noblemen were sometimes executed by means of beheading. Examples include Anthony van Stralen, Lord of Merksem , Lamoral, Count of Egmont and Philip de Montmorency, Count of Horn . They were tied to a chair on a scaffold. The executioner used a knife to cut the head from the body. It was considered to be a more honourable death if the executioner started with cutting

7308-592: The 19th century, U.S. states repealed death sentences from their sodomy laws, with South Carolina being the last to do so in 1873. Historians recognise that during the Early Middle Ages , the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered religious discrimination , religious persecution , religious violence , and martyrdom multiple times at

7434-460: The Danish queen Caroline Matilda of Great Britain . Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury , is said to have required up to 10 strokes before decapitation was achieved. This particular story may, however, be apocryphal, as highly divergent accounts exist. Historian and philosopher David Hume , for example, relates the following about her death: She refused to lay her head on the block, or submit to

7560-410: The Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity , and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs . Despite the wide use of the death penalty, calls for reform were not unknown. The 12th-century Jewish legal scholar Moses Maimonides wrote: "It

7686-519: The Kazak legal system 'Listening State' initiative. In 724 AD in Japan, the death penalty was banned during the reign of Emperor Shōmu but the abolition only lasted a few years. In 818, Emperor Saga abolished the death penalty under the influence of Shinto and it lasted until 1156. In China, the death penalty was banned by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in 747 , replacing it with exile or scourging . However,

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7812-453: The Latin caput , "head", referring to the punishment for serious offences involving the forfeiture of the head; i.e. death by beheading. Some cultures, such as ancient Rome and Greece, regarded decapitation as the most honorable form of death. In the Middle Ages, many European nations continued to reserve the method only for nobles and royalty. In France, the French Revolution made it

7938-487: The Middle Ages the expiatory aspect of the death penalty was taken into account, this is no longer the case under the Lumières . These define the place of man within society no longer according to a divine rule, but as a contract established at birth between the citizen and the society, it is the social contract . From that moment on, capital punishment should be seen as useful to society through its dissuasive effect, but also as

8064-628: The ban only lasted 12 years. Following his conversion to Christianity in 988, Vladimir the Great abolished the death penalty in Kievan Rus' , along with torture and mutilation; corporal punishment was also seldom used. In England, a public statement of opposition was included in The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards , written in 1395. In the post-classical Republic of Poljica , life was ensured as

8190-553: The body into multiple pieces (similar to the English quartering ). In addition, there was also a practice of cutting the body at the waist , which was a common method of execution before being abolished in the early Qing dynasty due to the lingering death it caused. In some tales, people did not die immediately after decapitation. The British officer John Masters recorded in his autobiography that Pathans in British India during

8316-430: The brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common carotid artery , while all other organs are deprived of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function. The term beheading refers to the act of deliberately decapitating a person, either as a means of murder or as an execution ; it may be performed with an axe , sword , or knife , or by mechanical means such as

8442-470: The crime because the social system was based on tribes and clans, not individuals. Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as the Norsemen things . Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive alongside more advanced legal systems or be given recognition by courts (for example, trial by combat or blood money). One of the more modern refinements of the blood feud is the duel . In certain parts of

8568-464: The crime committed. It inspired Western criminal law until the 17th century, a time when the first reflections on the abolition of the death penalty appeared. The Twelve Tables , the body of laws handed down from archaic Rome, prescribe the death penalty for a variety of crimes including libel, arson and theft. During the Late Republic , there was consensus among the public and legislators to reduce

8694-429: The death of a man by accident. For the murderers, he considered that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully consented by the criminal. Homicide is thus a disease of the soul , which must be reeducated as much as possible, and, as a last resort, sentence to death if no rehabilitation is possible. According to Aristotle , for whom free will is proper to man, a person is responsible for their actions. If there

8820-453: The death penalty , drug trafficking and often drug possession is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption and financial crimes are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world, courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion , insubordination , and mutiny . Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in

8946-448: The death penalty for a wide range of offences. Protagoras (whose thought is reported by Plato ) criticised the principle of revenge, because once the damage is done it cannot be cancelled by any action. So, if the death penalty is to be imposed by society, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or for a dissuasive purpose. "The only right that Protagoras knows is therefore human right, which, established and sanctioned by

9072-577: The death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishments for wrongdoing generally included blood money compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning , banishment and execution. In tribal societies, compensation and shunning were often considered enough as a form of justice. The response to crimes committed by neighbouring tribes, clans or communities included a formal apology, compensation, blood feuds, and tribal warfare . A blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails, or an arbitration system

9198-741: The death penalty was abolished in 1867. The last execution in Brazil was 1876; from then on all the condemnations were commuted by the Emperor Pedro II until its abolition for civil offences and military offences in peacetime in 1891. The penalty for crimes committed in peacetime was then reinstated and abolished again twice (1938–1953 and 1969–1978), but on those occasions it was restricted to acts of terrorism or subversion considered "internal warfare" and all sentences were commuted and not carried out. Many countries have abolished capital punishment either in law or in practice. Since World War II , there has been

9324-528: The death penalty was declared unconstitutional based on the Furman v. Georgia case, but the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia case once again permitted the death penalty under certain circumstances. Further limitations were placed on the death penalty in Atkins v. Virginia (2002; death penalty unconstitutional for people with an intellectual disability ) and Roper v. Simmons (2005; death penalty unconstitutional if defendant

9450-454: The death penalty. In abolitionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolishing it. However, a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries to effectively end the moratorium on the death penalty. One notable example is Pakistan which in December 2014 lifted

9576-517: The development of modern prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalised form of punishment for even minor offences. In early modern Europe, a mass panic regarding witchcraft swept across Europe and later the European colonies in North America . During this period, there were widespread claims that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organised threat to Christendom . As

9702-409: The earliest being Michigan , where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today. The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which is hotly debated . In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived when a miscarriage of justice has occurred though this tends to cause legislative efforts to improve the judicial process rather than to abolish

9828-525: The early Meiji era. A similar scene is described in the last page of James Clavell's book Shōgun . Historically, decapitation had been the most common method of execution in Korea, until it was replaced by hanging in 1896. Professional executioners were called mangnani (망나니) and they were volunteered from death rows. Historically, decapitation had been the main method of execution in Thailand , until it

9954-435: The execution ground in a cart rather than having to walk there. Nearly all executions under the Tang dynasty took place in public as a warning to the population. The heads of the executed were displayed on poles or spears. When local authorities decapitated a convicted criminal, the head was boxed and sent to the capital as proof of identity and that the execution had taken place. In medieval and early modern Europe, before

10080-405: The following about Celtic head-hunting: They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil

10206-643: The following high tides. John the Painter was hanged in 1777 from the mizzenmast of HMS Arethusa for arson in royal dockyards , the highest temporary gallows erected in British history. The only surviving New Drop gallows in the UK is in Rutland County Museum . The gallows was portable and was set up on the gaol (jail) gatehouse roof when needed. This gallows was first used in 1813 to hang two burglars. The New Drop design

10332-522: The grave intact. Some further forms of capital punishment were practiced in the Tang dynasty, of which the first two that follow at least were extralegal. The first of these was scourging to death with the thick rod which was common throughout the Tang dynasty especially in cases of gross corruption. The second was truncation, in which the convicted person was cut in two at the waist with a fodder knife and then left to bleed to death. A further form of execution called Ling Chi ( slow slicing ), or death by/of

10458-544: The guillotine in France was highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier in April 1792. The last execution was of murderer Hamida Djandoubi , in Marseille, in 1977. Throughout its extensive overseas colonies and dependencies , the device was also used, including on St Pierre in 1889 and on Martinique as late as 1965. In Nordic countries , decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with

10584-483: The hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. As People of the Book , Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to dhimmi status (along with Jews , Samaritans , Gnostics , Mandeans , and Zoroastrians), which was inferior to the status of Muslims. Christians and other religious minorities thus faced religious discrimination and religious persecution in that they were banned from proselytising (for Christians, it

10710-487: The head as a trophy , as a secondary stage of an execution by hanging, for public display , to make the deceased more difficult to identify, for cryonics , or for other, more esoteric reasons. The word decapitation has its roots in the Late Latin word decapitare . The meaning of the word decapitare can be discerned from its morphemes de- (down, from) + capit- (head). The past participle of decapitare

10836-450: The head or neck. Various authoritarian states employed the death penalty as a potent means of political oppression . Anti-Soviet author Robert Conquest claimed that more than one million Soviet citizens were executed during the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, almost all by a bullet to the back of the head. Mao Zedong publicly stated that "800,000" people had been executed in China during

10962-516: The heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold. Both the Greeks and Romans found the Celtic decapitation practices shocking and

11088-471: The incidence of capital punishment. This opinion led to voluntary exile being prescribed in place of the death penalty, whereby a convict could either choose to leave in exile or face execution. A historic debate, followed by a vote, took place in the Roman Senate to decide the fate of Catiline 's allies when he attempted to seize power in December, 63 BC. Cicero, then Roman consul , argued in support of

11214-410: The incidence of increased violent criminality at the times and places of executions. Official recognition of this phenomenon led to executions being carried out inside prisons, away from public view. In England in the 18th century, when there was no police force, Parliament drastically increased the number of capital offences to more than 200. These were mainly property offences, for example cutting down

11340-470: The injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of social welfare , of torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the book, Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire , abolished the death penalty in the then-independent Grand Duchy of Tuscany , the first abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked executions (the last

11466-614: The island was independent) was the first legislative assembly in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1824. Tahiti commuted the death penalty to banishment. In the United States, Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on 18 May 1846. The short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic banned capital punishment in 1849. Venezuela followed suit and abolished the death penalty in 1863 and San Marino did so in 1865. The last execution in San Marino had taken place in 1468. In Portugal, after legislative proposals in 1852 and 1863,

11592-711: The jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such as murder , assassination , mass murder , child murder , aggravated rape , terrorism , aircraft hijacking , war crimes , crimes against humanity , and genocide , along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow government , treason , espionage , sedition , and piracy . Also, in some cases, acts of recidivism , aggravated robbery, and kidnapping , in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug possession, are capital crimes or enhancements. However, states have also imposed punitive executions, for an expansive range of conduct, for political or religious beliefs and practices, for

11718-401: The killing of conspirators without judgment by decision of the Senate ( Senatus consultum ultimum ) and was supported by the majority of senators; among the minority voices opposed to the execution, the most notable was Julius Caesar . The custom was different for foreigners who did not hold rights as Roman citizens , and especially for slaves, who were transferrable property. Crucifixion

11844-607: The latter put an end to them when Celtic regions came under their control. According to Paul Jacobsthal , "Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world." Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and

11970-456: The majority of countries have abolished capital punishment, over half of the world's population live in countries where the death penalty is retained, including India, the U.S., Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and DR Congo. As of 2023, only 2 out of 38 OECD member countries (the United States and Japan ) allow capital punishment. Capital punishment

12096-496: The massive wave which can be recorded by EEG monitoring approximately one minute after decapitation ultimately reflects brain death. Other studies indicate that electrical activity in the brain has been demonstrated to persist for 13 to 14 seconds following decapitation (although it is disputed as to whether such activity implies that pain is perceived), and a 2010 study reported that decapitation of rats generated responses in EEG indices over

12222-470: The most famous beheading was that of Cicero who, on instructions from Mark Antony , had his hands (which had penned the Philippicae against Antony) and his head cut off and nailed up for display in this manner. In France, until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981, the main method of execution had been by beheading by means of the guillotine . Other than a small number of military cases in which

12348-464: The noose around the person's neck while he or she was on a ladder or in a horse-drawn cart underneath. Removing the ladder or driving the cart away left the person dangling by the neck to slowly strangle. A noted example of this type of execution in the USA was the hanging of British spy John André in 1780. Later, a "scaffold" with a trapdoor tended to be used, so victims dropped down and died quickly from

12474-476: The only legal method of execution for all criminals regardless of class, one of the period's many symbolic changes. Others have regarded beheading as dishonorable and contemptuous, such as the Japanese troops who beheaded prisoners during World War II. In recent times, it has become associated with terrorism. If a headsman's axe or sword is sharp and his aim is precise, decapitation is quick and thought to be

12600-463: The part of the operator. Decapitation by guillotine became a common mechanically assisted form of execution . The French observed a strict code of etiquette surrounding such executions. For example, a man named Legros, one of the assistants at the execution of Charlotte Corday , was imprisoned for three months and dismissed for slapping the face of the victim after the blade had fallen in order to see whether any flicker of life remained. The guillotine

12726-523: The search for the missing remains, arrived to a ritual place in Moyo Musila where "parts of bodies, hands and heads" were cut and used for rituals, where they lost track of the victim's head. During the 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes , Yazidi-Armenian serviceman Kyaram Sloyan was decapitated by Azerbaijani servicemen. Several reports of decapitation, along with other types of mutilation of Armenian POWs by Azerbaijani soldiers, emerged in 2020 during

12852-540: The surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints who carry their own severed heads , right down to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , where the Green Knight picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off in a beheading game , just as Saint Denis carried his head to the top of Montmartre . A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in

12978-460: The tales of Connemara 's Saint Féchín , who after being beheaded by Vikings carried his head to the Holy Well on Omey Island and on dipping it into the well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health. Pothinus matched Mark Antony in crime: They slew the noblest Romans of their time. The helpless victims they decapitated, An act of infamy with shame related. One head

13104-588: The then emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, abolished in his immediate lands in 1787 capital punishment, which though only lasted until 1795, after both had died and Leopolds son Francis abolished it in his immediate lands. In Tuscany it was reintroduced in 1790 after Leopolds departure becoming emperor. Only after 1831 capital punishment was again at times stopped, though it took until 2007 to abolish capital punishment in Italy completely. The Kingdom of Tahiti (when

13230-461: The thick rod or of exile to the remote Lingnan region might take the place of capital punishment. However, the death penalty was restored only 12 years later in 759 in response to the An Lushan Rebellion . At this time in the Tang dynasty only the emperor had the authority to sentence criminals to execution. Under Xuanzong capital punishment was relatively infrequent, with only 24 executions in

13356-468: The tip of the shaft. The Celts of western Europe long pursued a "cult of the severed head" , as evidenced by both Classical literary descriptions and archaeological contexts. This cult played a central role in their temples and religious practices and earned them a reputation as head hunters among the Mediterranean peoples. Diodorus Siculus , in his 1st-century Historical Library (5.29.4) wrote

13482-520: The trial that followed investigations after the bodies were discovered, and according to a testimony of a primary school teacher from Bunkonde, near the village of Moyo Musuila where the executions took place, he witnessed a teenage militant carrying the young woman's head, but despite the efforts of the investigation, the head was never found. According to a report published on 29 May 2019, the Monusco peacekeeping military mission led by Colonel Luis Mangini, in

13608-462: The victim had sliced his own abdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a katana to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck—to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a severed head rolling about, or towards them; such an occurrence would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword

13734-430: The world, nations in the form of ancient republics, monarchies or tribal oligarchies emerged. These nations were often united by common linguistic, religious or family ties. Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred by conquest of neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of royalty, nobility, various commoners and slaves emerged. Accordingly, the systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into

13860-423: The year 730 and 58 executions in the year 736. The two most common forms of execution in the Tang dynasty were strangulation and decapitation, which were the prescribed methods of execution for 144 and 89 offences respectively. Strangulation was the prescribed sentence for lodging an accusation against one's parents or grandparents with a magistrate, scheming to kidnap a person and sell them into slavery and opening

13986-480: Was Pompey 's, who brought triumphs home, The other Cicero 's, the voice of Rome. — Martial , Epigram I:60 (Trans. by Garry Wills ) The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded decapitation as a comparatively honorable form of execution for criminals. The traditional procedure, however, included first being tied to a stake and whipped with rods. Axes were used by the Romans, and later swords, which were considered

14112-413: Was a crime, a judge must define the penalty allowing the crime to be annulled by compensating it. This is how pecuniary compensation appeared for criminals the least recalcitrant and whose rehabilitation is deemed possible. However, for others, he argued, the death penalty is necessary. This philosophy aims on the one hand to protect society and on the other hand to compensate to cancel the consequences of

14238-460: Was a form of punishment first employed by the Romans against slaves who rebelled , and throughout the Republican era was reserved for slaves , bandits , and traitors . Intended to be a punishment, a humiliation, and a deterrent, the condemned could take up to a few days to die. Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses to decompose and to be eaten by animals. There was a time in

14364-558: Was abolished for all offences in 1998. Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, first entering into force in 2003, prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances for those states that are party to it, including the United Kingdom from 2004. Decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives

14490-599: Was also considered a very severe and degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of Sugitani Zenjubō  [ ja ] (杉谷善住坊), who attempted to assassinate Oda Nobunaga , a prominent daimyō , in 1570. After being caught, Zenjubō was buried alive in the ground with only his head out, and the head was slowly sawn off with a bamboo saw by passers-by for several days (punishment by sawing; [[[nokogiribiki]]  [ ja ] ] Error: {{Lang}}: Non-latn text/Latn script subtag mismatch ( help ) ( 鋸挽き ). These unusual punishments were abolished in

14616-475: Was considered a "dishonorable" death, in contrast to execution by firing squad . In the Democratic Republic of Congo , the conflict and ethnic massacre between local army and Kamuina Nsapu rebels has caused several deaths and atrocities such as rape and mutilation. One of them is decapitation, both a fearsome way to intimidate victims as well as an act that may include ritualistic elements. According to

14742-464: Was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out—avoiding dishonor to him and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored by taking part. In the late Sengoku period , decapitation was performed as soon as the person chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen. Decapitation (without seppuku)

14868-561: Was forbidden to evangelise or spread Christianity ) in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs. Under sharia , Non-Muslims were obligated to pay jizya and kharaj taxes, together with periodic heavy ransom levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed

14994-424: Was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000, Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating Cities for Life Day . Leopolds brother Joseph ,

15120-489: Was not very effective as the drop was too short to break the neck cleanly. If a crime took place inside, gallows were sometimes erected—and the criminal hanged—at the front door. In some cases of multiple offenders it was not uncommon to erect multiple temporary gallows, with one noose per condemned criminal. In one case a condemned strangled to death in agony for forty minutes until he finally died from asphyxiation . Hanging people from early gallows sometimes involved fitting

15246-420: Was of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat on 9 April 1747, while a number of convicts were beheaded posthumously up to the early 19th century. (Typically traitors were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered , a method which had already been discontinued.) Beheading was degraded to a secondary means of execution, including for treason, with the abolition of drawing and quartering in 1870 and finally abolished by

15372-555: Was replaced by shooting in 1934. Execution by beheading was one of the most common forms of execution in Vietnam under the feudal system. This form of execution still existed in the South Vietnam regime until 1962. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) there were a number of ritual beheadings of Serbs and Croats who were taken as prisoners of war by mujahideen members of

15498-441: Was under age 18 at the time the crime was committed). In the United States, 23 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. ban capital punishment. In the United Kingdom, it was abolished for murder (leaving only treason, piracy with violence , arson in royal dockyards and a number of wartime military offences as capital crimes) for a five-year experiment in 1965 and permanently in 1969, the last execution having taken place in 1964. It

15624-559: Was used for the first and only time on Johan Alfred Ander in 1910. Finland 's official beheading axe resides today at the Museum of Crime in Vantaa . It is a broad-bladed two-handed axe. It was last used when murderer Tahvo Putkonen was executed in 1825, the last execution in peacetime in Finland. In Spain executions were carried out by various methods including strangulation by the garrotte . In

15750-634: Was used in France during the French Revolution and remained the normal judicial method in both peacetime and wartime into the 1970s, although the firing squad was used in certain cases. France abolished the death penalty in 1981. The guillotine was also used in Algeria before the French relinquished control of it, as shown in Gillo Pontecorvo 's film The Battle of Algiers . Many German states had used

15876-701: Was used, it almost invariably was wielded with both hands. Decapitation is quickly fatal to humans and most animals . Unconsciousness occurs within seconds without circulating oxygenated blood ( brain ischemia ). Cell death and irreversible brain damage occurs after 3–6 minutes with no oxygen, due to excitotoxicity . Some anecdotes suggest more extended persistence of human consciousness after decapitation, but most doctors consider this unlikely and consider such accounts to be misapprehensions of reflexive twitching rather than deliberate movement, since deprivation of oxygen must cause nearly immediate coma and death ("[Consciousness is] probably lost within 2–3 seconds, due to

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