Hanging

Methods of Judicial hanging.

there are four ways of performing a jusicial hanging. Suspension hanging, the short drop, the standard drop & longdrop

Short Drop

Performed by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, house, or other vehicle with the noose around the neck.
The object is then moved away, leaving the person danging from the rope.

Suspension hanging

The condemned prisoner slowly dies or strangulation, which takes ten – twenty minutes. Resulting in more prolonged & painful death

Pole Method

Condemned is made to stand before a specialized vertical pole or pillar, approximately 10 feet in height.
A rope is attached around the condemneds feet and routed through a pulley at the base of the pole.
The condemned is hoisted to the top of the pole by means or a sling running across the chest and under the armpits.
A narrow diameter noose is looped around the prisoners neck, then secured to a hook mounted at the top of the pole.
The chest sling is released, and the prisoner is rapidly jerked downward by the assistant executioners via foot rope.
The executioners stand on a stepped platform approximately 4 feet high besides the condemned and guides the head downwards with his hands simulataneous to the efforts of his assistant.

Standard Drop

Involves a drop of between 4-6 feet and came into use from 1866
Concidered a humane improvement on the short drop because it was intended to be enough to break the persons neck, causing immediate paralysis and immobillsation.

Long Drop

Also known as measured drop.
instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the persons height and weight were 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, but not so much that the person was decapivated the careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose (so that the head was jerked back as the rope tightened) contributed to breaking the neck.

Execution by firing squad

Particulary common in the military and in times of war
Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice
Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gun shot to a vital organ usually kills relatively quickly
To avoid disfigurement of multiple shots are typically instructed to aim at the heart.
The prisoner is typically blinded or hooded, as well as restrained, although in some cases prisoners have asked to be allowed to face the firing squad with out their eyes covered.