May 20th, 2012

To date, the death penalty on our planet has been abolished in an area equal to South America ... So
that if you think that the electric chair is a relic of the past, you are deeply mistaken. Truth,
the guillotine is no longer used - since 1939 ...

It's terrible, but everything you read about in the scariest books in democratic North America
still exists safely ... And this country still has something to brag about in terms of guns
executions, and in different states they have a variety of modifications! .. And it all started with the courts
Lynch - that is, mass hangings ...






Sometimes the perpetrators were also burned to be sure ...



Negroes were hanged, at least in the South, everywhere (Lynching has a huge number of victims in the 20th century, in 1901
130 people were lynched in a year)...



The Indians were often executed by punishers who avenged the massacre of the white population. In the Wild West at the same time
the sheriffs acted, executing at their own discretion (sometimes with their own hands). The death penalty was used in the USA
also for political reasons against socialists, communists, anarchists.



By the end of the 19th century, they were no longer hung up somehow, but professionally. A "professional" gallows was approved, so to speak,
on which it was possible to hang people of any height ... It is in front of you ...



The prisoner's hands were bound...



And a special bag was put on his head - so that those watching the execution would not be shocked by the expression on his face
gallows...



At the end of the 19th century, the electric chair was invented in the USA, first used in 1890 ... It was a breakthrough ...



It very soon came into general use, and in many states superseded the hanging. And with the advent of the chair
came up with the so-called "open executions", where the city administration was invited (in special cases
state) and relatives of the victim of the perpetrator ...



Gradually, the chair improved and improved ...



A special mask was put on the head of the condemned...



Attach separate contacts to hands...



But from these improvements, the suffering of the prisoner has changed little ...



Although death for the average person comes quickly, there are cases in the history of executions when the condemned
I had to "kill" 20-30 minutes ...



The Americans introduced the gas chamber even earlier than in Germany, namely in 1924 ...



For execution, potassium cyanide vapors are used, and if the convict breathes deeply, death occurs almost
immediately...



Then came a truly infernal invention - the Armchair of Death. The method is still performed in Utah and Idaho,
as an alternative to lethal injection. To carry out the execution, the prisoner is tied to a chair with leather straps.
across the waist and head. The stool is surrounded by sandbags that absorb blood. A black hood is worn
head of the condemned. The doctor locates the heart and attaches a round target. At a distance of 20
feet are five shooters. Each of them aims a rifle through a gap in the canvas and fires. A prisoner
dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or rupture
lungs. If the arrows miss the heart, either by accident or on purpose, the condemned man dies a slow death...



Soon the last type of American execution appeared, now the most common, and in many states the only one:
lethal injection ... Before you is a special couch (gurney) for the condemned ...



The composition of the lethal injection was developed by physician Stanley Deutsch. It consists of three chemical components. First
substance - sodium pentothal - plunges the condemned into a deep sleep. Pavulon - paralyzes the muscles. Finally,
potassium chloride stops the work of the heart muscle. After an examination at the University of Texas, this
method has been approved. It soon became widespread. Opponents of the death penalty gave him
the name of the "Texas cocktail". Today, of the 38 states that, after 1976, re-introduced on their territory
the death penalty, only Nebraska does not resort to injections, preferring the electric chair to them.



Poisons are stored like this...



The killing of the prisoner takes place with poison injected into a vein on his right leg ...



But the most terrible state of affairs with executions is still in Asia and the Middle East ... There are still means
executions used since ancient times: stoning, beheading with a sword and hanging. Frame in front of you
city ​​execution - a man is simply lynched by a crowd ...



But these quite decent people throw these stones at him ...



And they are simply trying to dismantle the guilty ...



The corpse, which is being dragged to demonstrate to the "boss" ...



Hanging...



And just suicide...



And in China, execution is still widely used. They shoot in this country the keepers of brothels,
dishonest officials, dissidents, and so on and so forth...



Moreover, especially mass executions happen before the New Year ...



Among other things, such sentences are pronounced publicly, in front of a large gathering of people ...



The execution is carried out by conscripts...



And the bodies are buried in specially designated places - they are not given to relatives ...



Russia ... On May 16, 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree "On the phased reduction
application of the death penalty in connection with Russia's entry into the Council of Europe. Since August 1996, in accordance with this
by decree, death sentences are not carried out. Suicide bombers are serving life sentences...
Before you is a very rare picture of the prisoners of the Orenburg prison "Black Dolphin" ...



There are three more such prisons in Russia. They don't come out. Nobody ever. So human rights activists bitterly joke "If they
residents were able to vote on the use of the death penalty, most of them would vote yes.



Look how discreet it looks, this most famous prison in Russia ... Those who are inside this
red-brick building dating back to Catherine's time, when there was already lifelong penal servitude, never
did not see the sculptures of those same dolphins from the fountains, which gave this terrible institution such
poetic name...



Today in Russia there are more than three and a half thousand people sentenced to life
conclusion. And "Black Dolphin" today is the largest specialized prison for death row...

Most people nowadays hope that they will die peacefully in their sleep, surrounded by their loved ones. But for the victims of these 15 methods of execution practiced throughout history, things were not so rosy. Whether it's being burned alive, or slowly cutting off limbs, these deaths are sure to shock you. Particularly sophisticated methods of torture were used in the Middle Ages, but in other periods of time, torture was one of the most popular methods of punishment, or obtaining information. It is amazing that even 100 years ago this practice was considered everyday, thousands of people gathered for it, as they gather for a concert or exhibition in our time.

15. Burial alive.

Burial alive begins our list of common executions. Dating back to BC, this punishment was used for individuals as well as for groups. The victim is usually tied up and then placed in a hole and slowly covered in earth. One of the most widespread uses of this form of execution was the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, when Japanese soldiers mass-executed Chinese civilians alive in what was referred to as the "Ditches of Ten Thousand Corpses".

14. Pit with snakes.

One of the oldest forms of torture and execution, snake pits were a very standard form of capital punishment. The criminals were thrown into a deep pit of poisonous snakes, dying after being attacked by angry and hungry snakes. Several notable leaders were executed in this manner, including Ragnar Lothbrok, a Viking warlord, and Gunnar, King of Burgundy.

13. Spanish tickler.

This torture device was commonly used in Europe during the Middle Ages. Used to rip through a victim's skin, this weapon could easily tear through anything, including muscle and bone. The victim would get involved, sometimes publicly, and then the tormentors would begin to mutilate her. Usually started with the limbs, the neck and torso were always saved for completion.

12. Slow cutting.

Ling Shi, which translates as "slow cutting" or "continuous death", is described as death due to a thousand cuts. Carried out from 900 to 1905, this form of torture was extended over a long period of time. The tormentor slowly cuts the victim, prolonging his life and torture for as long as possible. According to the Confucian principle, a body that is cut into pieces cannot be whole in the spiritual afterlife. Therefore, it was understood that after such an execution, the victim would be tormented in the afterlife.

11. Burning at the stake.

Death by burning has been used as a form of capital punishment for centuries, often associated with crimes such as treason and witchcraft. Today it is considered a cruel and unusual punishment, but back in the 18th century, burning at the stake was a normal practice. The victim contacted, often in the city center with spectators, after which he was burned at the stake. It is considered one of the slowest ways to die.

10. African necklace.

Commonly carried out in South Africa, the execution called the Necklace is unfortunately still quite common today. A rubber tire filled with gasoline is placed around the victim's chest and arms and then set on fire. Essentially, the victim's body turns into a molten mass, which explains why this is in the top ten on our list.

9. Execution by an elephant.

In South and Southeast Asia, the Elephant has been a method of capital punishment for thousands of years. Animals were trained to perform two actions. Slowly, in a long way, torturing the victim, or with a crushing blow, destroying it almost immediately. Commonly used by kings and nobles, these elephant killers only added to the fear of the common people who thought the king had supernatural power to control wild animals. This method of execution was eventually adopted by the Roman military. In this way, deserter soldiers were punished.

8. Execution "Five Punishments".

This form of Chinese capital punishment is a relatively simple act. It begins with the victim's nose being cut off, then one arm and one foot are cut off, and finally the victim is castrated. The inventor of this punishment, Li Sai, the Chinese Premier, was eventually tortured and then executed in the same way.

7. Colombian tie.

This method of execution is one of the bloodiest. The victim's throat was cut, and then the tongue was pulled out through the open wound. During La Violencia, a Colombian period of history fraught with torture and war, this was the most common form of execution.

6. Hanging, stretching and quartering.

Execution for high treason in England, with hanging, stretching and quartering, was common during medieval times. Although torture was abolished in 1814, this form of execution caused the deaths of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people.

5. Cement boots.

Introduced by the American Mafia, this execution method involves placing the victim's feet in cinder blocks and then filling them with cement, followed by throwing the victim into the water. This form of execution is rare, but still performed today.

4. Guillotine.

The guillotine is one of the most famous forms of execution. The guillotine blade was sharpened so perfectly that it decapitated the victim almost instantly. The guillotine is a seemingly humane method of execution until you learn that people could potentially still be alive for a few moments after the act. People from the crowd said that the executed, who were beheaded, could blink their eyes or even speak words after their heads were cut off. Experts theorized that the swiftness of the blade did not cause unconsciousness.

3. Republican wedding.

The Republican Wedding may not be the most gruesome death on this list, but it certainly is one of the most interesting. Originating in France, this form of execution was common among the Revolutionaries. It meant binding two people, usually of the same age, and drowning. In some cases where water was not available, the couple was executed with a sword.

2. Crucifixion.

This ancient method of execution is one of the most famous, apparently due to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The victim was hung by the arms on a cross, forced to hang there until death occurred, which usually took days until the victim died of thirst.

1. Copper bull.

The Copper Bull, sometimes known as the Sicilian Bull, is one of the most brutal methods of torture. Developed in ancient Greece, the method involved creating a hollow copper bull with a door on the side that opened and locked. To begin the execution, the victim was placed in a copper bull and a fire was placed underneath. The fire was maintained until the metal was literally yellow, causing the victim to "roast to death". The bull was designed so that the cries of the victim would come out to please the executioner and the many residents who came to watch. Sometimes all the inhabitants of the city came to watch the execution. It is quite predictable that the inventor of this execution ended up being burned in a bull.

Read more about the instruments of torture of the 17th and 18th centuries in a separate article.

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison, because being in prison turned out to be a slow death. Being in prison was paid by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the perpetrator be killed.
They didn’t keep convicts in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, then they could take their loved one for maintenance (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) were stocks. The most common type of block is "kanga" (or "jia"). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented the escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were chained into this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.

Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the recidivist caught the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment heavier, the judges invented the execution, which was called "carry out five types of punishments." The offender should have been branded, cut off his arms or legs, beaten to death with sticks, and put his head on the market for all to see.

In the Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the fact that strangulation is characterized by prolonged torment.
The Chinese believed that the body of a person is a gift from his parents, and therefore it is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors to return a dismembered body to oblivion. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.

strangulation. The offender was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last for a very long time, as the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take a few convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

"Cage", or "standing blocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles woven into a cage, at a height of about 2 meters. The convict was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck clamped in a block, which began to choke him, this could go on for months until all the supports were removed.

Ling-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "stings of a sea pike" - the most terrible execution by cutting off small pieces from the victim's body for a long period of time.
Such an execution followed high treason and parricide. Ling-chi, in order to intimidate, was performed in public places with a large gathering of onlookers.

For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The offender was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 parts. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body, as a sign of imperial favor, was cut into only 8 pieces.
The offender was cut into 24 pieces as follows: 1 and 2 blows cut off the eyebrows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - muscles of the hands between the hand and the elbow; 9 and 10 - muscles of the arms between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves of the legs; 15 - they pierced the heart with a blow; 16 - cut off the head; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: 1 and 2 cut off the eyebrows with blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - they pierced the heart with a blow; 8 - cut off the head.

But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.

The information below is drawn from many sources, including textbooks on pathology, the Journal of Forensic Medicine, accounts of hanging survivors, reports from the 17th and 19th centuries, photographs taken in a later era, and reports from an official in charge of overseeing execution of sentences and who, along with many impeccably executed executions, witnessed two cases of "marriage".

With the usual slow hanging, suffocation, as a rule, does not occur from pressure on the trachea, the windpipe. Rather, the pressure of the loop shifts the base of the tongue backwards - upwards and thereby causes the cessation of breathing.

Many pathologists believe that relatively little pressure is enough to completely cut off the air supply, which means that the hanged man is completely unable to breathe. This may again depend on the position of the loop. If the knot is in front, there may be slight pressure on the airways.

Another cause of death is the cessation of blood supply to the brain due to clamping of the carotid arteries. This alone would have been enough to cause death, a fact proven by several cases of people accidentally hanging themselves to death while the airway was left wide enough for breathing.

There is still a little blood flow to the brain - there are vertebral arteries that, in the place where the loop is usually located, pass inside the spine and are protected from compression - but this is not enough to maintain the viability of the brain for a long time.

HANGING PROCESS

● Initial stage (15-45 seconds)

The noose rises abruptly, causing the mouth to close (a common mistake in staging hanging scenes in films - the mouth is often shown open). The tongue rarely protrudes from the mouth, because the lower jaw is pressed with considerable force. There are exceptions when the loop has been placed low and moves up, pressing on the tongue before it presses the jaw - in these cases the tongue is strongly bitten.

Survivors testify to a feeling of pressure in the head and clenched jaws. The feeling of weakness makes it difficult to grasp the rope. It is also said that the pain is mainly felt from the pressure of the rope, and not from suffocation. The feeling of suffocation, of course, increases with the passage of time.

Often, a newly hanged victim in a panic begins to kick or tries to reach the ground with his fingertips. These convulsive movements of the legs are different from the real agony, which begins later.

In other cases, the hanged man hangs almost motionless at first, perhaps because the body is numb with pain. If the hands are tied in front, they rise sharply to the middle of the chest, usually clenched into fists.

In most cases, the blood does not rush to the face. The noose cuts off the blood supply to the head, so that the face remains white and turns blue as it is strangled. In some cases, if the blood supply is partially preserved, the face turns red.

Sometimes there is bleeding from the mouth and nose. Most likely, this is actually a nosebleed in cases where blood pressure rises in the head.

Sometimes foam or bloody foam comes out of the mouth - apparently in cases where the airways are not completely closed and some air enters the lungs, despite the loop.

● Loss of consciousness

Generally speaking, the hanged man retains consciousness only for a short time, although it may seem like an eternity. Judging by the stories of survivors and pathological studies, loss of consciousness can occur after 8-10 seconds due to the cessation of blood circulation, and maybe after about a minute. Few survivors of hanging report being conscious and convulsing so that they feel suffocated and can feel convulsive movements of the legs and body, but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

The position of the node is important here. If the loop does not compress both carotid arteries, the blood supply may continue. If the noose is in front (intentionally placed that way or slipped off when the victim fell), blood circulation and some breathing may be preserved, and then loss of consciousness and death may occur later.

Victims often lose bladder control. This, apparently, occurs in an unconscious state, or most often just before the loss of consciousness. Pathologists sometimes use this fact to determine if a victim is strangled in a standing position. A long trail of urine on a skirt or trousers indicates that the victim passed out in an upright position and was then lowered to the floor by the killer. A shorter track indicates that the victim was lying at that moment. The use of such forensic evidence again suggests that bladder control is lost immediately prior to loss of consciousness.

● Convulsive phase (usually after 45 seconds)

This phase begins approximately 45 seconds after hanging. The real agony begins when what we associate with the pain of suffocation becomes unbearable. A more scientific explanation is that convulsions begin when the brain's carbon monoxide detection centers in the blood become overloaded and the brain starts sending out erratic signals.

At this stage, powerful chest movements usually begin - the victim unsuccessfully tries to inhale air, and the speed of these movements increases rapidly. Witnesses to the hanging of a female spy during the First World War say that her agony resembled a fit of hysterical laughter - her shoulders and chest shook so quickly. This stage is quickly replaced by convulsive movements of the whole body. They can take various forms, and one form can change into another.

One of the forms is a strong tremor, the muscles alternately quickly spasmodically contract and relax, as if vibrating.

In one "unsuccessful" execution by hanging, the victim was out of sight after the hatch opened, but witnesses heard the buzz of the rope due to spasmodic body movements. These movements must be very strong and occur with great frequency in order for the rope to make an audible sound.

Clonic spasm is also possible, when the muscles simply convulsively contract. In this case, the legs can be tucked under the chin and remain in this position for some time.

A more spectacular form is the well-known "dance of the gallows", when the legs quickly twitch in different directions, sometimes synchronously, sometimes separately (in a number of executions of the 17th century, the musicians really played a jig while the hanged twitched on the ropes)

These movements are sometimes compared to riding a bicycle, but they seem to be more abrupt. Another form (often the last stage, if there have been several) consists in prolonged tension, to an absolutely incredible degree, of all the muscles of the body.

Since the muscles on the back of the body are much stronger than the front, the victim bends back (my acquaintance at the execution of sentences testifies that in some cases the heels of the hanged man almost reach the back of the head.

There is also a photograph of a man strangled while lying down; the body is not so strongly bent, but bent almost in a semicircle.

If the hands are tied in front, they usually rise to the middle of the chest during convulsions and fall only when the convulsions cease.

Often, but not always, hanged people lose bladder control. Apparently, this occurs during these convulsive movements, after loss of consciousness, perhaps as a result of contraction of the abdominal muscles, despite the fact that control over the bladder has already been lost.

My friend, who saw the hanged, explained that the legs of the victim are tied so that the feces do not flow down the legs and do not scatter to the sides during convulsive movements.

The convulsions continue until death, or almost until death. Accounts of executions by hanging note that the duration of convulsions varies widely - in some cases as little as three minutes, in others as much as twenty.

A professional English executioner, who watched the American volunteers hang Nazi war criminals, lamented that they did it ineptly, so that some of the hanged agonized for 14 minutes (he probably watched by the clock).

The reasons for such a wide range are unknown. Most likely, we are talking about the duration of convulsions, and not about the time of death. Sometimes a hanged man dies without convulsions at all, or the whole agony is reduced to a few movements, so perhaps a short agony does not mean a quick death at all.

Death without a fight is sometimes associated with "excitation of the vagus nerve" - ​​a nerve that runs in the neck and controls the contractions of the heart. This is difficult to understand, because if the loop stops the blood supply to the brain, then it makes a big difference whether the heart beats or not.

● Death

Irreversible changes in the brain begin in about 3-5 minutes, and if they continue, convulsions continue. In the next five minutes or so, these irreversible changes intensify.

The convulsions slow down and gradually stop. Usually the last convulsive movement is the heaving of the chest after the rest of the body is motionless. Sometimes the convulsions return to an already seemingly calm victim. In the 18th century, a hanged man, who was already considered dead, hit a man who, on duty, took off his clothes from his body.

The heart continues to beat for some time after all functions cease, until the acidity of the blood due to the increase in carbon dioxide causes it to stop.

OTHER PHENOMENA

Sometimes two phenomena are reported that cannot be verified.

● Death sounds

First, in the old accounts of executions by hanging, there are reports that the victim at the time of death (that is, when convulsions stop, the only sign by which witnesses can judge) emits something like a groan (in Kipling's "Hanging of Danny Deaver" , a witness to the execution, hears a groan over his head; they explain to him that this is the soul of the victim flying away). It seems incredible, since the airways are securely closed, but such reports exist.

● Ejaculation in men

This phenomenon is noted often, almost in all cases. Ejaculation, as well as the often noted erection, can be caused by the same reactions of the nervous system that cause convulsive movements. This happens at the end of the hanging.

There is a report by an American military policeman and a German warden who discovered a German prisoner who had hanged himself. The American watched with surprise as the German guard unzipped the fly of the hanged man and announced that it was too late to take him out of the noose: ejaculation had already occurred.

The first mention of such a type of death penalty as hanging dates back to the era of antiquity. So, as a result of the Catiline conspiracy (60s BC), five rebels were immediately sentenced to death by hanging by the Roman Senate. Here is how the Roman historian Sallust describes their execution:

“There is in the prison, to the left and somewhat below the entrance, a room called the Tullian dungeon; it goes into the ground about twelve feet, and is fortified on every side with walls, and on top is covered with a stone vault; dirt, darkness and stench make a vile and terrible impression. It was there that Lentulus was lowered, and the executioners, following the order, strangled him, throwing a noose around his neck ... In the same way, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, Ceparius were executed.

However, the era of Ancient Rome has long passed, and hanging, as statistics show, despite all its seeming cruelty, is the most popular method of the death penalty at the present time. This type of execution provides for two possible types of death: death from a rupture of the spinal cord and death as a result of asphyxia. Consider how dying occurs in each of these cases.

Death from spinal injury

If the calculation was made correctly, then the fall will result in severe damage to the cervical spine, as well as the upper sections of the spinal cord and brain stem. Hanging with a long fall in the vast majority of cases is accompanied by instant death of the victim due to decapitation.

Death from mechanical asphyxia

If during the fall of the body of the convict there was no displacement of the vertebrae sufficient to rupture the spinal cord, death occurs from slow strangulation (asphyxia) and can last from three to four to seven to eight minutes (for comparison, death from decapitation with a guillotine occurs usually seven to ten seconds after separation of the head from the body).

The process of dying by hanging can be divided into four stages:

• 1. Consciousness of the victim is preserved, deep and frequent breathing is noted with direct participation in breathing of the auxiliary muscles, cyanosis (cyanosis) of the skin quickly appears. Heart rate increases, blood pressure rises.
• 2. Consciousness is lost, convulsions appear, involuntary urination and defecation are possible, breathing becomes rare.
• 3. The terminal stage, which lasts from a few seconds to two or three minutes. Respiratory arrest and cardiac arrest occur.
• 4. An agonal state. Following the cessation of breathing, cardiac arrest occurs.

At the same time, it should be noted that in the second case, the process of dying itself lasts longer and is, unlike, more painful. Thus, setting the goal of humanizing the death penalty by hanging, we automatically set the goal of minimizing the number of situations where the convict dies precisely from strangulation.

Before you are three main ways to position the loop around the neck: a) - typical (mainly used in the death penalty), b) and c) - atypical.

Practice shows that if the knot is located on the side of the left ear (a typical way to locate the loop), then in the process of falling, the rope throws its head back. As a result, enough energy is generated to break the spine.

However, not only the danger of an incorrect location of the knot on the neck lies in wait for the convict. The most important and difficult problem in hanging is the choice of rope length. At the same time, its length depends more on the weight of the executed than on his height.

It must be remembered that the hemp rope used in the execution of this type of death penalty is far from the most durable material and tends to break at the most inopportune moment. Just such an incident happened, for example, on July 13 (25), 1826 on Senate Square. Here is how an eyewitness describes this event:

“When everything was ready, with the squeezing of the spring in the scaffold, the platform on which they stood on the benches fell, and at the same moment three fell off - Ryleev, Pestel and Kakhovsky fell down. Ryleyev's cap fell off, and a bloody eyebrow and blood behind his right ear, probably from a bruise, were visible. He sat crouching because he had fallen into the scaffold. I approached him, he said: "What a misfortune!" The governor-general, seeing that three had fallen, sent adjutant Bashutsky to take other ropes and hang them up, which was immediately done. I was so busy with Ryleyev that I did not pay attention to the others who had broken off the gallows and did not hear if they were saying anything. When the board was raised again, Pestel's rope was so long that he reached the platform with his socks, which should have prolonged his torment, and it was noticeable for some time that he was still alive.

In order to avoid such trouble during the execution (since it could spoil the image of the executioner, demonstrating his inability to handle the execution tool), in England, and then in other countries that practiced hanging, it was customary to stretch the rope on the eve of the execution in order to make it more elastic.

In order to calculate the optimal rope length, we analyzed the so-called "official drop table" - the UK Home Office reference book on the optimal height from which the body of a person on death row should fall when hanging. In order to then calculate the most suitable length of the rope, it was only necessary to add the "height of the fall" to the height of the bar or hook to which the rope was attached.

The resulting table allows you to calculate the optimal length of the rope for a convict with any weight. At the same time, it is worth remembering only that there is an inverse relationship between the weight of the executed and the height of the fall (the greater the weight, the shorter the length of the rope).