Why the Guillotine May Be Less Cruel Than Execution by Slow Poisoning 16 October 2019, by Janine Lanza

Why the guillotine may be less cruel than execution by slow poisoning 16 October 2019, by Janine Lanza

moratorium on the death penalty for federal inmates.

While the death penalty is the ultimate punishment meted out by the state, it is not meant to be torture.

From the stake to the rope to the firing squad to the electric chair to the gas chamber and, finally, to the lethal injection, over the centuries the methods of execution in the United States have evolved to make execution quicker, quieter and less painful, Could using the guillotine be more humane than both physically and psychologically. execution by lethal injection? Credit: AlexLMX/Shutterstock It wasn't always so. And there are, perhaps, lessons in history that could provide an answer to current concerns about the unusual cruelty of execution methods in the U.S. Concerns about the drugs used for executions are being raised again after the federal government Spectacles of physical torment announced it will once again execute inmates convicted of capital crimes almost 16 years after Under the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th the last execution was carried out. centuries, execution was meant to be painful. That would purify the soul of the condemned before his International drug companies will no longer sell final judgment, deter others from committing crime, drugs for use in lethal injections in the United and showcase the power of the king to impose States. But Attorney General William Barr has unbearable suffering on his subjects. authorized the federal justice system to use the widely available drug pentobarbital, despite Public executions were spectacles that were part concerns about whether that method violates the public holiday, part grim warning. Crowds gathered Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and to watch the prisoner endure physical torments unusual punishment. In common use, the drug almost too dreadful to imagine: hot pokers, boiling controls seizures in humans and is often used to lead poured into wounds, dismembering hooks, and euthanize pets. of course, the horses readied to draw and quarter.

In 2014, several executions carried out by states Not everybody suffered so terribly, however. This with untested methods using a mixture of drugs parade of horrors was the fate of commoners. For caused suffering and took hours to end prisoners' nobles, a quick, relatively painless, and more lives. dignified beheading replaced an hours-long public display. Among them was the botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, who thrashed One of the many goals of the French Revolution, around in pain for 43 minutes before dying, which took place from 1789 to 1815, was to level prompted President Obama to call for a society, to take away the privileges of the nobility,

1 / 3

who lorded over commoners. head after head with just a bit of cleaning and sharpening in between, answering the need of the Medium is the message moment. Thus it came to symbolize state terrorism but also swift and equal justice. The solution to disparate forms of execution and social equality was first presented to the French Terrifying—but brief National Assembly on Oct. 10, 1789 by Dr. Joseph Guillotin, who presented plans for a bladed The guillotine remains a quick method of machine to execute criminals. execution—it takes about half a second for the blade to drop and sever a prisoner's head from his body. It would be easy to use, work quickly and offer the same treatment to all condemned, regardless of While the moment of execution could be nothing social standing. His ideas finally became law in but terrifying, that second of suffering was brief in March 1791 and the guillotine was used for an comparison to the 43 minutes it took for Lockett to execution the following year. die after lethal drugs were administered.

The so-called "national razor" took off the heads of In the same year, 2014, convicted double murderer the royal family as well as the humblest thief. It Joseph Rudolph Wood of Arizona suffered for two leveled bodies and society, with all citizens subject hours before succumbing to the jerry-built drug to the same punishment. And it ended the cocktail dreamed up in a warden's office. In 2018, capricious torment of the condemned by the an Alabama execution had to be halted after 12 monarchy as well as the privilege that nobles had, attempts to place an IV line in Doyle Hamm failed. even regarding the manner of their deaths. The current technology of execution does not The guillotine was a killing machine that provided reliably provide the humane death demanded by not just a convenient method of execution but the the Constitution. In requiring an IV line and medical proper political and ideological message for the personnel to administer drugs it also involves Revolution. medical practice with the death penalty.

Less cruel and unusual? Although the guillotine may be the bloodiest of deaths – the French used sand bags to soak up the Eventually, the French Revolution became more blood—it does not cause the prolonged physical politically radical, moving from a system where the torment increasingly delivered by lethal injections. king would continue to govern within a constitutional system to a republic where the Should the U.S. consider using the guillotine to people's representatives would wield political power administer capital punishment? to a de facto dictatorship. As the Revolution became more radical, and politicians saw plots It has advantages—no secret recipes for lethal everywhere, increasing numbers of citizens were injections, no botched placement of IV needles, no sentenced to death. conflation of medicine and execution.

With the need to execute many prisoners the While the guillotine provides a death that is not guillotine was pressed into greater use. The most easy to witness, the death it delivers to the careful estimate for the number of French executed condemned is quick and does not cause the during the Terror, the height of the radical extended pain of bespoke lethal injections. Revolution, was 17,000. This number included almost exclusively those charged with political Could such a death, as bloody as it is, pass muster crimes. with the Eighth Amendment's mandate against cruel and unusual punishment? It was the guillotine's plummeting blade that took off

2 / 3

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Provided by The Conversation APA citation: Why the guillotine may be less cruel than execution by slow poisoning (2019, October 16) retrieved 11 May 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2019-10-guillotine-cruel-poisoning.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

3 / 3