A Hanging Bungled.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 40, 8 March 1884, Page 5

A Hanging Bungled.

To hang a man in such a manner that he will die instantly is not co easy as it would appear to the uninitiated. On December 3rd last Henry Dutton, a young iron moulder, who murdered his mother-in-law, was hanged, at Liverpool. Bartholomew Binns, Marwood's successor, was the chief operator, but made a bungling job of it. Precisely at 8 o'clock the drop fell. The body turned round sevei'al times and. the doctor remarked : " This is poor work ; he is not dead yet." In fact, the body moved convulsively for two minutes, and the pulse did not cease to beat until eight minutes after the drop. Tt was the opinion of the doctor that death was caused by simple strangulation. Subsequently an inquest was held, at which the following facts were brought out : The body of deceased weighed 128 pounds and the drop was seven feet five and one-half inches. The rope was far too thick, being nearly as large as a ship's hawser, the drop too short, and the noose was placed on the nape of the neck instead of under the jaw or under the ear. To in-siu-e a speedy and painless death the spinal cord must be fractured, and it has been calculated that it requires a momentum of 2,240 pounds to dislocate the vertebra. In this instance the momentum was only 1,920 pounds, and the drop should have been nine feet instead of seven feet five and onehalf inches. A rope about seven-eighths of an inch thick would be strong enough to bear a weight of 2,240 pounds, and less likely to slip than one much thicker.