DOES HANGING HURT?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 252, 17 October 1908, Page 3

DOES HANGING HURT?

The question raised by the coroner's jury as to tlie painlessness, or otherwise, of the execution of an Irish murderer the other day adds fresh intersst to an oft-debated point. In theory, of course, such a death is supposed to be instantaneous. Bat is if!

The answer to tin's question can only lie speculative. Nobody having om;e 'been hanged on a modern gallows has ■ever recovered consciousness—as not infrequently happened in olden days—and related his experience. That every- precaution is taken goes without saving. The aim of the up-to-date executioner is to dislocate the convict's neck by a. sudden violent jerk. and t" this end ;\ certain length of "drop" is allowed, varying according to the weight of person who is to suffer. The finest qualitv benipea cord is us.-d. and in place of'the old-fashioned slipknot there is a sort of eve of hard woo.l. well greased, through which the rope runs perfectly free, the risk of any hitch in this direction being reduced to a minimum.

Nevertheless, it is an open secret thai the spinal column is not invariably broken by the shock, in which case, of course, death ensues from strangulation. 'The prison doctors say it docs not mat-ter-(hat the end is painless, anyl.o-v. Here, aaain. however, there is rouni for doubt'. The victim is so tightly pinioned that he cannot struggle, no matter what he may'sillier or how longlie may linger, lie hangs for an hour before being taken down, and death, after such an interval, is, of course, always found to have taken place. I This is about all Unit is quite certain. The vest is mere conjecture.