Hanging
is carried out in a variety of ways: the short drop is when the
prisoner is made to stand on an object which is then thrust away –
leaving them to die by strangulation. This was a common method of
hanging used by the Nazis and was the most common form used before the
1850s. Death is slow and painful. Suspension hanging (very popular in
Iran) is when the gallows itself is movable. The prisoner stands on the
ground with the noose around their neck and the gallows is then lifted
in to the air, taking the prisoner with it. The standard drop was in
common use in English nations after the 1850s – it involved tying the
noose around the prisoner’s neck and then dropping them a short distance
(usually 4-6 feet) to break the neck. This was the method used to
execute the Nazi war criminals.
The final method is the long drop, devised in 1872 in which the weight
of a person was taken in to account to determine the correct rope and
drop to be used to ensure the breaking of the neck. This was the method
used by Albert Pierrepoint, the last executioner of England, described
here in more detail:
The night before the execution, Pierrepoint
would visit the condemned man in his cell with the Warden. The prisoner
was not told that pierrepoint was his executioner. The purpose of the
visit was to size the man up. Pierrepoint would use the information he
had gained on the visit to decide what thickness of rope and what length
of drop to use. He would soak the rope in water and would hang a
sandbag the weight of the prisoner at the end to prevent stretching
during the execution.
The next day pierrepoint would put a cloth over the face of the prisoner
and tighten the noose around his neck. He was very careful to ensure
that the trapdoor beneath the condemned would be opened as soon after
the noose went on as possible and would often kick the level with his
foot. The person would then drop through the trapdoor and their neck
would break, causing death.
There have been some instances where
the long drop method has caused decapitation – the most recent of which
was the hanging of Saddam Hussein’s half brother, Barzan Ibrahim
al-Tikriti, in Iraq in 2007
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