An executioner explains

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http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1322#

Quite interesting, he is totally detached from it, emotionally. I would have thought he would have had serious issues with this, having seen his father execute someone when he was only a lad. He says also that he has executed people he knows. I don't know if I could execute someone, but I definitely wouldn't be able to execute someone I know  :-o

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Ruth Ellis: the pub where she shot that guy dead is not from me and the bullet holes are still there in the masonry!
IIRC she was the last woman hanged in Britain.

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Ja it seems there are two issues:

1) The death penalty itself
2) The mode of execution

We have had a thread about number (1) already. This is the summary of that thread as I recall it:

Those who reject the death penalty say:

1) The planned taking of a life is never justified.
2) There are other options such as incarceration.
3) The death penalty is partly fuelled by revenge.
4) The wrong man could die.

Those who support the death penalty say:

1) The condemned man put himself in that position when he committed whatever crime he committed.
2) It deters crime.
3) It consumes less resources than a life sentence.
4) As long as the evidence is sound, there is no chance for a mistake.

If I remember correctly it was one of those threads that couldn't arrive at a specific conclusion  ;-)

Maybe we should just concentrate on the methods of execution. I just saw on the news that a dude who underwent lethal injection did not die according to plan, so the question is:

1) What do you regard as a humane way to kill somebody?
2) Of all the methods that are humane, which is the most reliable?

My opinion is that a rifle round to the head is probably the best. I'm not a fan of beheading (whether by guillotine or sword) or hanging. I have to assume that there is still some sensory input above the level of spinal cord disruption in these cases and that is not so cool in my book.
I suppose one way that would be 100% effective would be to have a hydraulic press that could bring two huge metal plates together at high speed. Yeah it sounds like a Wile E Coyote scenario but I reckon a high-speed squish would be painless and certain.

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"...In another, much older thread, you said that the bullet through the head thing was often fatal due to the loss of blood pressure in the brain rather than the immediate damage to the brain tissue itself..."
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That wouldn't apply to a high velocity shot from a rifle. The quote sounds a bit off, too...do you know which thread it was?

Squish: ja, it's messy. Maybe they could have a plastic layer on each surface that can be peeled off and then the remains could be rolled up like a swiss roll and disposed of/buried according to the family's wishes.
If the head comes off, I don't know how much blood can come out of the carotid arteries, because the link between the vessel and the pump is gone. So it isn't going to spurt, if you see what I mean. I wonder if they have done any observations on severed heads to look for eye or mouth movement. That would be interesting.

Nah, I am sticking with the squish.

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Aaah yes I found it:

Kenny said: " the thing that makes people unconcious when they are capitated (hit in the brain) is loss of blood pressure "

And I said: "For the purposes of this thread (and without going into gory details) yes, let's call it loss of blood pressure. There are quite a few factors/variables involved, but they don't go against the gist of Kenny's or Karlos's arguments"

The links to the Allah Akbar article aren't valid anymore and I can't find it. What I suspect happened in that case was that the bullet was either tangential or did not have enough velocity to cause the typical rupture you get when a high velocity round goes through a head. In retrospect I over-simplified it, because we were talking tactics and forensics more than wound ballistics.

In a firing squad setup you have guaranteed shot placement, velocity and a perforation of the head. It will be game over, instantaneously.