An executioner explains

[X-ray]

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

[JaXanim]

I can recommend The Last Hangman starring Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint. Pierrepoint was the executioner who saw Ruth Ellis on her way and gained a dubious honour for dispatching people in remarkably quick time. He was commissioned to deal with dozens of Nazi criminals after the war and had to set up a conveyor belt system to handle the job. Contrary to popular images, Pierrpointe was a religious man who treated his charges with a quite remarkable respect.

JaX

[X-ray]

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.

[CannonFodder]

X-ray wrote:
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

Horrific! On more than one level too. :-o

[CannonFodder]

Maybe I am sick, but I had to laugh when he was talking about "Diff'rent Strokes" (For diff'rent folks?)


"What you talkin'bout Willis?" ;-)

ps That bird in the pink headdress is rather tasty I reckon!

[Karlos]

X-ray wrote:
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

Executing people for a living, regardless of the method isn't the sort of thing I would think the normal human being is capable of. His emotional detachment from his work doubtless speaks volumes about his mental health.

Saudi is keen to enforce sharia punishment as a deterrant but is far less bothered about the justice system behind it. Consequently a lot of people end up facing this penalty on the flimsiest of convictions when it is supposed to be the last resort for the soundest convictions for the worst crimes.

[Wilse]

"What you talkin'bout Willis?"

Me? Never said a word. :-P

[JaXanim]

I found the whole thing utterly barbaric. That this was televised is revolting enough, but the questions asked by the interviewers were equally sick and voyeuristic. That this so-called 'man' could surround himself with children and utter such words over them left me numbed. I know nothing, nor do I wish to learn anything of that culture, but what I witnessed was not, in my opinion, anything related to civilisation.

JaX

[CannonFodder]

JaXanim wrote:
I found the whole thing utterly barbaric. That this was televised is revolting enough, but the questions asked by the interviewers were equally sick and voyeuristic. That this so-called 'man' could surround himself with children and utter such words over them left me numbed. I know nothing, nor do I wish to learn anything of that culture, but what I witnessed was not, in my opinion, anything related to civilisation.

JaX

Is the custom of beheading murderers anyless "civilised" than electrocuting them to death via the cranuim?

[metalman]

JaXanim wrote:
I found the whole thing utterly barbaric. That this was televised is revolting enough, but the questions asked by the interviewers were equally sick and voyeuristic. That this so-called 'man' could surround himself with children and utter such words over them left me numbed. I know nothing, nor do I wish to learn anything of that culture, but what I witnessed was not, in my opinion, anything related to civilisation.

JaX

I thought the host questions showed a morbid interest in the details.

What was your most difficult beheading?
Have you ever beheaded someone you knew?
Do you execute both men and women?
Do you feel anything different when you execute a woman or a man? We know you are merely carrying out [the sentence], but what do you feel?
When you behead more than three or four people at once, does it affect you?
Do you need a break between executions? Does it affect you or not?
we've heard that one day, you were executing several people, and the sword broke. Is that true? Tell us that story, please.
What time do you get up? Do you eat a special breakfast?
All these details are very important to us.

[metalman]

CannonFodder wrote:

Is the custom of beheading murderers anyless "civilised" than electrocuting them to death via the cranuim?

The legal system and the equality, fairness and justice it renders are what make a system civilised.

[CannonFodder]

metalman wrote:

CannonFodder wrote:

Is the custom of beheading murderers anyless "civilised" than electrocuting them to death via the cranuim?

The legal system and the equality, fairness and justice it renders are what make a system civilised.

I am confused. Beheading murderers would be civilized if it was performed in America?

[JaXanim]

CannonFodder wrote:
Is the custom of beheading murderers anyless "civilised" than electrocuting them to death via the cranuim?

No. But you seem to have missed my point entirely.

JaX

[CannonFodder]

JaXanim wrote:

CannonFodder wrote:
Is the custom of beheading murderers anyless "civilised" than electrocuting them to death via the cranuim?

No. But you seem to have missed my point entirely.

Which is?

[JaXanim]

CannonFodder wrote:
Which is?

That the interview was considered worthy television. That the producers considered any audience would wish to experience it. That the executioner should display the tools of his trade with such pride. That the interviewers, for whatever purpose and with seeming relish, ensured every detail was elicited. That children, for whatever reason, should form part of it. I found the experience inconscionable of civilised society. It was disquieting that I wasn't watching a grusome blood-letting movie but a story of someone's actual daily life. There's surely an argument that any section of humanity which kills its criminals, by whatever procedure, for the purpose of extracting revenge can never be truly 'civilised'.

JaX