How Does the State Kill Its Citizens?

Stoning is a method of capital punishment whereby an organized group of people would throw stones at the crime offender until the latter expired.  This type of death penalty was not only a legal form of capital punishment, but also a form of community justice.  Interestingly, too, this method was referred to in Greek history, Islamic Shariah law, and in Jewish and Christian texts of old.

Until it was disallowed in the late 18th century, execution by burning alivehas a long history.  An offender is bound to a big stake.  The execution would prepare a load of wood around the offender’s calves and feet and with additional boundles of sticks around the body. If the fire was big, instead of burning to death, the offender would die by carbon monoxide poisoning.  If the fire was just enough, the offender will burn for some time until he dies from heatstroke.

Sawing was cruel method of punishment.  The offender was hung upside-down and then sawed down the center of his body, starting from the rectum.  It is said that until the saw cut off the major blood vessels of the abdomen, the offender was usually awake and alive.

The preceding lists the old methods of killing people by the State.  At present, the modes of capital punishment are down to five:

• Electrocution is execution by the electric chair.  The crime offenders are generally bald and attached to the chair with some belts crossing their groin, legs, chest and arms.  A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the forehead and scalp with salin-moistened sponge.  Additional electrode is also moistened with conductive gel, and is attached onto a section of the offenders’ legs that have been shaved to cut down the resistance to electricity.  The offender will also be blindfolded.  Death is caused by electric jolts unto the body of the offender.

• Lethal injection is said to be painless.  The offender is generally restricted to a gurney and is attached with several heart monitors.  Two needles are needed, with one serving as a back-up.  The needles are inserted into the veins of the convict, usually in the arms.  To the needles are connected long tubes through which the intravenous drips.  The first drip is usually a harmless saline solution to start off the process.  Then, the offender will be given sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, to put the offender to sleep.  The next injection is pavulon or pancuronium bronide, which intends to paralyze te whole muscle system of the convict and stop his/her breathing.  The final injection is flow of potassium chloride to stop the heart.  Death through lethal injection comes from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the convict is unconscious.
• Firing squad is done with the offender usually restricted to a chair and tied up with leather straps across his head and waist, and is made to face an oval-shaped canvass wall.  The chair is surrounded by many sandbags to absorb the convict’s blood and the wayward bullet.  A black cover is pulled over the convict’s head.  There is also a designated doctor to locate the heart of the offender with a stethescope and pin a round white cloth for the shooters to target.  Usually there are five shooters armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single round, standing in an enclosed area 20 feet away from the convict.  The shooters aim their rifles and fires toward the convict.  The convict dies due to blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or the blood vessel, or because of the tearing of the lungs.  Or it could also be that the convict will bleed to death slowly if the shooters fail — intentionally or accidentally — shot directly to the heart.
• Lethal gas/gas chamber is accomplished by restricting the offender to a chair in a tightly sealed room.  Below the chair, there is a pail of sulfuric acid.  When the prison warden gives the signal to the executioners, crystals of sodium cyanide will be released into the pail resting under the chair.  This process causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide gas.

In accomplishing hanging, the convict is weighed a day before the execution.  This is because the executioners will do a rehearsal by using a sandbag with a similar weight of the convict; this is so in order to hasten and smoothen the process of the execution to avoid any strangulation.  The rope is boiled and stretched out to remove any coiling and spring.  The knot is lubricated with either soap or wax to ensure a smooth sliding action.  Before the execution, the blindfolded convict’s hands and legs are tied.  The rope is tied around his neck, with the knot behind the convict’s left ear.  The convict is made to stand over a trap, which is made to open for the convict to fall down.  The convict’s weight will cause the fracture or dislocation of the neck.  Usually, death comes slow especially if the offender has a very strong neck muscles or the rope has been wrongly placed.  Ultimately, the offender expires by asphyxiation.