Execution methods

thumb|The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals|international pictogram for poisonous substances. The skull and crossbones has long been a standard symbol for poison.

thumb|A 15th-century depiction of Jesus crucified between [[the two thieves]]

thumb|Detail from a painting by Pisanello, 1436–1438 Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. As a form of execution, it is commonly practiced at a structure called a gallows. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's Odyssey. Hanging is also a common method of suicide.

execution method

thumb| Saint Stephen, first martyr of [[Christianity, painted in 1506 by Marx Reichlich (1460–1520)(Pinakothek of Munich)]]

thumb|Beheadings in an illumination from Jean Froissart|Froissart's Chronicles from the beginning of the 15th century – the execution of Guillaume Sans and his secretary in [[Bordeaux on the orders of Thomas Felton]] thumb|Perseus using the severed head of [[Medusa to turn King Polydectes to stone]] thumb|Depiction of an Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopian emperor executing people, 18th century Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. This injury is fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing the jugular vein and

execution method from Asia

sealed room into which gas is pumped in, causing death by poisoning or asphyxiation

Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation may have a natural cause or be man-made. Deliberately inflicting starvation upon a population is a crime according to international criminal law and may also be used as a means of torture or execution.

execution method

thumb|right|Engraving by Justus Lipsius of a vertical impalement

method of execution by multiple shooters firing rifles simultaneously on command

form of execution involving injection of chemicals into the bloodstream

torture device used for capital punishment

torture device and execution device

thumb|right|upright=1.35|Matthäus Merian's impression of the 1618 Defenestration of Prague

thumb|225px|A cheetah strangling an [[impala, Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa]] Strangling or strangulation is the compression of the neck leading to an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain, which can lead to unconsciousness or even death. Fatal strangulation typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and is one of two main ways that hanging causes death (alongside breaking the victim's neck).

method of execution

execution method used to punish high treason in medieval and early modern England

thumb|A 1901 execution at the old Manila City Jail|Bilibid Prison, [[Manila, Philippines]]

thumb|upright 1.2|An 1858 illustration from the French newspaper Le Monde illustré, of the lingchi execution of a French missionary, [[Auguste Chapdelaine, in China]]

thumb|15th-century depiction of Adoni-Bezek being mutilated thumb|The Martyrdom of Hippolytus of Rome|St. Hippolytus by [[Dieric Bouts]] thumb|Aztec stone disk depicting a dismembered [[Coyolxauhqui which was found during construction in 1978 in Mexico City. Its discovery led to the excavation of the Templo Mayor.]]

burial while still alive

execution method

method of execution in which a person is killed by being immersed in a boiling liquid

Scaphism (from Greek , meaning "boat"), also known as the boats, is reported by Plutarch in his Life of Artaxerxes, citing Ctesias, as an ancient Persian method of execution. He describes the victim being trapped between two small boats, one inverted on top of the other, with limbs and head sticking out, feeding them and smearing them with milk and honey, and allowing them to fester and be devoured by insects and other vermin over time.

proposed roller coaster designed to kill its passengers

execution method

thumb|225px|Michelangelo's The Last Judgment - [[St Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin; it is conjectured that Michelangelo included a self-portrait depicting himself as St Bartholomew after he had been flayed alive.]]

thumb|Woodcut illustrating keelhauling, from the Tudor period (1485–1603) Keelhauling (Dutch kielhalen; "to drag along the keel") is a form of punishment and potential execution once meted out to sailors at sea. The sailor was tied to a line looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship's keel, either from one side of the ship to the other, or the length of the ship (from bow to stern).

death by the act of sawing or cutting

thumb|The execution of serial killer [[Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi]] Immurement (; ), also called immuration or live entombment, is a form of imprisonment, usually until death, in which someone is placed within an enclosed space without exits. This includes instances where people have been enclosed in extremely tight confinement, such as within a coffin. When used as a means of execution, the prisoner is simply left to die from starvation or dehydration. This form of execution is distinct from being buried alive, in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation. By contrast, immurement has also oc

form of post-mortem mutilation

method of execution

killing prisoners by means of forced labour

thumb|right|Disemboweling a fish during food preparation thumb|Swine inspection by USDA of disemboweled hogs Disembowelment, disemboweling, evisceration, eviscerating or gutting is the removal of organs from the gastrointestinal tract (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment is a standard routine operation during animal slaughter. In ancient Rome, disembowelment of animals was practiced for divination, and was known as haruspicy. Disembowelment of humans may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of torture or executio

Roman execution method, consisting of being thrown into water in a leather sack with a dog, a snake, a monkey, and a rooster

Necklacing is a method of extrajudicial summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tyre drenched with petrol around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The term "necklace" originated in the mid-to-late 1980s, in the black townships of apartheid-era South Africa, where suspected apartheid collaborators were publicly executed in this fashion by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).

torture method

archaic Chinese method of execution

execution method in which the victim is typically tied to the mouth of a cannon which was then fired

thumb|Marooned by Howard Pyle Marooning is the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area, such as a desert island. The word is attested in 1699, and is derived from the term maroon, a word for a fugitive slave, which could be a corruption of Spanish cimarrón (rendered as "symeron" in 16th–17th century English), meaning a household animal (or slave) who has "run wild". Cimarrón in turn may be derived from the Taino word símaran (“wild”) (like a stray arrow), from símara (“arrow”).

execution technique

form of asphyxiation which results from breathing a physiologically inert gas with no or low oxygen content

Among Ancient Romans, bestiarii (singular bestiarius) were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional to distinguish two categories of bestiarii: the first were those condemned to death via the beasts (see damnatio ad bestias) and the second were those who faced them voluntarily, for pay or glory (see venatio). The latter are sometimes erroneously called "gladiators"; to their contemporaries, however, the Latin term gladiator referred specifically to one who fought other men. The contemporary term for those who made a career out of participating in aren

method of execution where the victim is coerced into killing themself

thumb|The reconstructed gallows-style gibbet at [[Caxton Gibbet, in Cambridgeshire, England]] Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called hanging in chains.

In the military of ancient Rome, fustuarium (Greek ξυλοκοπία, xylokopia) or fustuarium supplicium ("the punishment of cudgeling") was a severe form of military discipline in which a soldier was cudgeled to death.

thumb|upright=1.4|Giacomo Cenci was executed in Rome in 1599 for his involvement in the patricide of his father, Count Francesco Cenci. He was struck on the head with a mace (mazzolatura). [[Etching, ca. 1850.]] The Mazzatello (abbreviated mazza), more properly mazzolatura ('to strike or bludgeon with a mace'), is an Italian term that refers to a method of capital punishment involving the use of a mace, mallet, or club-like weapon to inflict head trauma. It was historically used in Italy, particularly by the Papal States, for executing individuals convicted of particularly odious crimes. The m

standard method of execution in pre-modern Islamic law

form of execution

form of capital punishment in ancient China, Korea, and Vietnam, in which extended relatives of a person convicted of particularly serious crimes (treason, rebellion, etc.) would be executed together

() was a ritual method of execution performed in ancient Japan. The ritual is characterized by waist high burial in earth followed by lapidation (death by stoning). It has traditionally been associated with the yamabushi, hermetic practitioners of the Shugendō religion, because they often used it when rules of their religion were violated. However, it has been observed in instances not involving the yamabushi, and so its exact origins and nature has been debated by scholars. This execution method was used for crimes such as "adultery, rape, murder, theft, arson, blasphemy (killing a sacred dee

method of execution

car for executions in China

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thumb|upright 1.2| (taken 28 July 1941 in Berdychiv (Berditschew) thumb|upright 1.2|Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942

form of capital punishment