Japan
All executions in Japan are carried out by hanging.
On 23 December 1948,
Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...
,
Kenji Doihara
was a Japanese army officer. As a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, he was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
As a leading intelligence officer, he played a key role to the Japanese machinations that le ...
,
Akira Mutō
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was convicted of Japanese war crimes, war crimes and was executed by hanging. Mutō was implicated in both the Nanjing Massacre and the Manila massacre.
Biography
Mutō was a ...
,
Iwane Matsui
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937. He was convicted of war crimes and executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre.
Born in Nagoya, Matsui chose ...
,
Seishirō Itagaki
was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939.
Itagaki was a main conspirator behind the Mukden Incident and held prestigious chief of ...
,
Kōki Hirota
was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. Originally his name was . He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials.
Early life
Hirota was ...
, and
Heitaro Kimura were hanged at
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan.
History
Sugamo Prison was originally built in 1 ...
by the
U.S. occupation authorities in
Ikebukuro
is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits. It is considered the second largest ...
in
Allied-occupied Japan
Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the
Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...
for
war crimes,
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
, and
crimes against peace
A crime of aggression or crime against peace is the planning, initiation, or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. The definition and scope of the crime is controversial. The Rome Statute contains an ...
during the Asian-Pacific theatre of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
On 27 February 2004, the mastermind of the
Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapid ...
,
Shoko Asahara
, born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...
, was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. On 25 December 2006, serial killer
Hiroaki Hidaka
was a Japanese serial killer.
Early life
Hidaka was born in the Miyazaki Prefecture. He was originally an excellent student, but he failed to enter the University of Tsukuba, his target college. He entered the Fukuoka University instead, but eve ...
and three others were hanged in Japan. Long-drop hanging is the method of carrying out judicial capital punishment on civilians in Japan, as in the cases of
Norio Nagayama
was a Japanese spree killer and novelist.
Biography
Nagayama was born in Abashiri, Hokkaido and grew up with divorced parents. He moved to Tokyo in 1965 and, while working in Tokyo's Shibuya district, witnessed the Zama and Shibuya shootings.
...
,
Mamoru Takuma
was a Japanese mass murderer who killed eight children in the Osaka school massacre in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, on 8 June 2001.
Takuma had a long history of mentally disturbed and anti-social behaviour, and an extensive criminal record includin ...
, and
Tsutomu Miyazaki
was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture between August 1988 and June 1989. He abducted and killed the girls, aged from 4 to 7, in his car before dismembering them and molesting their corpses. ...
. In 2018
Shoko Asahara
, born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...
and several of his cult members were hanged for committing the 1995 sarin gas attack.
Jordan
Death by hanging is the traditional method of capital punishment in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
. On 14 August 1993, Jordan hanged two Jordanians convicted of spying for Israel.
Sajida al-Rishawi
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi ( ar, ساجدة مبارك عطروس الريشاوي} 1970 – 4 February 2015) was a failed suicide bomber. She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist act in the 9 November ...
, "The 4th bomber" of the
2005 Amman bombings
The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on three hotel lobbies in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The explosions at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn started at around 20:50 l ...
, was executed by hanging alongside
Ziad al-Karbouly
Ziad Khalaf al-Karbouly ( ar, زياد خلف الكربولي; 1970 - died 4 February 2015), a native of Al-Qa'im, was an Islamist former Iraqi officer and the son of an Iraqi tribal sheikh of the Al-Karabla clan of the Dulaim.
Arrest and tria ...
on 4 February 2015 in retribution for the
immolation
Immolation may refer to:
*Death by burning
*Self-immolation, the act of burning oneself
*Immolation (band), a death metal band from Yonkers, New York
*''The Immolation'', a 1977 novel by Goh Poh Seng
*''Dance Dance Immolation'', an interactive per ...
of Jordanian pilot
Muath Al-Kasasbeh
Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh ( ar, معاذ صافي يوسف الكساسبة, Muʿaḏ Ṣāfī Yūsuf al-Kasāsibah South Levantine pronunciation: ; 29 May 1988 – 3 January 2015) was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who was captur ...
.
Lebanon
Lebanon hanged two men in 1998 for murdering a man and his sister. However, capital punishment ended up being altogether suspended in Lebanon, as a result of staunch opposition by activists and some political factions.
Liberia
On 16 February 1979, seven men convicted of the
ritual killing
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, ...
of the popular Kru traditional singer Moses Tweh, were publicly hanged at dawn in
Harper
Harper may refer to:
Names
* Harper (name), a surname and given name
Places
;in Canada
* Harper Islands, Nunavut
*Harper, Prince Edward Island
;In the United States
*Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County
* Harper, Il ...
.
Malaysia
Hanging is the traditional method of capital punishment in Malaysia and has been used to execute people convicted of murder and drug trafficking. The
Barlow and Chambers execution
The Barlow and Chambers executions were the hangings on 7 July 1986 by Malaysia of two Westerners, Kevin John Barlow (Australian and British) and Brian Geoffrey Shergold Chambers (Australian) of Perth, Western Australia, for transporting 14 ...
was carried out as a result of new tighter drug regulations.
Portugal
The last person executed by hanging in Portugal was Francisco Matos Lobos on 16 April 1842. Before that, it had been a common death penalty.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, hanging is the most common form of execution.
Russia
Hanging was commonly practised in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
during the rule of the
Romanov Dynasty
The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to ...
as an alternative to
impalement
Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes aga ...
, which was used in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Hanging was abolished in 1868 by
Alexander II after
serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
, but was restored by the time of his death and his assassins were hanged. While those sentenced to death for murder were usually pardoned and sentences commuted to life imprisonment, those guilty of high treason were usually executed. This also included the
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...
and
Kingdom of Poland
The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to:
Historical political entities
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...
under the Russian crown.
Taavetti Lukkarinen
Taavetti Lukkarinen (8 November 1884 in Nilsiä – 2 October 1916 in Oulu) was a former Kemi Oy's foreman from Keminmaa, Finland, who was sentenced to death for treason after helping German prisoners of war who had fled the Kirov Railway construc ...
became the last Finn to be executed this way. He was hanged for espionage and high treason in 1916.
The hanging was usually performed by short drop in public. The gallows were usually either a stout nearby tree branch, as in the case of Lukkarinen, or a makeshift gallows constructed for the purpose.
After the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
in 1917, capital punishment was, on paper, abolished, but continued to be used unabated against people perceived to be enemies of the regime. Under the Bolsheviks, most executions were performed by shooting, either by firing squad or by a single firearm. In 1943, hanging was restored primarily for German servicemen and native collaborators for atrocities committed against Soviet POWs and civilians. The last to be hanged were
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Red Army general and Nazi collaborator. During World War II, he fought in the Battle of Moscow and later was captured att ...
and his companions in 1946.
Singapore
In
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, long-drop hanging is currently used as a mandatory punishment for crimes such as
drug trafficking
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...
,
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
and some types of
kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
. It has also been used for punishing those convicted of unauthorised discharging of firearms.
Sri Lanka
Hanging was abolished in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
in 1956, but in 1959 it was brought back and later halted in 1978. In 1975, the day before the execution of
Maru Sira
Dedduwa Jayathungalage "D.J." Siripala ( Sinhala: දෙද්දුවා ජයතුංගලාගේ සිරිපාල; 1949 – August 7, 1975), also known by the pseudonym Maru Sira (''Maru: deadly, Sira'': Short form of Siripala), wa ...
, he had been overdosed by the prison guards to prevent him from escaping. On the day of his execution he was unconscious, so when he was brought to the gallows, he was slumped over on the trapdoor with a noose around his neck, and when the executioner pulled the lever, his execution was botched and he strangled.
Syria
![Eli Cohen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Eli_Cohen.jpg)
Syria has publicly hanged people, such as two Jews in 1952, Israeli spy
Eli Cohen
Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen ( he, אֱלִיָּהוּ בֵּן שָׁאוּל כֹּהֵן, ar, إيلياهو بن شاؤول كوهين; 6 December 1924 – 18 May 1965), commonly known as Eli Cohen, was an Egyptian-born Israel ...
in 1965, and a number of Jews accused of spying in 1969.
According to a 19th-century report, members of the
Alawite
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...
sect centred on
Lattakia
, coordinates =
, elevation_footnotes =
, elevation_m = 11
, elevation_ft =
, postal_code_type =
, postal_code =
, area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41
, geocode ...
in Syria had a particular aversion towards being hanged, and the family of the condemned was willing to pay "considerable sums" to ensure its relations were
impaled, instead of being hanged. As far as
Burckhardt
Burckhardt, or (de) Bourcard in French, is a family of the Basel patriciate, descended from Christoph (Stoffel) Burckhardt (1490–1578), a merchant in cloth and silk originally from Münstertal, Black Forest, who received Basel citizenship i ...
could make out, this attitude was based upon the Alawites' idea that the soul ought to leave the body through the mouth, rather than leave it in any other fashion.
United Kingdom
As a form of
judicial
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudication, adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and app ...
execution in England, hanging is thought to date from the
Anglo-Saxon period
Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...
. Records of the names of British
hangmen begin with Thomas de Warblynton in the 1360s; complete records extend from the 16th century to the last hangmen,
Robert Leslie Stewart
Robert Leslie Stewart (April 1918 – 30 April 1988), from Edinburgh, Scotland, was one of the last executioners in the United Kingdom, officiating between 1950 and 1964.
Brought up in Dundee Street in Edinburgh, 3 miles from Saughton Prison, S ...
and
Harry Allen, who conducted the last British executions in 1964.
Until 1868 hangings were performed in public. In London, the traditional site was at
Tyburn
Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone.
The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern Ox ...
, a settlement west of the
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
on the main road to
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, which was used on eight hanging days a year, though before 1865, executions had been transferred to the street outside
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...
,
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
, now the site of the
Central Criminal Court A Central Criminal Court refers to major legal court responsible for trying crimes within a given jurisdiction. Such courts include:
*The name by which the Crown Court is known when it sits in the City of London
*Central Criminal Court of England ...
.
Three British subjects were hanged after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
after having been convicted of having helped
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in its war against Britain.
John Amery
John Amery (14 March 1912 – 19 December 1945) was a British fascist and Nazi collaborator during World War II. He was the originator of the British Free Corps, a volunteer Waffen-SS unit composed of former British and Dominion prisoners-o ...
, the son of prominent British politician
Leo Amery
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, ...
, became an
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
in the 1930s, moving to France. He became involved in pre-war
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
politics, remained in what became
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
following France's defeat by Germany in 1940 and eventually went to Germany and later the German puppet state in Italy headed by
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
. Captured by Italian
partisans at the end of the war and handed over to British authorities, Amery was accused of having made
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
broadcasts for the Nazis and of having attempted to recruit British
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
for a
Waffen SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.
The grew from th ...
regiment later known as the
British Free Corps
The British Free Corps (german: Britisches Freikorps; BFC) was a unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, made up of British and British Dominions, Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by Germany. The unit was origi ...
. Amery pleaded guilty to treason charges on 28 November 1945 and was hanged at
Wandsworth Prison
HM Prison Wandsworth is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West (London sub region), South West London, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Pri ...
on 19 December 1945.
William Joyce
William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, J ...
, an American-born Irishman who had lived in Britain and possessed a British
passport
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...
, had been involved in pre-war fascist politics in the UK, fled to Nazi Germany just before the war began to avoid arrest by British authorities and became a naturalised German citizen. He made propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis, becoming infamous under the nickname
Lord Haw Haw
Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English acc ...
. Captured by British forces in May 1945, he was tried for treason later that year. Although Joyce's defence argued that he was by birth American and thus not subject to being tried for treason, the prosecution successfully argued that Joyce's pre-war British passport meant that he was a subject of the British Crown and he was convicted. After his appeals failed, he was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3 January 1946.
Theodore Schurch
Theodore William John Schurch (5 May 1918 – 4 January 1946) was a British soldier who was executed under the Treachery Act 1940 after the end of the Second World War. He was the last person to be executed in Britain for an offence other than m ...
, a British soldier captured by the Nazis who then began working for the Italian and German intelligence services by acting as a spy and informer who would be placed among other British prisoners, was arrested in Rome in March 1945 and tried under the
Treachery Act 1940
The Treachery Act 1940 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom effective during World War II to facilitate the prosecution and execution of enemy spies, suspended afterwards, and repealed in 1968 or 1973, territory depending. The law ...
. After his conviction, he was hanged at
HM Prison Pentonville
HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury are ...
on 4 January 1946.
The
Homicide Act 1957
The Homicide Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz.2 c.11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limi ...
created the new offence of
capital murder
Capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, which was later adopted as a legal provision to define certain forms of aggravated murder in the United States. In som ...
, punishable by death, with all other murders being punishable by life imprisonment.
In 1965, Parliament passed the
Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain (the death penalty for murder survived in Northern Ireland until 1973). The act replac ...
, temporarily abolishing capital punishment for murder for five years. The Act was renewed in 1969, making the abolition permanent. With the passage of the
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c.37) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was published on 2 December 1997 and received Royal Assent in July 1998. Its key areas were the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Sex ...
and the
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Con ...
, the death penalty was officially abolished for all crimes in both civilian and military cases. Following its complete abolition, the gallows were removed from
Wandsworth Prison
HM Prison Wandsworth is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West (London sub region), South West London, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Pri ...
, where they remained in full working order until that year.
The last woman to be hanged was
Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis ( née Neilson; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely.
In her t ...
on 13 July 1955, by
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint (; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him.
Pierrepoint ...
who was a prominent hangman in the 20th century in England. The last hangings in Britain took place in 1964, when
Peter Anthony Allen
The murder of John Alan West on 7 April 1964 was the crime which led to the last Capital punishment, death sentences being carried out in the United Kingdom. West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death b ...
was executed at
Walton Prison in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
.
Gwynne Owen Evans
The murder of John Alan West on 7 April 1964 was the crime which led to the last death sentences being carried out in the United Kingdom. West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death by Gwynne Evans and P ...
was executed by
Harry Allen at
Strangeways Prison
HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is ...
in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. Both were executed for the
murder of John Alan West
The murder of John Alan West on 7 April 1964 was the crime which led to the last death sentences being carried out in the United Kingdom. West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death by Gwynne Evans and P ...
.
Hanging was also the method used in many colonies and overseas territories.
Silken rope
In the UK, some felons were traditionally executed by hanging with a silken rope:
*
Hereditary peer
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsid ...
s who committed
capital offence
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
s, as anticipated by the fictional
Duke of Denver
In the works of Dorothy L. Sayers, the fictional title of Duke of Denver is held by Gerald Wimsey, older brother of the books' protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey. In novels written after Sayers' death by Jill Paton Walsh (with the cooperation of the S ...
, brother of
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries for ...
. The Duke was accused of murder in the novel ''
Clouds of Witness
''Clouds of Witness'' is a 1926 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. In the United States the novel was first published in 1927 under the title ''Clouds of Witnesses''.
It was adapted for te ...
'', and this execution would have been his fate, after conviction by his peers in a trial in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. It has been claimed that the execution of
Earl Ferrers
Earl Ferrers is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers, Robert Shirley, 14th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. The Shirley family descends from George Shirley (died 1622) of Astwell Castle ...
in 1760 – the only time a peer was hanged after trial by the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
– was carried out with the normal hempen rope instead of a silk one. The writ of execution does not specify a silk rope be used, and ''
The Newgate Calendar
''The Newgate Calendar'', subtitled ''The Malefactors' Bloody Register'', was a popular work of improving literature in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Originally a monthly wikt:bulletin, bulletin of executions, produced by the Prison governor, ...
'' makes no mention of the use of such an item – an unusual omission given its highly sensationalist nature.
* Those who have the
Freedom of the City of London
The Freedom of the City of London started around 1237 as the status of a 'free man' or 'citizen', protected by the charter of the City of London and not under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord. In the Middle Ages, this developed into a freedom or ...
.
File:Witches Being Hanged.jpg, An image of suspected witch
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...
es being hanged in England, published in 1655.
File:Balvenie Pillar 2017-05-27.jpg, Balvenie Pillar, also known as Tom na Croiche (Hangman's Knoll). The pillar was erected in 1755 to commemorate the last public hanging in the Atholl region of Scotland in 1630.
Image:ExecutionNoose.JPG, Hanging noose used at public executions outside Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of ...
, .
United States
![Execution Lincoln assassins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Execution_Lincoln_assassins.jpg)
The hangman's noose was one of the various banishments the
Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...
of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
applied to enforce religious and intellectual conformity on the whole community. The best known hanging carried out by the Puritans,
Mary Dyer
Mary Dyer (born Marie Barrett; c. 1611 – 1 June 1660) was an English and colonial American Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony. ...
was one of the four executed
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
known as the
Boston martyrs
The Boston martyrs is the name given in Quaker tradition to the three English members of the Society of Friends, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson and Mary Dyer, and to the Barbadian Friend William Leddra, who were condemned to death and e ...
.
Capital punishment in the U.S. varies from state to state; it is outlawed in some states but used in most others. However, the death penalty under federal law is applicable in every state. Hanging is no longer used as a method of execution.
When Black pastor
Denmark Vesey
Denmark Vesey (also Telemaque) ( July 2, 1822) was an early 19th century free Black and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major slave revolt in 1822. Although the alleged plot was dis ...
of the
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, ...
was suspected of plotting to launch a
slave rebellion
A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by enslaved people, as a way of fighting for their freedom. Rebellions of enslaved people have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery or have practiced slavery in the past. A desire for freedo ...
in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, 35 people, including Vesey, were judged guilty by a city-appointed court and were subsequently hanged, and the church was burned down.
The largest mass execution in the United States, of 38 Sioux Indians sentenced to death after being charged for engaging in massacres of white settlers, was carried out by hanging in
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato ( ) is a city in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, Blue Earth, Nicollet County, Minnesota, Nicollet, and Le Sueur County, Minnesota, Le Sueur counties in the state of Minnesota. The population was 44,488 according to the 2020 United States ...
in 1862. Originally, 303 had been sentenced to hang, but the convictions were reviewed by President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and the sentences of all but 38 were commuted. A total of 40 suspected
Unionists were hanged in
Gainesville, Texas
Gainesville is a city in and the county seat of Cooke County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,002 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Texoma region and is an important Agri-business center.
History
Founded in 1850, the city of Gain ...
in October 1862. On 7 July 1865, four people involved in the
assassination of President Abraham Lincoln—
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins SurrattCashin, p. 287.Steers, 2010, p. 516. (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassi ...
,
Lewis Powell,
David Herold
David Edgar Herold (June 16, 1842 – July 7, 1865) was an American pharmacist's assistant and accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After the shooting, Herold accompanied Booth to the home of ...
, and
George Atzerodt
George Andrew Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 – July 7, 1865) was a German American repairman, Confederate sympathizer, and conspirator with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. He was assigned to assassinat ...
—were hanged at
Fort McNair
Fort Lesley J. McNair is a United States Army post located on the tip of Greenleaf Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. To the peninsula's west is the Washington Chan ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
While rope is most commonly used for hanging, chains had also been used (mainly during the colonial era), the first being a slave after the
New York Slave Revolt of 1712
The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 was an uprising in New York City, in the Province of New York, of 23 Black slaves. They killed nine whites and injured another six before they were stopped. More than 70 black people were arrested and jailed. O ...
. The last hanging in chains was in 1913, of John Marshall in
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
for murder. The last public hanging in the United States (not including
lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
, one of the last of which was
Michael Donald in 1981) took place on 14 August 1936, in
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...
.
Rainey Bethea
Rainey Bethea ( – August 14, 1936) was the last person publicly executed in the United States. Bethea, who confessed to the rape and killing of a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards, was convicted of her rape and publicly hanged in Owensb ...
was executed for the rape and murder of 70-year-old Lischa Edwards. The execution was presided over by the first female
sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
in Kentucky,
Florence Shoemaker Thompson.
In California,
Clinton Duffy
Clinton Truman Duffy (1898–1982) was the warden of San Quentin State Prison between 1940 and 1952. He was a prominent opponent of capital punishment.
Life
His father was a guard at San Quentin, he was raised on the prison grounds, and his wife ...
, who served as warden of
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...
between 1940 and 1952, presided over ninety executions. He began to oppose the death penalty, and after his retirement, wrote a memoir entitled ''Eighty-Eight Men and Two Women'' in support of the movement to abolish the death penalty. The book documents several hangings gone wrong and describes how they led his predecessor, Warden James B. Holohan, to persuade the California Legislature to replace hanging with the
gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
Histor ...
in 1937.
Various methods of capital punishment have been replaced by
lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...
in most states and the federal government. Many states that offered hanging as an option have since eliminated the method. Condemned murderer
Victor Feguer
Victor Harry Feguer (1935 – March 15, 1963) was a convicted murderer and the last federal inmate executed in the United States before the moratorium on the death penalty following ''Furman v. Georgia'', and the last person put to death in ...
became the last inmate to be executed by hanging in the state of
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
on 15 March 1963. Hanging was the preferred method of execution for capital murder cases in Iowa until 1965, when the death penalty was abolished and replaced with
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
without
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
.
Barton Kay Kirkham
Barton Kay Kirkham (November 29, 1936 – June 7, 1958) was a member of the United States Air Force who was discharged in 1955 after committing a robbery in Colorado while absent without leave (AWOL). In 1956, he was sentenced to death after t ...
was the last person to be hanged in Utah, preferring it over
execution by firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...
. No subsequent inmate in Utah had been hanged by the time the option was replaced with lethal injection in 1980. Laws in Delaware were changed in 1986 to specify lethal injection, except for those convicted before 1986 (who were still allowed to choose hanging). If a choice was not made, or the convict refused to choose injection, then hanging would become the default method. This was the case in the 1996 execution of Billy Bailey, the most recent hanging in American history; since then, no Delaware prisoner fit the category, and the state's gallows were later dismantled.
Upright Jerker
The "Upright Jerker" is a method of hanging, that originated from the United States in the late 19th century, where the person to be hanged is jerked into the air by weights and pulleys. It proved to be ineffective at breaking the neck of the condemned and use of the method ceased in late 1930s.
Inverted hanging, the "Jewish" punishment
![Picture of inverted hanging](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Picture_of_inverted_hanging.png)
A completely different principle of hanging is to hang the convicted person from their legs, rather than from their neck, either as a form of torture, or as an execution method. In late medieval Germany, this came to be primarily associated with Jewish thieves, called the "Judenstrafe". The jurist Ulrich Tengler, in his highly influential "Layenspiegel" from 1509, describes the procedure as follows, in the section "Von Juden straff":
:de:Guido Kisch, Guido Kisch showed that originally, this type of inverted hanging between two dogs was not a punishment specifically for Jews. Esther Cohen writes:
In Spain 1449, during a mob attack against the Marranos (Jews nominally converted to Christianity), the Jews resisted, but lost and several of them were hanged up by the feet. The first attested German case for a Jew being hanged by the feet is from 1296, in present-day Soultzmatt. Some other historical examples of this type of hanging within the German context are one Jew in County of Hainaut, Hennegau 1326, two Jews hanged in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt 1444,
[Kriegk, G.L._]
Deutsches bürgerthum im mittelalter
" Frankfurt am Main 1868, p.243 one in Halle (region), Halle in 1462, one in Dortmund 1486, one in Hanau 1499,
one in Breslau 1505, one in Württemberg 1553, one in Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen 1588,
one in Öttingen 1611, one in Frankfurt 1615 and again in 1661,
and one condemned to this punishment in Prussia in 1637.
The details of the cases vary widely: In the 1444 Frankfurt cases and the 1499 Hanau case, the dogs were dead prior to being hanged, and in the late 1615 and 1661 cases in Frankfurt, the Jews (and dogs) were merely kept in this torture for half an hour, before being garroted from below. In the 1588 Bergen case, all three victims were left hanging till they were dead, ranging from 6 to 8 days after being hanged. In the Dortmund 1486 case, the dogs bit the Jew to death while hanging. In the 1611 Öttingen case, the Jew "Jacob the Tall" thought to blow up the "Deutsche Ordenhaus" with gunpowder after having burgled it. He was strung up between two dogs, and a large fire was made close to him, and he expired after half an hour under this torture. In the 1553 Württemberg case, the Jew chose to convert to Christianity after hanging like this for 24 hours; he was then given the mercy to be hanged in the ordinary manner, from the neck, and without the dogs beside him. In the 1462 Halle case, the Jew Abraham also converted after 24 hours hanging upside down, and a priest went up on a ladder and baptised him. For two more days, Abraham was left hanging, while the priest argued with the city council that a true Christian should not be punished in this way. On the third day, Abraham was granted a reprieve, and was taken down, but died 20 days later in the local hospital having meanwhile suffered in extreme pain. In the 1637 case, where the Jew had murdered a Christian jeweller, the appeal to the Maria Anna of Spain, empress was successful, and out of mercy, the Jew was condemned to be merely pinched with glowing pincers, have hot lead dripped into his wounds, and then be Breaking wheel, broken alive on the wheel.
Some of the reported cases may be myths, or wandering stories. The 1326 Hennegau case, for example, deviates from the others in that the Jew was not a thief, but was suspected (even though he was a convert to Christianity) of having struck an al fresco painting of Virgin Mary, so that blood had begun to seep down the wall from the painting. Even under all degrees of judicial torture, the Jew denied performing this sacrilegious act, and was therefore exonerated. Then a brawny smith demanded from him a trial by combat, because, supposedly, in a dream the Virgin herself had besought the smith to do so. The court accepted the smith's challenge, he easily won the combat against the Jew, who was duly hanged up by the feet between two dogs. To add to the injury, one let him be slowly roasted as well as hanged. This is a very similar story to one told in ''France'', in which a young Jew threw a lance at the head of a statue of the Virgin, so that blood spurted out of it. There was inadequate evidence for a normal trial, but a frail old man asked for trial by combat, and bested the young Jew. The Jew confessed his crime, and was hanged by his feet between two mastiffs.
The features of the earliest attested case, that of a Jewish thief hanged by the feet in Soultzmatt in 1296 are also rather divergent from the rest. The Jew managed somehow, after he had been left to die, to twitch his body in such a manner that he could hoist himself up on the gallows and free himself. At that time, his feet were so damaged that he was unable to escape, and when he was discovered 8 days after he had been hanged, he was strangled to death by the townspeople.
As late as in 1699 Celle, the courts were sufficiently horrified at how the Jewish leader of a robber gang (condemned to be hanged in the normal manner) declared blasphemies against Christianity, that they made a ruling on the ''post mortem'' treatment of Jonas Meyer. After 3 days, his corpse was cut down, his tongue cut out, and his body was hanged up again, but this time from its feet.
Punishment for traitors
Guido Kisch writes that the first instance he knows where a person in Germany was hanged up by his feet between two dogs until he died occurred about 1048, some 250 years earlier than the first attested Jewish case. This was a knight called Arnold, who had murdered his lord; the story is contained in Adam of Bremens "History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen" Another example of a non-Jew who suffered this punishment as a torture, in 1196 Richard, Count of Acerra, was one of those executed by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI in the suppression of the rebelling Sicilians:
A couple of centuries earlier, in France 991, a viscount Walter nominally owing his allegiance to the French King Hugh Capet chose, on instigation of his wife, to join the rebellion under Odo I, Count of Blois. When Odo found out he had to abandon Melun after all, Walter was duly hanged before the gates, whereas his wife, the fomentor of treason, was hanged by her feet, causing much merriment and jeers from Hugh's soldiers as her clothes fell downwards revealing her naked body, although it is not wholly clear if she died in that manner.
Elizabethan maritime law
During Queen Elizabeth I's reign, the following was written concerning those who stole a ship from the Royal Navy:
Hanging by the ribs
![Blake after John Gabriel Stedman Narrative of a Five Years copy 2 object 2-detail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Blake_after_John_Gabriel_Stedman_Narrative_of_a_Five_Years_copy_2_object_2-detail.jpg)
In 1713, Juraj Jánošík, a semi-legendary Slovak outlaw and folk hero, was sentenced to be hanged from his left rib. He was left to slowly die.
The German physician Gottlob Schober (1670–1739), who worked in Russia from 1712, notes that a person could hang from the ribs for about three days prior to expiring, his primary pain being that of extreme thirst. He thought this degree of insensitivity was something peculiar to the Russian mentality.
The Dutch in Suriname were also in the habit of hanging a slave from the ribs, a custom amongst the African tribes from whom they were originally purchased. John Gabriel Stedman stayed in South America from 1772 to 1777 and described the method as told by a witness:
William Blake was specially commissioned to make illustrations to Stedman's narrative.
Grammar
The proper, traditional past tense and past participle form of the verb "hang", in this sense, is (to be) "hanged". Some dictionaries list only "hanged", whereas others show both forms.
For example, "people are hanged; meat is hung".
See also
* Capital punishment
* Death erection
* Dule tree
* Erotic asphyxiation
* Executioner
* Gallows
* Hand of Glory
* Hanging judge
* Hanging tree (United States)
* Hangman (game)
* Hangman's knot
* Jack Ketch
* List of people who died by hanging
* List of suicides
* Lynching
* Lynching in the United States
* Suicide by hanging
References
Further reading
* Jack Shuler, ''The Thirteenth Turn: A History of the Noose.'' New York: Public Affairs, 2014,
External links
A Case Of Strangulation Fabricated As Hanging*[http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/index.cfm Death Penalty Worldwide] Academic research database on the laws, practice, and statistics of capital punishment for every death penalty country in the world.
{{Authority control
Hanging,
Execution methods
Human positions