Executed Virginian elected for the chair over an injection:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149189262425

Would offering inmates the option of injection, chair, hanging, or firing squad help overcome concerns about the injection process?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Might keep the fact that we have backed off of really cruel forms in focus and remind the whiners that injection is really painless.

Of course we could offer the one form of execution that was specifically designed to be painless. Anybody know what that is?

John,

Strange as it seems, some of these really bad folks are ok about shooting, raping, and stabbing other people and leading violent outlaw lives in which they are at constant risk of being shot or stabbed by their classy criminal friends, yet these same murderous barbarians are afraid of needles. We had a pretty violent criminal who, several years later, is still sending around whiny papers about having had to get his blood drawn for a court-ordered test he fought. (He had exposed a law enforcement official to his body fluids, which led to a request by the officer for a test of the inmate for medical info, as permitted by the statutes.) I remember seeing the med tech draw the inmate's blood in the courtroom (yes, I watched -- it was years ago, pre-HIPPA), and watching this violent, murderous creep cry as they drew a tiny amount of blood from his arm. Amazing.

A.D.

Well, Paul, I would be interested to see how anyone reacted to a revived use of the good Doctor's invention. I mean, none of those people in the Reign of Terror complained that their execution method hurt, did they?

ah, the brain power present in the TDCAA. Didn't take anyone long to figure out the "painless" execution method. And we can actually spell "Guillotine" too.

Of course, use of the guillotine might cut down on the number of people who wanted to view the execution (unless the feet were toward the audience and the basket was blocked from view). And then there is the clean up afterward.

I'd heard, though I doubt the validity, that the head would be displayed to the crowd and would often show signs of reaction as the consciousness faded.

Firing squad is faster than injection or electrocution. Is it still the favored military method? Cheaper too.

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Originally posted by Paul Houston:
Of course, use of the guillotine might cut down on the number of people who wanted to view the execution ...

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PUN ALERT!!

For more details on life after guillotine, check out this site.

In these fiscally conservative times hanging perhaps affords the most economical method. The rope can be reused.

Somewhere in the panhandle is or was a Braums (maybe Dumas or Dalhart) with a series of photographs of the last hanging (in that case, the drop was too great so it was really a macabre beheading). As I waited in line to make a purchase, I thought it an odd selection of memorobilia to decorate an eating place.....unless it was a reminder to pay the bill. Anyone know if the photos remain?

I'm pretty sure that scientist examining the reactions after use of the guillotine in the above link was commissioned by Le Projet d'Moratoire or perhaps Le Union de Liberties Civiles or maybe even the militant wing of FIFA. I didn't find any posts on his background under the Experts Forum, so he must be trustworthy.

[This message was edited by David Newell on 07-21-06 at .]

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I'm pretty sure that scientist examining the reactions after use of the guillotine in the above link was commissioned by Le Projet d'Moratoire or perhaps Le Union de Liberties Civiles. I didn't find any posts on his background under the Experts Forum.

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You're hilarious!!!

The only way to be sure if the head is reacting to any stimuli (beyond the decapitation itself) would be to have the lately-deceased give some pre-arranged signal with his eyes or face. The so-called scientist's observations merely gave him the opportunity to infer the head was responding to his questions. Nothing scientific about that without recognizing all the other possibilities.

You may be thinking of the Eklund Hotel in Clayton, New Mexico, which is a restaurant now and has photos of the last public hanging there which resulted in the beheading of the convicted.

If you ever drive through Eastland, look behind the Connellee Hotel for the location of the last public lynching in Texas, at which the perpetrators of the Santa Claus bank robbery in Cisco were seized by a mob and hanged from a utility pole, which used to still be standing behind the hotel with a marker concerning its significance).

I know the Eklund Hotel, Clayton, pictures. We have eaten there several times and stayed in the town at least four times. The pictures I was referring to were in a Texas fast-food joint, maybe not a Braums but something similar. The now defunct Locust Street Grill on the square in Denton also had a large blow-up of the last hanging in that county.

My wife, who has a better memory for historical items, tells me the Eklund photos are the same as those in the panhandle. It is a DQ that displays them, not a Braums. It seems the fellow robbed around Clayton and was hanged in Tx.