Pakistan authorities need some help

Arazi

Arazi

Arazi

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The planned hanging of a paraplegic prisoner convicted of murder in Pakistan has been delayed, his lawyer has said.

Abdul Basit could not be hanged in compliance with the jail manual because he is in a wheelchair, a magistrate said when ordering the postponement.
Pakistan's prison guidelines require that a prisoner stand on the gallows.
Rights groups say hanging Basit would constitute cruel and degrading treatment.

BBC Link

I am no expert but i thought it would be the same as a standard hanging, rope around neck and drop the floor?
 
I've got a couple of books in my collection on judicial hanging (call it morbid curiosity) and I'm sure there was a procedure for this which either involved the accompanying warders supporting the prisoner upright until the drop fell, or as a last resort a body length plank to which the felon could be strapped and supported upright for the drop (with the length adjusted to reflect the extra weight).

It would appear in this case the simplest solution would be a reprieve and commute to life imprisonment, or if that's not acceptable put him in front of a firing squad.
 
MookJong said:
Not as bad a Saudi Arabia where state beheadings and crucifixions are a weekly occurrence.
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I saw a video on a news channel the other day showing beheadings by the authorities, actual head rolling off was blurred out obviously, done in public and people watching it, some of these countries really do belong in the stone age.
 
France was be-heading people into the 1970's (guillotine) and it was also the primary means of execution in Germany up until abolition (fallbeil). Done efficiently with a sharp blade (i.e. not a Taliban rusty knife) that decaps in one rapid stroke it's probably nearly as quick and efficient as long drop hanging, despite the gruesome aftermath.

I won't say painless, as no one has ever come back* from either method and gone, "Cor that wasn't so bad, was it."

* The inherent issue with capital punishment regardless of method.
 
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Vern1961 said:
France was be-heading people into the 1970's (guillotine) and it was also the primary means of execution in Germany up until abolition (fallbeil). Done efficiently with a sharp blade (i.e. not a Taliban rusty knife) that decaps in one rapid stroke it's probably nearly as quick and efficient as long drop hanging, despite the gruesome aftermath.

I won't say painless, as no one has ever come back* from either method and gone, "Cor that wasn't so bad, was it."

* The inherent issue with capital punishment regardless of method.
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Should imagine beheading would be pretty uncomfortable, if only for the substantial bump you would get as your head hit the floor in the seconds before your brain blacked out through oxygen loss.

The severing of nerves would probably give a strange sensation - I read a story from a woman who broke her neck, severing the spinal cord, and she said she experienced a pleasant feeling of great warmth across her body at that moment.

I don't suppose hanging would be much different, really.

What actually kills you with hanging anyway? you get a broken neck, of course, but does the hanging damage the brain stem or something, or do you only die when the noose cuts off circulation to the brain?
 
What actually kills you with hanging anyway? you get a broken neck, of course, but does the hanging damage the brain stem or something, or do you only die when the noose cuts off circulation to the brain?
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The "drop" is supposed to be calculated so as the knot or coil rotates around from the side to under the chin, the head is thrown back breaking the neck and severing the spinal cord. This is supposed to be instantaneous. However there was at least one recorded instance in the UK during the 1950's when a newly qualified hangmen botched placement of the rope and the condemned man was still semi conscious and strangled after the drop (Google Norman Goldthorpe). Converesely judicial hanging also brings the risk of decapitation if the drop is miscalculated and too long, as happened in Iraq with old Barzan, one of the pack of cards Iraqi war criminals.
 
Arazi said:
The planned hanging of a paraplegic prisoner convicted of murder in Pakistan has been delayed, his lawyer has said.

Abdul Basit could not be hanged in compliance with the jail manual because he is in a wheelchair, a magistrate said when ordering the postponement.
Pakistan's prison guidelines require that a prisoner stand on the gallows.
Rights groups say hanging Basit would constitute cruel and degrading treatment.

BBC Link

I am no expert but i thought it would be the same as a standard hanging, rope around neck and drop the floor?
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Was convicted in 2009 for killing the uncle of a woman with whom he was accused of having a relationship
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He denies murdering the man
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Pigs will fly
 
He may be a horrid person but the taking of a life as retribution just doesn't sit comfortably with me.

That said, I do not know what the alternatives are - and I understand the blood lust that the death of someone close to you or around you can evoke, I'm sure we've all wished someone some form of ill at some point. However, people still continue to do horrid things in countries where the punishment is brutal - so I guess it is not enough of a deterrent?

I just feel that as human beings on this tiny planet we should be finding a better way to deal with societal problems rather than killing people.
 
Freefaller said:
He may be a horrid person but the taking of a life as retribution just doesn't sit comfortably with me.

That said, I do not know what the alternatives are - and I understand the blood lust that the death of someone close to you or around you can evoke, I'm sure we've all wished someone some form of ill at some point. However, people still continue to do horrid things in countries where the punishment is brutal - so I guess it is not enough of a deterrent?

I just feel that as human beings on this tiny planet we should be finding a better way to deal with societal problems rather than killing people.
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Blood Money is accepted but the family can refuse it if they feel an "eye for an eye" is better compensation.
 
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