It is easy to kill micro-organisms, plants and invertebrates
and even a pleasurable act when these cause infestations. I find it more difficult to
kill many vertebrates, especially mammals and, when writing the blog post about
Taking Life [1], my thoughts turned
to the theoretical consideration of whether I could kill another human. The answer
was a clear "No" and that extended to warfare, even when individuals
are removed from their background and one has no knowledge of them, or of their
family and friends. I'm not sure that I could live with the thought of having killed
another human, even when my own life was threatened. It's not an assumption
that I am keen to test.
As a result of my views on killing other humans, I am firmly
against capital punishment, yet recognise that it is practised in many
countries and has been for centuries. Indeed, one of the most famous examples
of capital punishment occurred two thousand years ago with the crucifixion of
Christ and the religion would not
exist if Christ had not been killed and then risen from the dead. From this
perspective, capital punishment is fundamental to Christianity and provides an
exception to the moral code of the Judaeo-Christian tradition given by God in
the Ten Commandments [2].
The crucifixion of Christ was carried out alongside that of
two other "criminals" (omitted by Giotto in the fresco shown above)
and it was intended as a spectacle, this being the custom of the time.
Executions continued to be held in public in Western countries until recent
times and they occur today in the Middle East and elsewhere, both as a warning
and as a form of macabre entertainment. Of course, I refer here to
state-sanctioned murder, rather than the execution by terrorists of hostages,
or of citizens who are deemed to be out of line with a religious or political
principle. Capital punishment is a deliberate act of killing, usually carried
out weeks and months after a trial and, bizarrely, in countries like the USA,
this delay can extend to decades.
Capital punishment requires an executioner (or
executioners). Firing squads have traditionally involved a number of shooters,
some of whom have live ammunition and others blanks. This lessens a sense of
responsibility for taking life when the executioners are coerced into having to
take part. In most other forms of capital punishment there is one executioner
and they may be remote (as in lethal injection, gassing, or electrocution) or
be involved directly (as in beheading, the use of the guillotine, and hanging).
The latter executioners know only too well that they are responsible for taking
the life of another human and do so legally.
Hanging remains one of the most frequently used forms of capital
punishment and, while the act is usually witnessed by prison officials and some
others, it is mostly carried out in private. In some high profile state killings,
the execution has been recorded on film or video to serve as confirmation that
the act has taken place, but this is exceptional. There is a tradition that
hangmen used by the state (are there any hangwomen?) are selected for their
knowledge and ability to ensure clinical dispatch and some learn these skills
from within a family tradition of having the role, learning by stages until
able to perform a hanging themselves. How are they affected by the
experience?
The following quote is from a BBC article [3] that includes
an interview with Sabir Masih, a hangman in Pakistan:
"I feel nothing. It's a
family thing. My father taught me how to tie the hangman's knot, how many coils
etcetera, and he took me along to witness some hangings around the time when I
was being recruited."..
.."My only concern is to prepare
him [the victim] at least three minutes before the time of hanging. So I remove
his shoes, put a hood on his face, tie his hands and feet, put the noose around
his neck, make sure the knot is placed below his left ear, and then wait for
the jailer's signal to pull the lever."
There is no pre- or post-hanging
psychological counselling for hangmen, and no limit to the number of hangings
one executioner may perform before he is given a break.
Mr Masih says he doesn't need
either.
Not all hangmen have that reaction and one the chief executioners
in England, John Ellis, committed suicide because of the stress created by his
job, and of one execution in particular. A reporter for The Rochdale Observer interviewed Ellis's wife shortly after his
funeral and she mentioned the hanging of Edith Thompson, carried out by her
husband on 9th January 1923 [4]. The execution, and its preliminaries, are
described in the book Criminal Justice
by René Weis [5] and the distinguished
Shakespearean scholar describes the events leading up to Edith Thompson's
conviction for the murder of her husband. It is a harrowing, and tragic, story
and I found some sections of the book distressing to read. Despite the verdict of
the court that she was guilty of murder, Weis shows us that this was a
miscarriage of justice.
Edith had brief, passionate encounters with Freddy
Bywaters, a young merchant seaman, during his short return visits to England
between voyages to Australia and the Far East, but it was Bywaters alone who
killed her husband, Percy. In the photograph below, posed deliberately by
Edith's brother, Edith is flanked by Percy on the right and by Freddy on the left - eighteen
months after the photograph was taken all three would be dead. There is no
dispute that Freddy killed Percy, although there has been discussion of the
circumstances that led up to the assault and, to the end, Freddy maintained
that Edith was innocent and had nothing to do with the final act.
Especially harrowing in Criminal
Justice are the descriptions of the extreme anguish that Ethel suffered
while on remand and when awaiting execution. In the weeks leading up to 9th
January 1923 she was so distressed that frequent doses of strong sedative had
to be administered and she was near unconscious when warders effectively
carried her to the scaffold after Ellis had entered her cell to prepare her for
the execution (was this his first contact with Edith after being summoned from
Rochdale?). When the act took place, there were dreadful consequences, as the
drop caused severe haemorrhaging and there was a lot of cleaning up to do. Ellis
and the prison staff were obviously very upset by this and they may also have
suspected that she was innocent of a capital offence. Several journalists took
up both Edith's and Freddy's cases and argued against the verdict of the court
and there was wide coverage of the case [5] and of subsequent events.
I won't dwell more on that story, but it is relevant to
discussions on the use of the death penalty as a means of state punishment. If
the cold-blooded nature of the act wasn't bad enough, the mental anguish of
waiting for "justice", the agony of visits from family and friends as
the day draws nearer, and the effect on all the staff are quite enough to
convince me that capital punishment cannot be justified, even for the most
heinous crimes.
Executed and executioner
[2] The Holy Bible Exodus chapter 20 verse 13 (King James' Version).
[5] René J. A. Weis (1990) Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith
Thompson. London, Penguin Books.
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