The Supreme Court has allowed the use of lethal injection to execute condemned prisoners. Lethal injection has taken the place of various other forms of execution as they are all now considered to be less human. The condemned is made unconscious using first an anesthetic and the killed using a lung paralyzing drug and another heart stopping chemical. This method is used to lessen the suffering of the condemned during the process of death.
That man has remained a savage and for long took pleasure in killing others cruelly. One would be surprised to see the cruelty he showed and innovative methods he used.
Very near to the present day method of using lethal injection was the execution of Socrates who was made to drink a cup of hemlock poison. Electrocution was another attempt to make death less painful. Gas Chambers used by the Nazis and others were also aimed at making death less painful. The army made short work of it by making the person stand in front of a firing squad. But these are very recent attempts at making death less painful and more humane.
The practices used by people in the olden days are worth recalling, at least to remember and avoid meeting out such treatment to anyone in future.
Beheading or decapitation had been practiced for long and the most notable beheading in history was that of King Charles I of England. The French revolution popularized the guillotine, a mechanical device used for mass decapitation. It was reported that large number of people used to witness the heads rolling out fast separated by the sharp knife falling on the neck and the blood jetting out into the air.
Jesus was crucified alive.
Breaking wheel was a method in which the person was tied to a cart wheel and cudgeled to death. Burning heretics and witches was normal practice in the 17th and beginning of 18th century. The great Saint, Joan of Arc suffered such a punishment.
Condemned persons were flayed in certain cases--removing the skin and leaving one to die. Impaling and sawing are other cruelties practiced on condemned prisoners. Crushing and breaking the neck bone, burying one alive, crushing one to death, using elephants to step on the prisoner, disemboweling, dismembering, leaving one inside the cage of a lion or tiger, drowning and dropping one into a snake pit were the various cruelties that history has recorded.
Stoning one to death was a known one for crimes related to sex. Tying one with bleeding wounds to a tree and leaving him in the sun to be eaten by ants or other animals was also practiced.
Man has certainly become civilized.
But is it not high time that we abolished capital punishment?
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