Reasons why the electric chair was considered more humane than hanging or shooting someone
Both hanging and shooting can easily go wrong and instead of a swift death you could get a long prolonged death with lots of agony. And while the electric chair might look likes it hurts we know from people who have survived electrocution that it does not hurt as it overloads the nervous system and knocks them out before any pain. Note that the electric chair was not adapted everywhere. In France they did not matter the blood spatter from beheading and continued to use the guillotine. In England they had much stricter control of the hanging process and maintained a group of highly skilled professional executioners to make sure the executions were done properly.
The forces applied to the neck have to be just right. If the force is too high it can cause decapitation, if it is too low you risk not snapping the neck and it can result in a long drawn out strangulation. Each person have a different physique and a different weight. In addition the rope, knot, humidity and how well the trap door works will also have an impact. In the US executions are organized by the individual jurisdictions which often meant that the executioner lacked proper training and experience. In the UK the executioners were hired by the government and would travel to the prison to conduct the execution. This meant that there were only a handful of executioners who were given plenty of training and had a lot of experience. Continue reading
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