Electric chair as used for electrocutions. The electric chair was developed in the late 1880s by a dentist with support from Thomas Edison (who had a financial interest in having direct current used in providing electricity, whereas the electric chair uses alternating current) and is still in use today.

Gas chamber (configured for lethal injection)

Crushing by elephant

Image File history File links Singchair. ... Image File history File links Singchair. ... The electric chair is an execution method in which the person being put to death is strapped to a chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. ... Sign warning of possible electric shock hazard An electric shock can occur upon contact of a humans body with any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current flow through the muscles or hair. ... X-rays can reveal if a person has cavities Dentistry is the practical application of knowledge of dental science (the science of placement, arrangement, function of teeth) to human beings. ... Edison redirects here. ... Direct current (DC or continuous current) is the continuous flow of electricity through a conductor such as a wire from high to low potential. ... City lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ... Image File history File links Gaschamber. ... Image File history File links Gaschamber. ... For other uses, see Gas chamber (disambiguation). ... This article is about the execution and euthanasia method. ... Download high resolution version (650x942, 344 KB)A Woodcut of an execution by elephant published in the 1868 issue of Le Tour Du Monde This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (650x942, 344 KB)A Woodcut of an execution by elephant published in the 1868 issue of Le Tour Du Monde This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...

Methods of capital punishment

Methods of execution used to carry out capital punishment have varied over time, and include: Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ...

• Asphyxiation (or strangulation)
• Boiling to death
• Brazen bull
• Burning, especially for religious heretics and witches on the stake
• Breaking wheel
• Burial (alive, also known as the pit)
• Crucifixion
• Crushing by a weight, abruptly or as a slow ordeal - see also Various animal-related methods below.
• Decapitation, or beheading (as by sword, axe or guillotine)
• Disembowelment
• Dismemberment
• Drawing and quartering (Considered by many to be the most cruel of punishments)
• Drowning
• Electrocution (also electric chair)
• Explosives
• Exposure in animal skin
• Flaying
• Garrote
• Gassing
• Guillotine
• Hanging
• Impalement
• Lethal injection
• Poisoning
• Pendulum Blade
• Sawing
• Scaphism and other similar methods
• Shooting can be performed either
  • by Firing squad
  • by a single shooter (such as the neck shot, often performed on a kneeling prisoner, as in the PR China)
  • (especially collectively) by cannon or machine gun
• Slow slicing
• Stabbing
• Starvation and Dehydration (sometimes as immurement)
• Stoning
• By being thrown from a height. Rome executed murderers and traitors by flinging them from the Tarpeian Rock. Defenestration, the act of throwing someone from a window, has been used more by rebels and angry mobs than by official executions. During the Argentinean Dirty War, some victims were even pushed out of planes and into the Río de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean to drown (this form of disappearance was termed vuelos de la muerte, "death flights"). However, death flights are far from being forms of capital punishment, since the victims were not judged, but simply illegally executed. Death flights were also used during the Algerian War (1954-62) by Marcel Bigeard's paratroopers.
• Various animal-related methods
  • Tearing apart by horses, e.g. Ancient China (using five horses) or "quartering," with four horses, as in The Song of Roland and Child Owlet
  • Attack/devouring by animals, such as dogs or wolves, as in Ancient Rome and the Biblical lion's den; by rodents (such as rats); by alligators or crocodiles, or carnivorous fish (such as piranhas or sharks); by crabs or by insects (such as ants)
  • Poisonous stings from scorpions and bites by snakes, spiders, etc.
  • Crushing by elephant or trampling by a herd or by horsemen, as practiced by the Mongolian hordes
  • Snake pit

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Executions

Suffocation redirects here, for the band, see Suffocation (band). ... Boiling to death is a method of capital punishment. ... A brazen bull as depicted by Hans Burgkmair the Elder. ... Jan Hus burned at the stake Execution by burning has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft (burning, however, was actually less common than hanging, pressing, or drowning as a punishment for witchcraft). ... For other uses, see Heresy (disambiguation). ... “Witch” redirects here. ... The breaking at the wheel) was a form of punishment used during the english civil war. ... Texas funeral redirects here. ... For other uses, see Crucifixion (disambiguation). ... Death by crushing or pressing is a method of execution which has a long history during which the techniques used varied greatly from place to place. ... Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head), or beheading, is the removal of a living organisms head. ... This article is about the decapitation device. ... Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of some or all of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. ... Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. ... To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for treason. ... “Cruel And Unusual” redirects here. ... The electric chair is an execution method in which the person being put to death is strapped to a chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Michelangelos Last Judgment - Saint Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. ... A garrote or garrote vil (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line used to strangle someone to death. ... For other uses, see Gas chamber (disambiguation). ... This article is about the decapitation device. ... Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ... For other uses, see impale. ... This article is about the execution and euthanasia method. ... For other uses, see Poison (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Pendulum (disambiguation). ... Delinquent sawed in two (Drawing by Lucas Cranach the Elder) Delinquent sawed in two while other condemned watch (Mediaeval drawing) Example of a two-man saw used for execution This article describes the method of execution. ... Scaphism, also known as the boats, is an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. ... The Third of May by Francisco Goya Execution by firing squad is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in times of war. ... Execution by shooting is a form of capital punishment whereby an executed person is shot by a firearm or firearms. ... For the Chinese civilization, see China. ... Slow slicing (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: , alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng Tche), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by/of a thousand cuts, is a form of execution used in China from roughly CE 900 to its abolition in 1905. ... A detail from The Haywain Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch A stabbing or dicksucking is the penetration of a sharp or pointed dick at close range. ... This article is about extreme malnutrition. ... Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water (hydro in ancient Greek) from an object. ... Immurement is a form of execution where a person is walled up within a building and left to die from starvation or dehydration. ... Stoning, or lapidation, refers to a form of capital punishment execution method carried out by an organized group throwing stones or rocks at the person they mean to execute. ... The Tarpeian Rock (rupes Tarpeia) was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. ... Look up defenestration in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Poster by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo NGO with photos of disappeared. This article especially refers to the Argentine dirty war; however, the term has been used in other contexts, for example in Morocco; see also lead years. ... This page is about the South American estuary. ... Disappear redirects here. ... A forced disappearance occurs when an organization forces a person to vanish from public view, either by murder or by simple sequestration. ... Combatants FLN (1954-62) MNA (1954-62) France (1954-62) FAF (1960-61) OAS (1961-62) Commanders Mostefa Benboulaïd Ferhat Abbas Hocine Aït Ahmed Ahmed Ben Bella Krim Belkacem Larbi Ben MHidi Rabah Bitat Mohamed Boudiaf Messali Hadj Paul Cherrière (1954-55) Henri Lorillot (1955-56... Marcel Bigeard (born 14 February 1916) is a French military officer who fought in World War II, Indochina and Algeria. ... Eight phases of The Song of Roland in one picture. ... Child Owlet is Child ballad 291 and a murder ballad. ... Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. ... A condemned prisoner being dismembered by an elephant in Ceylon. ... An image stone on Gotland, Sweden, with imagery from the tradition of the Völsunga saga and Nibelungenlied. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ...

External links

• Internationalist Review Article published in the Internationalist Review on the evolution of execution methods in the United States