In his latest Louisiana-based crime novel, author James Lee Burke has one of his characters observe, “There are things that no human being should see or hear or know about.”
However, choosing to ignore unpleasant realities does not eliminate them. For instance, throughout human history nearly all societies have devised ever more unique and gruesome means, from crucifixion to lethal injection, of dispatching some of their members, those convicted of offenses and those who simply fell in disfavor because of their politics or ethnicity.
While medieval Europe was typified by isolated manors with downtrodden serfs, dirty crumbling towns and a countryside made violent by feuding robber barons and the freebooting practices of knights errant, Byzantium, the Empire to the east, flourished. All in all, the glory that was Byzantium was a more humane and cosmopolitan society than its western counterpart. However, the penalties prescribed for various criminal activities were often brutal and excessive. Penalties were devised that seemed appropriate to each offense. Citizens walking the streets tongueless or with slit tongues or otherwise mutilated were a common sight. If a person was convicted of incest, homicide or selling such state secrets as shipbuilding to a rival power, the penalties might include impalement, decapitation, hanging, or, most gruesome of all, being tossed into the sea secured inside a bag with a hog, a cock, a viper and an ape.
Religious dissidents and other offenders during the Medieval and Renaissance/Reformation period too often found themselves victims of the practice of concremation, as in the case of the puritanical burnings of innocent persons during the infamous Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts. The stern and pitiless Puritans were mere amateurs in comparison to those who instigated the mass burnings of so-called heretics during the worst days of the Inquisition in Spain, Italy and the South American colonies. One of the most prominent spectacles was the notorious auto-da-fé or trial by faith initiated by the infamous clergyman Tomas de Torquemada. Estimates vary, but 3000-10,000 victims may have died during those bloody times.
Outside the city limits of Seville, the mayor constructed the Quemadoro, the Burning Place, where daily spectacles took place involving the incineration of countless suspected Jews, protestants, Muslims or other “heretics.” A burning generally took 15 minutes, sometimes up to 45, while crowds of fans clapped and hooted their approval. Later on, such religious dissidents as the Amish and Mennonites were painfully eliminated in the same manner.
In reality, nearly all Christian denominations who can trace their history back through the 16th century must come to terms with the bloodshed by both civil and church authorities with regard to those who had fallen into disfavor. One infamous example is the burning at the stake of the theologian Michael Servetus at Geneva on October 27, 1553. Servetus’s offense was questioning such mainline Christian doctrines as the Trinity. In his writing, he reveals himself to have been basically a sort of Unitarian, a capital offense at the time. While John Calvin approved of Servetus’s capital sentence, he did argue for execution by sword as a more humane punishment. Even then, the executioners added green wood to the fire in order to add to their victim’s agony. One is left wondering how Jesus managed to convert so many souls without resorting to the execution of his opponents.
Compared to being consigned to the flames, decapitation by Madame la Guillotine seems almost humane. Invented by Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, who did not (as legend has it) die by his own invention, it is estimated that up to 17,000 victims were beheaded during France’s infamous Reign of Terror in the years 1793-94, including His Majesty Louis XVI and his unfortunate but clueless (“Let them eat cake”) wife, Marie Antoinette. Perhaps there is a sort of poetic justice with regard to revolutionary leader Maximilian Robespierre’s end by the same means to which he had consigned so many others.
France did not terminate the use of the guillotine until 1981. It was used for the last time publicly on the convicted murderer Eugene Weidmeann in 1939. Torturer and murder Hamida Djandloubi was sent to his death in Marseilles in 1977 as well. The last female victim was Marie-Louise Giraud, accused of performing 27 abortions, who was executed by the Nazi collaborationist regime at Vichy in 1943. Child murderer Christian Raucci was guillotined in 1977.
However, that is not the end of the story. Nazi Germany beheaded 16,500 victims during World War II, and the Federal Republic carried out its last execution by guillotine in 1949. The East German Stassi continued its use until 1966.
Movies and TV would have us believe that necktie parties were common in the days of the Old West. Death by hanging was indeed the preferred method of execution in the United States until well into the twentieth century and remains on the books yet today in some states such as Washington and New Hampshire. Perhaps the most disturbing fictional portrayal of hanging is illustrated in Ambrose Bierce’s story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Hanging was the preferred method of southern crackers hellbent upon dispatching their victims, whether convicted of any offense or not.
Death by firing squad, called fusillading, may be the most humane method of execution. Perhaps the most vivid examination of this issue is found in Norman Mailer’s 1980 Pulitzer Prize winning tome The Executioners Song, relating the story of career criminal Gary Gilmore who was executed by firing squad in Utah in 1977. More recently, convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by this method in Utah. As of this writing, execution by firing squad remains legal in Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.
In seeking an efficient method of execution, both Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse recommended electrocution. Thus, the advent of the electric chair, labelled “Old Sparky” by generations of prison inmates. The two famous inventors argued over whether DC or AC currents were most effective. DC current flows only one way, while AC current reverses direction in a circuit at regular intervals. Edison, never a man to be troubled by ethical or humanitarian concerns, began a smear campaign against Westinghouse, arguing that AC technology was dangerous. He conducted experiments by running 1000 volts through a dozen dogs and other animals placed on metal plates. When one method failed to kill the sad creatures, he went on to use the other. The suffering was incomprehensible.
A ride on Old Sparky did not guarantee a swift and painless passage. The victim died from ventricular fibrillation or cardiac arrest, but there were incidents wherein inmates survived the initial shock and succumbed only after more treatments, a nightmarish scenario.
Given that by any means the institution of the death penalty is ugly and degrading, perhaps it should be abolished altogether. Eighty-five nations, from Angola to Kampuchea to Djibouti, and including Canada and nearly all of the European Union have already done so. Perhaps the most compelling argument against the death penalty is that if a person is wrongly convicted, there is no retrial, no pardon.
Is permanent sequestering in a tiny concrete cell more or less humane than execution? The answer eludes us. Still, the public needs permanent protection from the most violent and sadistic of offenders who walk among us. Imprisonment seems the only alternative to execution. Perhaps, as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer has suggested, death by firing squad may be the most painless and efficient method of execution. Upon reflection, it seems that she may have a point. The Roman Catholic and Anglican churches oppose the death penalty, arguing that while an individual still lives there is a chance that he will repent of his offenses. The issue should continue to bedevil the consciences of us all.
My enthusiasms include fly fishing, natural history and wilderness backpacking. In 1996, I published privately a memoir, Trails of Laughter/ Trails of Tears, featuring my wilderness adventures and misadventures.I serve when needed as a Licensed Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church.
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