1842–1847 (first name is sometimes given as Joseph)
Nicolas Wolf
1847–1855
Antoine-François-Joseph Rasseneux
1855–1871
Monsieur d'Alger: The Executioners of the French Republic
In 1870 the Republic of France abolished all local executioners and named the executioner of Algiers, Antoine Rasseneux, Éxécuteur des Arrêts Criminels en Algérie, which became France's official description of the executioner of Algeria's occupation. From then on there would be one only executioner to carry out death sentences for all of Algeria. Since the colony's executioner was required to live in Algiers, people soon started to refer to him as "Le Monsieur d'Alger" ("The Man From Algiers"). Upon his nomination, Rasseneux was permitted to choose four among France's and Algeria's former local executioners to be his aides.
After 1808, during the Portuguese-Brazilian Kingdom (1808–1822) and the Empire (1822–1889), when Brazil's States were still called "Provinces" and the currency was called "Reis", Brazil had factually abolished torture but was a busy death penalty country. Method of execution was public hanging by an ultra-short drop of approximately 90cm (2' 9 11/2"), with the executioner, after having activated the trap door or pushed the convict, according to the gallows's structure, climbed a ladder and launched himself rope downwards, hitting on the convict's shoulders with his weight. Executioners generally were selected among convicts of capital crimes who had their death sentences stayed for indefinite terms or even commuted for life without parole, and who in exchange for their stays or commutations had to carry out the executions ordered by law. Executioners were, whenever possible, selected from among slaves convicted for a capital crime. And except for the province of Rio Grande do Norte, executioners had obligatorily to be of African descent. As stayed or commuted convicts, executioners consequently lived as inmates in the prisons of the respective towns where they were based. When an execution was to be carried out elsewhere in his area, the executioner would be transported to the place of execution in chains and sleep in the local prison; after an attempt of murder against Fortunato José in 1834, prisons started separating the executioners from other inmates. In the province of Rio Grande do Norte, the executioner had always to be the convict scheduled to die next after an execution, so that province's last execution had to be carried out by a firing squad, after the necessary emergency change of execution protocol. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, after Independence September 7, 1822 there were also free executioners of African descent who having to travel around, were reached by couriers with execution orders. Executioners, also when slaves, were paid for their executions; at the example of the province of Minas Gerais, we can establish payment was between 4$000 and 12$000 (4 Mil-Reis to 12 Mil-Reis) per execution. The last execution of a free convict in Brazil was that of José Pereira de Sousa October 30, 1861 in Santa Luzia (nowadays Luziânia), GO. The last execution at all under law in Brazil was that of the slave Francisco April 28, 1876 in Pilar, AL. Brazil abolished capital punishment officially with the Proclamation of the Republic November 15, 1889, and by law with its first RepublicanConstitution of 1891 and Penal Code of September 22, 1892.
Bahía
Salvador
José do Egito
1823 (refused to carry out his first and only execution, had his stay lifted for it and died executed himself)
Feira de Santana
Joaquim Correia
September 26, 1849 (voluntary executioner, hanged Lucas da Feira; despite white he was allowed to carry out that one since his father, Francisco Correia, had been one of Lucas's victims)
With a four-year delay in 1875 also Corsica was integrated into the area of the executioner of the republic's activity; see: Monsieur de Paris For the different department numbers, before 1976 Corsica used to be one department only and was codenumbered with 20 by then.
Corse-du-Sud (2A)
Ajaccio
René Giudici
1799–1800 (his last name is also rendered as René Jugé)
Jean-François Hermann
1803–1804
Bernardin Porro
1804–1806
Dominique Paglia
1806–1808
Antoine Vollmar
1808–1809
Jean Peyrussian
1809–1812
Haute-Corse (2B)
Bastia
Jean-Pierre Combé
1805–1809
François Étienne
1809–1813
Louis Simaliot
1813–1826
Jean-Baptiste Simaliot
1826–1840
Michel Porro
1840–1851
Antoine-François-Balthazar Porro
1851–1852
Louis-Marie Douran
1852–1853
Vincent Bornacini
1853
Louis-Henri Desmorest
1853–1873/74
Désiré Herman
1873/74–1875
Franche-Comté
Doubs (25)
Besançon
Jean-Jacques Karpf
active in 1718
Nicolas-François Dupuy
1762–1765
Claude-Antoine Chrétien
1765–1794
Nicolas Hermann
1794–1809
François Étienne
1809
Jean-Pierre Urich
1809–1846
Jean-Georges Burck
1846–1849
François-Ferréol Pierrot
1849–1858
Jacques-Henri Ganié
1858–1862
Georges-Louis-Gustave Pierrot
1862–1870
Blamont
Joachim Fleurdelis
1685–1686
Joseph Denthe
1686–1695
Melchior Ginter
1754–1760/61
Montbéliard
Jacques Fleurdelis
1615–1627
Jacques Fleurdelis
1642–1670
Jean Fleurdelis
1670–1680
Jacques Fleurdelis
1680–1700
Pierre Fleurdelis
1700–1729
Pierre Fleurdelis
1729–1749
Gaspard Boilley
1749–1768
Pierre Fleurdelis
1768–1793
Jura (39)
Dole
Désiré Giboz
1792–1794
Lons-le-Saunier
Désiré Giboz
1794–1803
Jean-Baptiste Cané
1803–1827
Germain Burck
1827–1838 (last name sometimes written Purgy)
François-Joseph Desmorest
1838–1849
Nicolas Roch
1849–1851 (last name also given as Rauch)
Haute-Saône (70)
Vesoul
Claude-Laurent Chrétien
1793–1805
Nicolas Pierrot
1805–1823
François-Ferréol Pierrot
1823–1849
Territoire de Belfort (90)
Belfort
Joseph Comte
c. 1650
Joseph Comte
1668–1726
Nicolas-Antoine Comte
1726–1739
Jean-Pierre Comte
1739–1780
Jean-Pierre-Nicolas Comte
1780–1793
Faverois
Pancrace
1648–1656
Jean Fleury
active in 1665
Laurent Lacour
1665–1672
Martin Lacour
1672–1674
Ehrard Lacour
1682–1716
Jean-Georges Lacour
1716–1739
Jean-Georges Reichlin
1739–1752
Jean-Georges Lacour
1752–1793
Grandvillars
Joachim Comte
1673–1725
Jean-François Comte
1725–1744
Jean Fleurdelis
1744–1781
Montreux
Jacques Denthe
c. 1670–1674
Jean-Georges Denthe
1674–1725
Haute-Normandie
Eure (27)
Évreux
Robert Le Vavasseur
1598–1618
Etienne Le Vavasseur
1626–1649
Louis Le Vavasseur
1649–1658
François Le Vavasseur
1675–1681
Nicolas Le Vavasseur
1681–1687
Lubin Jouenne
1687–1700
Lubin Jouenne
1720–1725
Louis Jouenne
1725–1737
Jean-Baptiste Sénéchal
1725–1737
Nicolas-Louis Jouenne
1737–1750
Nicolas-Lubin Jouenne
1737–1758
Nicolas-Louis Jouenne
1758–1780
Nicolas-Louis Jouenne
1784–1802
André-Thomas Férey
1810–1824
Amand Leroy
1824–1844
Louis-Marie-Dauphin Benoist
1844
Raymond Peyrussan
1844–1846
Louis-Julien-Fortuné Leroy
1846–1849
Gisors
Jean-Baptiste Carlier
1712–1733
Georges Carlier
1733–1741
Michel Durand
1741–1765
Jean-Louis Olivier
1765–1794
Pont-Audemer
Lubin Jouenne
1700–1722
Lubin Vallet
1722–1727
François Férey
1727–1735
Nicolas Férey
1735–1738
François Férey
1738–1742
François-Charles-Gabriel Férey
1742–1769
Maixent-François Férey
1769–1785
François-Joseph Férey
1769–1791
Seine-Maritime (76)
Caudebec-en-Caux
Nicolas Jouenne
active in 1202 (last name also given as Jouhanne)
? Jouenne
mentioned in 1380–1384 (last name also given as Jouhanne, nicknamed "Jouhanne-Justice)
1525–1526; active again in 1529? (his last name also appears written as Jacquemot)
Antoine Benoît
–1723 (Benoit and his wife have been murdered in the night from May 18 to 19, 1723)
Jean Lavoué
1723–1735
Marguerite-Julienne Le Paistour
1745–1749 (sacked after involving in a mayor robbery; married and became a housewife in Cancale)
Jean Ripert
1792–1794
Claude-Antoine Chrétien
1804–1842
Henri Lac
1853–1870
Savoie (73)
Chambéry
Laurent Rhein
1794–1810
Pierre Rhein
1810–1815
Jean-Emile Grosholtz
1860–1866
Jules Cané
1866–1868 (not 100% confirmed, but most likely)
Haute-Savoie (74)
no executioner known so far
Monsieur de Paris: The Executioners of the French Republic
In 1870 the Republic of France abolished all local executioners and named the executioner of Paris, Jean-François Heidenreich, Exécuteur des Arrêts Criminels, which became France's official description of the executioner's occupation. From then on there would be only one executioner to carry out death sentences for all of France except Corsica which would follow in 1875. As the Republic's executioner was required to live in Paris, people soon started to refer to him as "Monsieur de Paris", "The Mister from Paris". At the occasion of his nomination, Heidenreich could choose four among France's former local executioners to be his aides.
13th century (The first one ever nominated as a professional executioner in Germany; that was in 1276, and for the first time – simultaneously – an executioner's job description was published)
1827–1860 (Unknown when he passed from Bremen City's local executioner to Bremen's state executioner; from 1843 to 1859 he also was Hannover's state executioner)
(Bavaria) 1924–1937 (from 1937 on imperial Executioner)
Bremen
Christian Schwarz
1827–1860 (Unknown when he was nominated from Bremen City's local executioner to Bremen state executioner; from 1843 to 1859 he also was the state's executioner in Hannover)
Hannover
Christian Schwarz
1857–1859 (from 1843 til 1857 local executioner for Hannover; also local executioner in Bremen from 1827 to 1860)
(Bavaria) 1945–1947 (from 1924 to 1937 state executioner for Bavaria; from 1937 to 1945 Imperial executioner; also Occupation executioner with the rope for the American Military justice)
1945–1949 (from 1935 to 1937 state executioner for Baden, Württemberg and Hesse; from 1937 to 1945 Imperial executioner; after 1946 also Occupation executioner with the rope for the British Military justice)
after 1945–1949 (possibly still nominated/active for Western Berlin after 1949; executed Berthold Wehmeyer May 11, 1949, the last sentence carried out by order of a German court in Germany)
- 1949 (after 1949 executioner for Western Berlin)
West Germany (1949 to 1951/53)
Except for Western Berlin where the Allied did not validate the new German constitution, West Germany had abolished capital punishment May 23, 1949. For West Berlin, the death penalty would still continue in law until January 20, 1951. Despite at least one executioner continued nominated, no death sentences or executions ordered by German courts in that period have been reported so far.
(Bavaria) 1945–1947 (from 1924 to 1937 state executioner for Bavaria; from 1937 to 1945 German executioner; after 1945 also Interim time executioner with the guillotine for German justice; executed for the US Military justice)
1946–1952 (from 1935 to 1937 state executioner for Baden, Württemberg and Hesse; from 1937 to 1945 executioner for the German state; after 1945 also interim executioner with the guillotine for German justice
1945–1949 (from 1932 to 1941 assistant executioner and then chief executioner until 1956 in England)
Soviet
Hungary
Until 1868 most of executors employed by one-one bigger cities(who possessed the "pallosjog " [right for execution] e. c. Buda) or travellers(gypsied) did this as temporary job(until the 18th century). Emperor Joseph II introduced a law reform. The separate legislatures of the cities will be abolished, as will the patrimonial tribunal and the "pallos jog" of the estates. Before that, bakó(executioner) belonged to the status of the county, the city, the larger estate, now five executioners will be enough throughout Hungary. Later he abolished even the capital punishment(except in the military cases)but in 1795 Emperor Franz I. reintroduced.[3]
Kornberger, Mihály executioner (1850?–1867)[He was executioner of Buda but later became a non official executioner of the whole country in criminal but not political cases][5][6]
Ifj. (Junior) Bogár, János state executioner (1944–1965?) (He executed: before 1945: some political prisoners, after 1945: Ferenc Szálasi, László Rajk, Imre Nagy and all death sentenced people between this time).
Pradlik, György the last state executioner (–1988)
August 25, 1939 (official reference to the voluntary executioner of Paul Irniger, the "taxi killer of Baar"; born September 16, 1915, Arthur X. was given entrance at Burghölzli mental institution in Zürich because of paranoid schizophrenia September 12, 1947; September 1952 he was transferred to the Clinica Waldhaus mental institution in Chur where he deceased January 26, 1960)[21]
1649–1663 (London)[27] (the subject of Groanes from Newgate, or an Elegy upon Edward Dun. Esq., the Citie's Common Hangman, who died naturally in his bed the 11th of September, 1663. Written by a person of Quality)[28]
John Crossland
c1660 (Derby) supposed to have been one of three members of the same family convicted and then appointed hangman to hang the other two and then remaining in post.[29]
1735–1752 (convicted of murder in 1750, but pardoned and continued in office). (London);[33][34] executed Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat on 9 April 1747, the last man to be beheaded in England.[35] Thrift controversially was buried at St Paul's.[36]
William Stout, of Hexham
1746 York; hanged Francis Buchanan, two hours before a reprieve arrived.[37]
Robert Clarke, a Butcher
1749 Sussex; executed some smugglers and later hanged himself after being tricked out of money.[38]
William Elliot
c1752 (London) executed at Tyburn on 10 June 1767 for housebreaking, he had been hangman earlier after John Thrift, Elliott was transported for felony, after the expiry of his term he returned continued as a common robber.[39]
1756 (Dublin); arrested, identified as topman (or hangman) and sentenced to transportation for attempted robbery.[41][42]
1760 (Oxford) in April, 1760 the hangman enlisted into the army. It was reported that he had carried out many hangings.[43]
Joseph Cartwright
1767 (Worcester) in April, 1767 this prisoner was under sentence of transportation when he hanged Samuel Turner, for housebreaking.[44]
Andrew Boyle
c1768 (Edinburgh) a prisoner hangman, escaped wearing his wife's clothes, he was captured and escaped again from Arbroath. He was recaptured and found in possession of a watch, banknotes and other stolen items. He had previously been convicted of theft and then enlisted as a soldier.[45][46]
1771–1786 (London); the last hangman at Tyburn and the first at Newgate;[47] died 21 November 1786 at his home in the Old Bailey[48]) The hangman was arrested in 1780, and sent to the New Prison, Clerkenwell for involvement in crimes.[49] He was convicted for his part in the riots.[50]
Henry Thornton,
1773 (Sligo): Thornton the High Sheriff, had to step forward to carry out this when the official hangman was not at his post at the right moment, when Samuel Slack finished his speech to those assembled.[51]
William Mcghie
c1775 (Glasgow): when arrested for theft in 1775, he was described as 'late hangman in Glasgow'.[52] He was sentenced to be whipped through the city for repeated acts of theft, and banished for life.[53]
? Allen
1777 (Lincoln): capitally convicted, then reprieved, he later hanged for Highway Robbery Thomas Hamm, a former accomplice of his.[54]
1782 (Dublin): an unidentied woman hanged two men for murder on 13th, November at Kilmainham, near Dublin. The men were also quartered. The sheriff received abuse for making a hangman of a woman.[55]
Keenan
c1784 (Ireland): described as "late hangman of the New Prison and is now an approver at Kilmainham, was four times capitally convicted, and will again, by a defect on our laws, be turned loose to commit more depredations on the public"[56]
Thomas Woodham
c1785 (Gloucester). Aged 69 executed for highway robbery in Ilchester in August 1785, described as a former Gloucester hangman[57]
career lasted from 1786 to 1814 (London)[58] (started as assistant to Edward Dennis;[47] executed Catherine Murphy in 1789, the last woman to be burned at the stake in England)
William Blackhall
c1787 (Oxford) reported as "on a former occasion, officiated as hangman, committed to our Castle, charged upon oath with stealing, out of a house".[59]
John Howes
1792 (Norfolk): reported as "the hangman for Norfolk, committed to the house of correction at Wymondham, for want of sureties in a case of bastardy."[60] In a similar article in the Norfolk Chronicle of 4 February 1792, he is described as "the finisher of the law for this county" ('finisher of the law' being a euphemism for hangman).
Thomas Davies
c1794 (Shropshire): reported as "hangman for city and county of Shropshire, the Principalty of North Wales, Montgomeryshire etc died 1794.[61]
1803 (Hampshire): the county hangman placed in the stocks and to serve 6 months.[64]
Edward Barlow
1806 (Lancashire): it was reported that Old Ned the hangman was committed to Lancaster Castle for stealing a horse.[65] Edward Barlow for many years hangman, sentenced to be hanged for horse-stealing.[66]
Josie Tait
c1807 (Dumfries): named in a poem published in 1807.[67]
Patrick Halpen
c1794–1809 (Newgate) Died whilst in the office of Finisher of the Law he had occupied for thirteen years, his widow is thought may succeeded him in his role as hangman.[68]
Donald Ross
1812–1834 (Inverness) appointed on a salary of £12 plus numerous perks. It was reported he was attached by a mob of mischievous boys and lads, and died on the spot. He was not replaced.[69]
c1826 (Durham) Reported in the paper as being sought for theft of a cloak, the common hangman sentenced to 2 months in prison.[73][74] He was sentenced to transportation for seven years for theft of a cotton gown in September, 1829. It was said he had previously committed innumerable thefts.[75]
1835–1839 (Yorkshire) Coates was under sentence of seven years transportation but took on the role of hangman remaining in confinement at York Castle. He was one of three prisoners that escaped from the castle in 1839.[76]
1835–1847 (last executioner of Edinburgh)[77] James Eddy was found guilty of his homicide, whilst drink he had assaulted Scott, who was said to be in frail health.[78]
John C. Woods (1911–1950). Hangman for the Third Army in WWII. He was one of the hangmen who executed Nazi war criminals.
Joseph Malta (1918–1999) was the hangman who, with John C. Woods, executed the top 10 leaders of the Third Reich in Nuremberg on October 16, 1946, for crimes against humanity.
Alabama
Clarence Burford, warden at Kilby Prison from 1952 to 1965, was involved in several executions.[82]
Murray Daniels, assistant warden at Kilby Prison in the 1950s, involved in eleven executions.[83]
J.D. White, warden at Holman Correctional Facility from 1980 to 1983, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences. Executed Alabama's first post-Furman inmate, John Louis Evans on April 22, 1983.[84]
Willie Johnson, warden at Holman Correctional Facility from 1983 to 1988, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences[85]
Charlie Jones, warden at Holman Correctional Facility from 1988 to 2002, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences[86]
Grantt Culliver, warden at Holman Correctional Facility from 2002 to 2009, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences[87]
John J. "Jack" Eeles – corrections officer who served as hangman at Colorado State Penitentiary until he was murdered in a prison riot on October 3, 1929.[88]
Wayne K. Patterson – warden at Colorado State Penitentiary who pulled the lever to start execution of Luis Jose Monge on June 2, 1967. This was the last execution in the United States prior to the 1972 US Supreme Court case Furman vs. Georgia, which temporarily invalidated the death penalty procedures nationwide. Patterson was opposed to capital punishment.[89]
Indiana
Jack P. Duckworth
1981 – Warden of Indiana State Prison at Michigan City who was required by law to throw the switch at the electrocution of Steven Timothy Judy[90]
Sheriff John Ludlow on November 15, 1792 (today's Hamilton County)
Adams County
Sheriff John Ellison, Jr. on December 10, 1808
Cuyahoga County
Sheriff Samuel S. Baldwin and Deputy Sheriff & Coroner Levi Johnson on June 26, 1812
Sheriff Miller S. Spangler on June 1, 1855
Sheriff Felix Nicola on February 9 and 10, 1866 and August 10, 1866
Sheriff John Frazee on February 4 or 13, 1869 and April 25, 1872
Sheriff Pardon B. Smith on April 29, 1874
Sheriff A. P. Winslow on June 22, 1876
Sheriff John Wilcox on February 13, 1879
Fairfield County
Sheriff Daniel Kishler and Coroner John Heck on October 14, 1836
Franklin County
Sheriff William Domigan and Coroner A. W. Reader on February 9, 1844 (a double execution, including the first reported execution of a woman in Ohio's history)
Sheriff Silas W. Park and Coroner Elias Gaver on December 17, 1858
Gallia County
Sheriff Samuel Holcomb on September 9, 1817
Ross County
Sheriff Jeremiah McLene and Coroner Benjamin Urmston on August 3, 1804
Portage County
Sheriff Asa Burroughs on November 30, 1816
State Executioners with the Gallows
Warden Isaac Peetry between 1885 and 1886, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden E.G. Coffin between 1886 and 1890, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden B.F. Dyer between 1890 and 1892, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden C.C. James between 1892 and 1896, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden E.G. Coffin between 1896 and 1897, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
State Executioners with the Electric Chair
Warden E.G. Coffin between 1897 and 1900, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden W.N. Darby between 1900 and 1903, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden E. A. Hershey between 1903 and 1904, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden O.B. Gould between 1904 and 1909, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden T.H.B. Jones between 1909 and 1913, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden D.E. Thomas between 1913 and 1935, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden J.C. Woodard between 1935 and 1939, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden F.D. Henderson between 1939 and 1948, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden R.W. Alvis between 1948 and 1959, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden B.C. Sacks between 1959 and 1961, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Warden E.L. Maxwell between 1961 and 1963, required by state law to be the executioner of death sentences
Joe Byrd – Captain of the guard at the Walls Unit who served as executioner between 1936 and 1964.[83] The nearby prison cemetery, where unclaimed remains of executed inmates are buried by the state, is named in his honor.
W. James "Jim" Estelle– Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) between 1972 and 1983. Was designated executioner under policy developed by the TDCJ in 1976.[102] Was the individual pushing the drugs into the IV lines at the December 1982 execution of Charlie Brooks, the first inmate in the United States to be executed by lethal injection.
1982–1999 – Givens, a corrections officer at Virginia State Penitentiary and later Greensville Correctional Center, served as official executioner for all executions carried out in the state during this time period.
Armand, Frédéric: Les Bourreaux en France: Du Moyen-Âge à l'Abolition de la Peine de Mort. Paris (75): Éditions Perrin, 2012
Delarue, Jacques: Le Métier de Bourreau: Du Moyen Âge à Aujourd'hui. Paris (75): Fayard, 1979
Evans, Richard J.: Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600–1987. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996; London: Penguin Books, 1997
Goulart, José Alípio: Da Palmatória ao Patíbulo: Castigos de Escravos no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Editora Conquista, 1971
Koch, Tankred: Die Geschichte der Henker: Scharfrichterschicksale aus acht Jahrhunderten. Heidelberg: Kriminalistikverlag, 1988; Herrsching: Manfred-Pawlak-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1991
Lachance, André: Le Bourreau au Canada sous le Régime Français. Québec, QC: Société historique de Québec, 1966
Martschukat, Jürgen: Inszeniertes Töten: Eine Geschichte der Todesstrafe vom 17. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert. Köln: Böhlau, 2000; Hamburg: 2006
Nowosadtko, Jutta: Scharfrichter und Abdecker: Der Alltag zweier "unehrlicher Berufe" in der Frühen Neuzeit. Paderborn: 1994
Ribeiro, João Luiz: No Meio das Galinhas as Baratas Não Têm Razão: A Lei de 10 de Junho de 1835 – Os Escravos e a Pena de Morte no Império do Brasil 1822–1889. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Renovar, 2005.
Rossa, Kurt: Todesstrafen: Von den Anfängen bis heute. Bergisch-Gladbach: Bastei-Lübbe-Verlag, 1979
Streib, Victor L.: The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2006
Welsh-Huggins, Andrew: No Winners Here Tonight: Race, Politics, and Geography in One of the Country's Busiest Death Penalty States. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2009
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's Odyssey. Hanging is also a method of suicide.
Albert Pierrepoint was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him.
William Marwood was a British state hangman. He developed the technique of hanging known as the "long drop".
An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.
Capital punishment was abolished via the legislative process on May 2, 2013, in the U.S. state of Maryland.
Capital punishment in Canada dates back to Canada's earliest history, including its period as a French colony and, after 1763, its time as a British colony. From 1867 to the elimination of the death penalty for murder on July 26, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 were women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment of civilians after the end of the French regime was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail. The military prescribed firing squad as the method of execution until 1999, although no military executions had been carried out since 1946.
Capital punishment – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in New Zealand in a codified form when New Zealand became a British colony in 1840. It was first carried out with a public hanging in Victoria Street, Auckland in 1842, while the last execution occurred in 1957 at Mount Eden Prison, also in Auckland. In total, 85 people have been executed in New Zealand.
James Berry was an English executioner from 1884 until 1891. Berry was born in Heckmondwike in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where his father worked as a wool-stapler. His most important contribution to the science of hanging was his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood, whom Berry knew quite well. His improvements were intended to diminish mental and physical suffering and some of them remained standard practice until the abolition of capital punishment for murder.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Russia, but is not used due to a moratorium and no death sentences or executions have occurred since 2 August 1996. Russia has a moratorium implicitly established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and explicitly established by the Constitutional Court of Russia in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2009.
William Calcraft was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, Calcraft was initially recruited to flog juvenile offenders held in Newgate Prison. While selling meat pies on streets around the prison, Calcraft met the City of London's hangman, John Foxton.
Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state on the island of Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment of the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution, even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. In the United States, after an individual is found guilty of a capital offense in states where execution is a legal penalty, the judge will give the jury the option of imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. It is then up to the jury to decide whether to give the death sentence; this usually has to be a unanimous decision. If the jury agrees on death, the defendant will remain on death row during appeal and habeas corpus procedures, which may continue for several decades.
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged, emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered. His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.
The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 received royal assent on 29 May 1868, putting an end to public executions for murder in the United Kingdom. The act required that all prisoners sentenced to death for murder be executed within the walls of the prison in which they were being held, and that their bodies be buried in the prison grounds. It was prompted at least in part by the efforts of reformers such as Sir Robert Peel and Charles Dickens, who called in the national press for an end to the "grotesque spectacle" of public executions. Abolition of public executions was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864-1866. A similar measure, the Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill, had been introduced in 1867, but failed for lack of parliamentary time.
John Robert Radclive was Canada's first professional hangman, serving from 1892 until the early 20th century.
Capital punishment in Lesotho is legal. However, despite not having any official death penalty moratorium in place, the country has not carried out any executions since the 1990s and is therefore considered de facto abolitionist.
Alexander Green was an Australian executioner. He arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1824 as a convict and was granted a Certificate of Freedom in 1831. During the period 1826 to late 1833 Green was employed as a flagellator, or scourger, at Sydney, Port Stephens and the Hunter Valley, inflicting floggings on those who had received a sentence of corporal punishment. In February 1834 he was appointed as the colony's public executioner, beginning a career of twenty-one years during which Green carried out about 250 hangings. During most of his employment as the New South Wales hangman, judicial executions were able to be viewed by the public. His last execution in February 1855 was the first private hanging after the enactment of legislation to abolish public executions in New South Wales. Towards the end of his career Green's behaviour became increasingly erratic due to drunkenness and mental instability. He was declared to be insane in April 1855 and committed to a lunatic asylum. Alexander Green died at the Parramatta Asylum on 31 August 1879.
References
↑ Did not carry out any execution; officially nominated that day, he refused the "job" and persisted in his refusal, changing his mind not even when tortured to make him reconsider. The next day, April 28, 1825, two anonymous convicts of whose names have not appeared records so far, if there are any surviving somewhere, refused the "job" either and so persisted when being shown the gallows and in front of them announced they'd be hanged there later; they preferred their own hangings
↑ Vajna Károly: Hazai régi büntetések, II. kötet, Lőrincz János „Univers” Könyvnyomdája, Budapest, 1907, http://mek.oszk.hu/12700/12701/pdf/12701_02-2.pdf Gábor Ármin Barna: Hóhérlakok Budán és Pesten II., 2019, in: Patibulum blog, https://patibulum.blog.hu/2019/08/21/hoherlakok_budan_es_pesten_ii Tóth Rebeka: A halálbüntetés kronológiája Magyarországon, 2019, in: arsbona.hu, https://arsboni.hu/a-halalbuntetes-kronologiaja-magyarorszagon/
↑ "Schuller szolgálatának vége egybeesik az 1848–1849-es forradalom és szabadságharc bukásával. Nem tudjuk, önként vagy utasításra vonult-e nyugalomba harmincegy év után, de 1849-től új, szintén brünni származású hóhér, Both Ferenc váltotta fel őt. Mintha az elnyomó osztrák hatalom még a büntetés-végrehajtókban sem bízott volna a forradalmi időkből. Tény, hogy míg a budai oldalon Schuller korábbi segédje, a győri születésű Kornberger Mihály kizárólag köztörvényes bűncselekményért elítélteken hajtotta végre a halálbüntetést, addig Both a forradalmi cselekedeteikért halálra ítélt politikai foglyok kivégzését is vállalta. Az állami terror idején Schuller József alakja egy letűnt, reményteli korszak emlékét idézte, amikor még a hóhér vörös megkülönböztető öltözetének szabása is magyaros volt a kivégzéseken…" https://fovarosikeptar.hu/tanulj-velunk-tortenelmet-2021-9-10-evfolyam/a-forradalom-es-a-szabadsagharc/
1 2 Donald Rumbelow (1982). The Triple Tree: Newgate, Tyburn, and Old Bailey. Harrap. p.176. ISBN0245538771.
↑ Richard Grafton (1809). Grafton's chronicle, or history of England: to which is added his table of the bailiffs, sheriffs and mayors of the city of London from the year 1189, to 1558, inclusive: in two volumes. Vol.2. Johnson. p.463.
↑ Andrew Barrett; Christopher Harrison, eds. (1999). Crime and punishment in England: a sourcebook. Routledge. p.54. ISBN1857288718.
↑ "A discovery of the person who beheaded King Charles I". The Scots Magazine. 1 January 1776. p.16.
↑ Frederic George Stephens; Mary Dorothy George, eds. (1870). Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum: Division I. Political and personal satires. Vol.1. Trustees of the British Museum. p.421.
↑ William Thomas Lowndes (1834). The bibliographer's manual of English literature containing an account of rare, curious, and useful books, published in or relating to Great Britain and Ireland, from the invention of printing: with bibliographical and critical notices, collations of the rarer articles, and the prices at which they have been sold in the present century. W. Pickering. p.628.
↑ "John Crossland". Chester Chronicle. 10 May 1793. p.4.
↑ Gerald Howson (1985). Thief-Taker General: Jonathan Wild and the emergence of crime and corruption as a way of life in eighteenth-century England. Transaction Publishers. pp.132, 276. ISBN0887380328.
↑ John Brown (1820). Memoirs of George the Third, late king of Great Britain: including characters and anecdotes of the British court. H. Fisher. p.129.
↑ "Worcester, April 30". Oxford Journal. 2 May 1767. p.3.
↑ "Extract of a letter from Stirling". Caledonian Mercury. 9 April 1768. p.2.
↑ "Extract of a letter from Sterling". Oxford Journal. 16 April 1768.
1 2 Jeremy Beadle; Ian Harrison (2008). Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Crime. Anova Books. p.39. ISBN978-1905798049.
↑ John Laurence (1971). A history of capital punishment: with special reference to capital punishment in Great Britain. Kennikat Press. p.104. ISBN0804611149.
Bleakley, Horace (1929). The Hangmen of England: How They Hanged and Whom They Hanged, The Life Story of "Jack Ketch" through two Centuries. London: Chapman and Hall.
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