Drama of Singapore hanging an Asian Australian

[neddy]

Supporting drugs or supporting human dignity.

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On SBS TV

Better Man is a four part mini-series on the true story of Van Nguyen; a Vietnamese Australian man who was convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore and executed in 2005.

His hanging was the first execution of an Australian in Southeast Asia since 1993. Nguyen was 25-years-old.

At the time, the Australian government was criticised for not doing enough for Nguyen, despite state and federal pleas for clemency.

Then Federal health minister in the Howard government, Tony Abbott said the punishment "certainly did not fit the crime.... but people do need to understand that drug trafficking is a very serious offence".

His case divided Australian opinions on the death penalty.

An opinion poll showed 47% of Australians believed he should be executed, 46% said the death penalty should not be carried out.

 

[neddy]

On Thursday, Nguyen was weighed and measured by the Singaporean prison authorities, in order to gauge the length of rope required for a “successful” hanging. This calculation relied on the “Official Table of Drops”, first published by the British Home Office in 1913.

If the hangman’s rope is too long, the victim’s falling body weight can result in death by decapitation.

If too short, death by strangulation can take as long as 45 minutes.

When the rope is correctly measured, the victim loses consciousness when his or her neck is broken in the fall. Brain death then takes about six minutes, while full body death takes a further ten minutes.

According to the US-based Death Penalty Information Center:

“If the inmate has strong neck muscles ... or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur.”

 

[mei mei]

According to the US-based Death Penalty Information Center:

“If the inmate has strong neck muscles ... or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur.”

Singapore should have more humane form of execution (ie lethal injection) if death penalty is to stay.

 

[Poomer]

Singapore should have more humane form of execution (ie lethal injection) if death penalty is to stay.

I like it chinese style, firing squad.

 

[Annihilation]

On Thursday, Nguyen was weighed and measured by the Singaporean prison authorities, in order to gauge the length of rope required for a “successful” hanging. This calculation relied on the “Official Table of Drops”, first published by the British Home Office in 1913.

So troublesome. Do this.

 

[neddy]

Lethal Injection - what if cannot find vein to inject into ?

In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution, though it would be five more years until Charles Brooks would become the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 2, 1982. Today, 35 of the 36 states that have the death penalty use this method.

When this method is used, the condemned person is usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors on this skin.

Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the inmates arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips.

The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately.

Then, at the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room. Then, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental - an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep.

Next flows pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate's breathing.

Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart.

Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious. (

Medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions. However, a doctor will certify the inmate is dead. This lack of medical participation can be problematic because often injections are performed by inexperienced technicians or orderlies.

If a member of the execution team injects the drugs into a muscle instead of a vein, or if the needle becomes clogged, extreme pain can result.

Many prisoners have damaged veins resulting from intravenous drug use and it is sometimes difficult to find a usable vein, resulting in long delays while the inmate remains strapped to the gurney.

Singapore should have more humane form of execution (ie lethal injection) if death penalty is to stay.

 

[mei mei]

I like it chinese style, firing squad.

Firing squad results in quick deaths, better than hanging. Not unless, the shooters all cannot aim.

 

[neddy]

So troublesome. Do this.

This is called Cooking the Brain. And like microwaved food, need to wait for the body to cool enough to touch. Ouch!

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once offered the following description of an execution by electric chair:

...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.

 

[neddy]

Firing squad results in quick deaths, better than hanging. Not unless, the shooters all cannot aim.

The inmate is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall.

The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the inmate's blood.

A black hood is pulled over the inmate's head.

A doctor locates the inmate's heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it.

Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds.

Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate.

The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.


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Gas Chamber - like a heart attack. Just breathe in deeply.

In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon's cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed....