The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-04-20
EXECUTIONS.
Methods That Might BE Employed.
1.-THE SPECTATOR

ZINE spectator
We think it to be demonstrate that so
long as the sentence of death Is retained
that is, so long as the nation retains its
present creed, and feels for society more
than for the individual-three conditions
as to the method Of infictng it should be
resOlutely maintained The mode of exc
cution adopted should be sudden; It
should visibly shatter the corpse as little
as possible, and it should be one held by
opinion to be in itself disgraceful. and
no method except hanging fulfils all
those conditions. Sudden death could
OF course be inflicted in hundred
ways. many of them more rapid even than
the moose. Shooting, If the heart is pierced,
or the brain, is probably as rapid as any
the guillotine is swifter than the h9ngman,
despite some doubts as to the instantaneous
loss OF the victims consciousness, and il
would be easily possible TO employ agencies
more rapid than either. There are poisons
too rapid in their action for pain, and one
Of chem could be administered, we believe,
during sleep. Electricians can prove, we
are told, that the electric fluid moves more
rapidly than sensation does, and hold it,
therefore, probable that an electric shock
sufficient to kill instantly would never
be felt by the criminal at all,
death preceding sensation, view
borne out, so far as such views can be,
by the usual testimony of those who
have received and survived a stroke of
lightning. Any one Of these methods,
therefore, would be as satisfactory, so far
as suddenness and the absence OF any ap-
proach to torture is concerned, as hanging:
but the first two diminish that respect for
the body which the whole history OF brutal
assaults shows il so necessary to maintain.
and which Is, we think, the true objection
10 that CHASTITY but painless mode of execu-
ton, blowing from cannon; and the third
is liable to an objection Of its own, that it is
not wise TO make death for crime much
more painless than natural death usually Is.
We should not make it painful, but we
should not artificialy reduce IFS terrorS.
The awe with which the punishment IL
regarded would be gravey diminished by
the use OF painless poison, such as the
Athenlans used, while new doubt would
be begotten among the ignorant as TO the
reality OF its infiiction. They would begin
talking OF strong sleeplng-draughts. and
OF drugs which could produce apparent
death-that Is, catalepsy-w without actually
killing. IL Is most important that no color
should be given to such stories, and i'm
portant, too, not 10 degrade science by
making It an accomplice in the execution
ei's task, as II would be IL the electric bat
terry were employed. Men ought not 10
lose the sense that there Is something
rough and brutal about capital punish
ment. that It is essentially a last appeal
10 force in Its most direct and savage
form, when every other means appear
from experience TO have failed We greatly
doubt, moreover, whether the multitude
would believe in the painlessness Of death
by electricity. and whether the lightning
stroke would not evoke that shudder OF
sympathy with the condemned which so
utterly " demoralizes the gulllotine," and
which the Idea Of torture, In this age at all
events, never fails TO elicit IN England.
There would be too much the air OF sell
entifc experiment In every execution, and
q single instance Of failure would, till the
rapid increase OF murder recalled the peo-
PIE 10 themselves, he fatal to the punish
nent Of death.