Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-01-09
DEATH PENALTIES.
Capital Punishment, In oiaen rimss


meaning fatal operation upon that
most vital part of the human frame,
the head, is now no misnomer, but the
time was when the death penalty was
10y no means directed at the head alone.
Death by stoning was, in all probability,
the earliest method of Furnishing crimes,
the Jews and other oriental nations be-
ing especially given to this form of su-
preme penalty. From the extremely
comprehensive code of capital offenses
which appeared in the Mosaic code, it
is TO be concluded that death by ston-
ing was u very common occurrence,
IND that the ''young men OF the con-
gTegatioun to whom were intrusted the
duties of eXecutioner, must have be-
come quite expert in their Office. 1t is
quite possible. however, that personal
retaliation antedated punishment 10y
the community, ard that the eye of eye,
tooth for tooth and life for life doctrine
was vigorously carried out. For the
instantaneous dispatch of an offender
the Jews used the swords, but stoning
continued to be the set form of capital
punishment up to the time of the Chris
tian era. Then CrucIiXion took its
place, form of death penalty borrow
ell from the Latin conquerors-
According TO tradition, however, the
Assyrians were the inventors of this
particularly unpleasant form OF being
kept in suspense, and It is a woman,
>emiramis, who has the doubtful honor
Of being the first TO employ it. The or
binary method OF infiicting it was by
mailing the victim to a cross, where lac
was left until dead. Occasionally,
however, n cheerful innovation was in
trOduced by setting the cross on fire be-
fore the victims death. or by letting
wild beasts deyour him in his defense
less position. Both the torch and the
Jaws OF the Wild beasts fangs were re-
ally merciful reliefs, for cases are on
record In which the victim fingered in
agony for eighteen and twenty days.
Death by crucihNion was inflicted on
women rs well rs on men, and such un-
speakable atrocities were practiced
under the guise of Just punishment that
the cross was abolished by Constantine
the Great about y. ID. 3l5.
DIFFERENT EsIAN METHODS.
Though the Romans were greatly
given to crucifying, it can scarcely be
said that they had any one national
form of capital punishment. They
acted largely after the mIkadO'S plan of
letting the punishment nt the crime.
Christians were burned, torn to pieces
by beasts, drowned in quagmires and
rivers and viyisected. Political often
ders, on the other hand, were thrown
from the Tarpeian rock. This was 4
lofty and precipitOus promontOry on
one side of the CapitOlInes hill Run
away slaves VIXEN recaptured were
turned adrift into the deserts or woods
u
10 a rock and left to starve. IL was
customary for while in Rome to per-
NIT capital offenders to select the man
ner by which they would meet death and
be allowed to infiict the penalty upon
themselves. This custom also obtain
ed in Greece, and when Socrates was
condemned 10 death FOR spreading dis
belief in the national religion he chose
to die by drinking hemlock.
one or the most cruel and unusual of
punishments WAS tina: which the RO-
mans in the latter days of the republic
meted out TO those who murdered either
of their parents. Luke Owen Pike, VI.
A, author of the History of Crime in
England, p" in referring 10 this punish
ment, says:
mot in the amphitheatre. not at the
stake, not on the cross was the parricide
to perish. y sack was TO be his wind
ing sheet; in that he was to be sewn up
alive and yenomOuS SerpentS with him.
He was to be thrown into the sea, if
the sea was near ut hand, and if not,
into a river, so that the heavens might
be hidden from him while still alive,
and the earth deny him n grave when
dead"
Often, however, in addition to the
Vipers, there We're dog, n monkey and
rooster sewed up in the sack with the
victim, who was naked. The sack was
usually of leather.
The oriental nations have always
been remarkable for the ingenious
cruelty of their death punishments,
although it is doubtful whether they
have been more cruel than the self styl-
ed highly civilized nations of the west
Death has come from slow Strangula-
ton from rope, rs was in vogue il
China, for instance, and at the same
time from the use OF boiling oil, which
was poured on the Joints after they
were dislocated; by mechanical means,
rs in France and Germany. from fay
ing, or stripping the skin off the body,
rs was formerly done in England, and
from pressure between planks, on the
upper of which great weights were
placed, rs was also in vogue in Eng
land ut one time.
CRUELTY AIDED BY INGENUITY.
Every method which human cruelty
could prompt and human ingenuity de-
wise has been reSorted to ut one time OF
other in ancient or mediHval days, and
among nations protesting to be ciyIliz-
ed, TO administer torture and death.
IL Is true that Japanese offenders have
been executed by the slow passage of a
spear upward through their entrails,
and that the Chinese criminals have
been gradually beheaded with i bam-
boo saw, but at the same time that
most barbarous form of inhIctiuG the
death penalty, the boiling IN a caldrOn,
was n European invention.
DeCapitation ceased in England in
l14J, but it is still performed in France
and some of the German states, in the
first country by the guillotine and in
the second by the sword, the instru-
ment employed in England having been
the broad AK. Decapitation with the
sword is also 4 capital punishment in
China The two handed sword was in
use in France before the> guillotine was
introduced, while for great crimes the
victim was broken on the wheel 1t ap-
pears to have come first into use il
Germany, where it was employed rs
early rs the Tenth century. Francis l,
about 1925. introduced it INTO France.
1t was employed for time also in
England. The prisoner designed for
death by this method was bound to an
instrument rudely resembling I wheel,
his legs and arms being separated as far
as possible aud attached to crossDars
corresponding to spokes- As the wheel
reyolves the limbs of the victim were
fractured by heavy blows from heavy
iron rod delivered below the knees and
elbows. Sometimes the rod was held
in position mechanically, the limbs of
the prisoner, rs he whirled VA The wheel,
coming in contact with il. Usually,
however, the rod was held in the hands
of an executioner, who administered
the blows as rapidly as he could WELD
1t. In France the torture of this mode