Modes of Execution

In ancient and medieval period, the execution of death sentence was often attended by cruel forms of torture and suffering inflicted on the offender. During these periods techniques of inflicting death were: Burning alive, boiling in oil, hurling from a rock, breaking at the wheel, drowning, impaling, immuring, beheading, amputation, stoning to death etc. Thus there was great divergence as to the mode of execution. These brutal methods of condemning the offenders were, however, abandoned by the end of eighteenth century. At present, the common modes of execution of death sentence which are in vogue in the different parts of the world are hanging, electrocution, gas-chamber, lethal injection and shooting. These changes have occurred with the advance of time and modern humanitarian approach to penology. These changes are based on the premise that death penalty means simply the deprivation of life and as such should be made as quicker and less painful as possible. Renovations and innovations are continuously being made, by the countries of the world, in the methods of execution, so that person on whom the sentence has been ordered suffers minimum torture. Of all the modern methods of administering the death penalty, hanging has been the most widely used. Royal Commission was appointed in the year 1949 by the Government of United Kingdom. The Commission submitted a report in 1953 after extensive research relating to merits and demerits of hanging and other prevalent methods of execution of death sentence. After weighing all the factors carefully the commission did not recommend that either electrocution or gas chamber should replace hanging. The Commission, however, recommended unanimously and emphatically that the question of introducing lethal injection as a mode of execution should be periodically examined, especially in the light of the progress made in the science of anesthetics. Law Commission of India in its Thirty-fifth Report on Capital Punishment, submitted in the year 1967, also did not recommend that either electrocution or gas chamber should replace hanging. However, Law Commission of India in its 187th Report has made headway for introducing lethal injection as alternative mode of execution of death sentence. ‘Hanging’ as a mode of execution will become obsolete with the advance of time, inventions in science and modern humanitarian approach to penology. Electrocution or lethal injection will replace ‘hanging’ in decades to come!

(Complete Article available in Indian Bar Review Vol. XXXII (3 & 4) 2005 pg. 439)