I seriously believe that the death penalty has never really been a punishment for criminals who commit crimes that earn them said punishment. When you commit such a crime, you are pretty much saying you are giving up your own life as well. Unfortunately, the USA (and most other civilized nations) also do not believe in cruel and unusual punishment for those who have never the less earned it. Raesvelg came up with a good idea a few posts back, or hell, wanna kill him, ok sure, but do it the SLOW AND PAINFUL way, not quick and painless.
You know, I always liked the good old days of dragged, hanged and garroted.
First you were hanged until you're just about to die, and they cut you down. Then, they tie you after a horse and drag you to the execution spot, where they cut off your genitals and burn them in front of you. Then, they cut open your stomach and drag out the intestines and burn them.
Later on, they replaced it with hanging > dragging > tieing each of your arms and legs to 4 horses, who then drag in 4 different directions until you're split.
This actually leads to a pretty funny story about Charles Sanson, who was the initial Sanson of the the Sanson Executors. They were the state executor in Paris for 6 generations. One of the Sansons had to endure a specially horrendous execution. You see, the horses this day were especially weak, so they couldn't execute him this way. After the horses had dragged for 2 hours with him shouting in pain, they had to chop his arms and legs off. The problem was, at first they missed, and as the axe was weak, it took several attempts to chop through the limbs, but when they had finally chopped both of his arms and legs of, the man was still alive, begging them to kill him. This one execution scarred him for life, and he was about to quit his job. Fun story though, is that he was also an excellent doctor, and his free time was spent healing the sick and poor. If I remember right, his name was Charles Baptiste-Sanson, and was the second one. The Sanson lineage stared with Charles Sanson and ended with Charles Sanson.
Charles Sanson was initially a wounded soldier, who were taken in to the Sanson family. Eventually he fell in love with the daughter of the family, and it wasn't until later he found out her father was the executioner of Paris. Eventually he got over his shock and decided to marry her, which her father didn't like. Eventually he agreed to let them marry, which lead to a complicated story about how became the executioner of Paris, leading to him realizing his entire lineage would be forever doomed to be executioners.
Now, you'd think they enjoyed their job as executioner and bringing justice to the people, considering some of you apparently said you'd take great enjoyment in shooting convicts in the head. However, only one of them truly enjoyed the job, and that was the second Sanson, who often followed his father to work. Two of the Sansons were also educated doctors and helped the poor, and loathed their job as executioners. One were very famous and rich, and everyone wanted to dress as him, but he still loathed the job as people still hated him. They were one of the richest families in Paris, though, and their children were forced in to the job, as it was too an important position of power and money to give up to some other family. For example, The 4th Sanson worked as a physician, until he was forced to become an executioner at the age of 15, and he loathed his father's job. Charles Henri sanson, this particular sanson, was actually the last one to perform the later version of dragged, hanged and garroted, called drawing and quartering (the one with the horses), on his first victim, Robert-François Damiens. Robert was convicted for the failed assassination of Louis XV of France.
The worst part of this all, is that Henri-clament Sanson (think it was him, was either him or his father), had to execute not only his friend, but a woman he had loved too. Both of them were innocent people, who died for no other reason than being nobles.
Edit: I forgot to mention the best part of Drawn and Quartered. First you cut small wounds over the body and pour molten metal in to them. In the case of Robert-Françuis, his hand was also burned with sulfur. After the dragging part, the limbs and torso are thrown to burn at the stake, sometime with the victim still alive.
You have to appreciate the their cruelty. Surprised they still had criminals.
edit2: the more I think about it, I think Robert was the horrible execution I talked about earlier that scarred the Sanson for life.
