Hanging rope theory

One learns something every day, although the usefulness might not always be very high. The following is interesting, but of the morbid kind. On Monday, Saddam's half-brother was executed in Baghdad by hanging, together with the former chief judge of the Supreme Court. In the process, the half-brother's head was severed from the body. Why did this happen with the brother, and not with Saddam or the judge? A rather interesting topic. Time for physics class.

Well, good ol' CNN provides the answer. (CNN: How hanging is supposed to work). Their seems to be four ways to hang a guy (let's not talk about the girls here, they certainly won't mind the discrimination on this one). Let's quote CNN: “Four types of drop have been used in hanging: the short drop, suspension, standard and long drop. In all but the last, subjects can remain conscious for minutes and eventually die of strangulation and/or loss of blood to the brain.”

Suspension is probably the lynch mob method: throw a rope over a tree branch (or attached to a crane or tank barrel) and haul 'em up. I don't know what the meaning of 'standard' is. The short drop is tying the rope around the ceiling fan and jumping off a chair. All three methods are no good, because it takes too long to die. And strange things happen, as the 'Corrections Professional' describes: “the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates”. Rather messy. Besides, slow strangulation is considered to be “not humane”.

Enter the long drop through a trap door. The neck snaps, quick and clean.

Unless... the rope is too long in relation to weight, height and build. Bingo, the head comes off! The French used to have a better way to achieve the same result: the guillotine. No need to waste a lot of rope.

"It seems what happened was that the Iraqi officials who had worked so hard to get this one right just got it wrong," commented John Burns of the New York Times, who was invited to watch a video of the hangings.

They never seem to be able to do anything right in Iraq these days. For those who want to get a MHA (Master in Hanging Administration), please head to Michigan State University.