Executive Symbolism

Why are there different methods of execution? What difference does it make whether someone is hanged, decapitated, shot, or electrocuted? What does it tell us about the society in question?

Hanging was the traditional method in Europe since medieval times. The noose suspends the victim, who is strangled by the weight of their own corpus. The noose resembles the divine hand lifting the victim, but they are unable to ascend to heaven by the weight of their Earthly crimes. This clearly reflects the religious origin of legal right in that era - the divine right of the monarch as the representative of god on Earth.

The guillotine was the weapon of the french revolution. A depersonalised mechanical instrument, the victim is almost lying flat, and their head is severed. The severing of the head clearly symbolises the 'head' of society, the aristocracy, and their prostration represents their reduced status before the revolutionary fervour. Notably, even prior to the revolution decapitation was used to execute monarchs and aristocrats, such as Mary of Scots.

The firing squad was common during the wars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, notably in the Soviet Union and communist china. This is a more fully depersonalised method. Many of the members of the firing squad are usually firing blanks, while a few are using live ammunition, so that the true executioner is obscured. Aside from easing the guilt of the executioner, this represents the collective action of the society doing the execution - there is no single executioner, but the ambiguous will of the people.

Electric chair and lethal injection are associated with the USA in the late 20th century to present. The electric chair isolates the victim, who cannot even see their executioner. Notably, both the chair and injection are invisible methods - there is no obvious physical trauma inflicted on the victim. This obscures the barbarism of the act of legal murder behind a veneer of scientific or medical necessity. It is no coincidence that the chair was associated with the same era as electroshock therapy, whereas lethal injection corresponds to more recent medical practices. This also corresponds to capitalist realism - the idea that capitalism is the only natural organisation of society. Crime is framed as a biological or medical issue, rather than a social phenomenon, and so its solutions are symbolically medical.

More can be written about hang, drawing, and quartering, as well as traditional Chinese methods such as strangulation, or Japanese harakiri.