Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) was an African American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution in the United States. He was a convicted juvenile sentenced to death at age 16 by the state of Louisiana in 1945 for the murder of Andrew Thomas, a Cajun pharmacy owner in St.
He had been strapped to the gurney for four hours. Smith is one of only two people alive today who have survived an execution procedure in the US. His fellow member of this exceptionally small and undesirable club, Alan Miller, was subjected to an attempted execution by Alabama in September.
On May 3, 2023, the family of Joe Nathan James (pictured) sued the state of Alabama for the pain and suffering it caused during his three-hour-long lethal injection in 2022. It is believed to be the longest known execution in U.S. history.
A man who survived the electric chair once described what it felt like before he was eventually executed in 1947. In 1945, 16-year-old Willie Francis was sentenced to death as a juvenile offender by the state of Louisiana for the murder of Andrew Thomas - a pharmacy owner who once employed him.
Maggie's survival was taken as an act of God. She became a celebrity, nicknamed Half-Hangit Maggie. She lived another 40 years, and today a tavern stands in her honor near the site of her hanging. Inetta de Balsham was sentenced to death for harboring thieves in 1264.
Ronald Ryan was the last man executed at Pentridge Prison and in Australia. He was hanged on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of shooting dead a prison officer during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Coburg, Victoria in 1965.
Lethal injection avoids many of the unpleasant effects of other forms of execution: bodily mutilation and bleeding due to decapitation, smell of burning flesh in electrocution, disturbing sights or sounds in lethal gassing and hanging, the problem of involuntary defecation and urination.
A heart monitor is attached to the inmate. In most states, the intravenous injection is a series of drugs given in a set sequence, designed to first induce unconsciousness followed by death through paralysis of respiratory muscles and/or by cardiac arrest through depolarization of cardiac muscle cells.
On May 3, 1946, Louisiana attempted to execute Francis in the electric chair, but an intoxicated prison guard had improperly set up the chair. Francis was badly shocked but survived the execution attempt.
William Francis Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) was an American peddler, alcoholic, and murderer, who, in 1890, became the first person in the world to be executed by electric chair.
In practice, China traditionally uses the firing squad as its standard method of execution. However, in recent years, China has adopted lethal injection as its sole method of execution, though execution by firing squad can still be administered.
Crucifixion is still used as a rare method of execution in Saudi Arabia. The punishment of crucifixion (șalb) imposed in Islamic law is variously interpreted as exposure of the body after execution, crucifixion followed by stabbing in the chest, or crucifixion for three days, survivors of which are allowed to live.
If all goes as planned, the entire execution takes about five minutes, with death usually occurring less than two minutes after the final injection. However, botched lethal injections have sometimes required more than two hours to achieve death.
In China, where numbers remain a state secret, thousands of people are believed to be executed and sentenced to death each year. As our chart shows, Iran comes second only after China with at least 576 people known to have been executed in 2022, up 55 percent from the year.
Pole method
The condemned is made to stand before a specialized vertical pole or pillar, approximately 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height. A rope is attached around the condemned's feet and routed through a pulley at the base of the pole.
Q: Why do they put a bag over your head in an electric chair? A: Putting a hood on the condemned is a practice that goes back centuries. I've read it's done so the person's last moments aren't gawked at by witnesses. It was done in hangings and most firing squad deaths as well.
The Death Penalty Information Center (U.S.) has published a partial listing of wrongful executions that, as of the end of 2020, identified 20 death-row prisoners who were "executed but possibly innocent". Judicial murder is a type of wrongful execution.
Critics of the electric chair dispute whether the first jolt of electricity reliably induces immediate unconsciousness as proponents often claim. Witness testimony, botched electrocutions (see Willie Francis and Allen Lee Davis), and post-mortem examinations suggest that execution by electric chair is often painful.
Finally, there's a fringe benefit to swabbing the arm. Alcohol causes veins below the swabbed skin to swell stand out a little better and makes the skin more sensitive to touch, making a good vein easier to find and stick.
Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) was an African American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution in the United States. He was a convicted juvenile sentenced to death at age 16 by the state of Louisiana in 1945 for the murder of Andrew Thomas, a Cajun pharmacy owner in St.
The machine was judged successful because it was considered a humane form of execution in contrast with more cruel methods used in the pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime.
Also known as 'death by a thousand cuts' or 'slow slicing', Lingchi involved the condemned having small pieces of flesh removed with a knife in a manner that would delay death. The number of slices could be just a handful or could number in the thousands.
Rome used crucifixion as a mean of execution for many centuries. One of the most famous events, involving mass crucifixions, occurred around 71 BC after a slave uprising led by Spartacus. Contemporary sources tell us that so many men were crucified—about 6,000—that crosses lined the road from Rome to Capua.