| Method | Description |
|---|
| Asphyxia |
- By drowning. Attested very early in history, by a large number of societies, and as the method of execution for many different offences.
- By garrote. Used in Spain and former Spanish colonies (e.g., the Philippines).
- By poena cullei, used during the Roman Empire. The victim was stuffed into a sack with a number of animals and thrown into a body of water.
- By premature burial. Used for Vestal virgins who broke their vows.
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| Avulsion |
|
| Blunt trauma |
- By breaking wheel. Also known as the Catherine wheel, after Catherine of Alexandria who was apparently executed by this method.
- By falling. The victim is thrown off a height or into a hollow. The Athenian generals condemned for their part in the battle of Arginusae were thrown into the Barathron in Athens.[1]
- By mazzatello. Italian method of execution by inflicting head trauma using club or other blunt weapons.
- By spinal fracture. Some Mongolian executions are said to have done this to avoid spilling blood on the ground.[2] The Mongolian leader Jamukha was probably executed this way in 1206.[3]
- By stoning. The victim is battered by stones thrown by a group of people, with the injuries leading to death.
- By trampling with animals. Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid caliph was executed using horses in Baghdad. Trampling by elephant is also attested in India.[4]
|
| Burning |
- By boiling. Carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tar, tallow, or even molten lead.
- By pouring molten metal. Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pavlo Pavliuk were supposedly killed this way. The execution method is associated with counterfeits (by pouring down the neck) or traitors (by pouring on the head).[5]
- By restraining to a stake. Infamous as a method of execution for heretics and witches. A slower method of applying single pieces of burning wood was used by Native Americans to torture their captives to death.[6]
|
| Decapitation |
- By hanging, drawing, and quartering. English torturous method of execution for high treason. The convicted was fastened by the feet to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn behind a horse to the place of execution, where they were then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded (causing death), and quartered.
|
| Environmental exposure |
- By crucifixion. Roping or nailing to a wooden cross or similar apparatus (such as a tree) and leaving to perish. The crucifixion of Jesus is the most notable instance of this method.
- By gibbeting. The victim is placed in cage hanging from a gallows-type structure in a public location and left to die to deter other existing or potential criminals.
- By immurement. The confinement of the victim by walling in. Though this was also used as a form of imprisonment for life, in which case, the victim was usually fed and watered.
|
| Laceration |
- By animal bites, as in damnatio ad bestias, as well as alligators, piranhas, scorpions, sharks and venomous snakes.
- By flaying. The removal of the entire skin.
- By impalement. The penetration of the body by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by complete or partial perforation of the torso.
- By sawing. Practised by sawing or cutting a victim in half, either sagittally (usually midsagittally), or transversely.
- By slow slicing. The methodical removal of portions of the body over an extended period of time, usually with a knife, eventually resulting in death. Sometimes known as "death by a thousand cuts".
- By waist chop. A large blade affixed by a hinge to a board (resembling a large paper cutter) was aligned with the waist of the condemned; the knife was brought down, resulting in a hemicorporectomy. The condemned would typically die slowly of blood loss. Used in China up until the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor in the 18th century.
|
| Poisoning |
- By ingestion of poisonous substances. Before modern times, sayak (사약, 賜藥) was the method used for nobles (yangban) and royals during the Joseon Dynasty in Korea due to the Confucianist belief that one may kill a seonbi but may not insult him (사가살불가욕, 士可殺不可辱). Poisoning by drinking an infusion of hemlock was used as a method of execution in Ancient Greece (e.g., the death of Socrates).
- By poisonous gas inhalation. Legal in Arizona (as a choice for inmates convicted for offences committed before 23 11 1992), California (as a choice for inmates convicted for offences committed before 1993), Missouri, and Wyoming (only if lethal injection is found to be unconstitutional). Last used on 03 03 1999.
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| Shooting |
- By blowing from a gun. Convicts were tied to the mouth of a cannon, which was then fired.
- By machine gun (as in Thailand before replacement with lethal injection).
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