Talk:List of methods of capital punishment

Request
Perhaps if the page was to split up into the forms used today and abolshed forms — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.7.176.132 (talk) 08:03, 4 September 2006‎

"Cooking" to death
I've seen many examples (woodcuts and what have you) of people being "cooked" to death -- that is, suspended or sat in a large skillet over a slow fire. (Scroll down to the picture here for an example). I'd like to add this form of execution to the article but I can't think of the right word to use.... any suggestions? --Jquarry 03:18, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
 * According to the distinction made below, this doesn't seem to be a form of *capital* punishment. --75.69.134.134 01:57, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism
Isn't Being Dionised and Moriised a Vandalism??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.228.235 (talk) 16:21, 7 November 2006‎
 * I dunno, but is "Getting a Violin rammed up ur hole" vandalism. And are "getting rid to death" or "I ROCK" even methods of punishment. (Erased these lines: Nox13last 13:18, 15 January 2008 (UTC)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nox13last (talk • contribs)

Distinction between capital punishment and other forms of killing
It appears to me that that several of these forms of killing are not capital punishment, but just imaginative means of murder. That is, these deaths are not inflicted as a punishment for a crime, but simply are means of killing people off without convicting them of anything first. Walking the plank, for instance, was not used as a criminal punishment, even by pirates (though marooning was sometimes the result of a quasi-legal trial before one's fellow pirates, and thus could be considered an execution method). Likewise, the Viking blood eagle was just a particularly savage way of disposing of war captives, not a punishment for anything the captives had done. Unless someone points out an error in my thinking here, I want to remove these nonjudicial methods of killing from the list. - - Pirate Dan 15:51, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, now we have curb stomping, which is even further removed from the realm of judicial punishment. Nobody's answered, so I'm editing. Pirate Dan 20:56, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Missing torture & execution method
There is also another execution and torture method hold in public used in ancient times by the moors. It was called the iron horse. if i remember correctly, it consisted of standing the victom on a very high spot, was put down on its knees and before him was like a slide downwards, but it consisted of a sharp thin edge all the way down. The end bit would be in a curl gowing upwards. The victom was tipped over with a push and landed with his belly on the sharp slide. Because of the speed and the sharpness gowing down, the victim was cut in half at the end. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.97.69.36 (talk) 22:28, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Piranhas on a mother-adoring escalator
How about some sources for "devouring by carnivorous fish, such as piranhas or sharks; crustaceans, such as crabs" and some other of the more adventurous modes of "execution" given without any indication where they are taken from whatsoever? Otherwise they'd have to be fed to carnivorous fish. Trigaranus (talk) 02:22, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I've just tagged some more (rodents, crocs/alligators, sharks, ants). If there are no sources for these, they really should be removed. And with sources, I don't mean their use in a fun manga-based computer game, but a scholarly publication. ;-) Trigaranus (talk) 15:41, 6 May 2010 (UTC)
 * 12 years later, and no citation seems to be added. The "citation needed" tag seems to be gone, though. 98.128.181.35 (talk) 08:38, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Are all of these "capital" punishments
Pirate Dan had a go at removing the non-capital punishment cases, but I see many more have crept back in. For example, the use of Cement shoes by the Mafia does not involve any judicial process, it is just murder. The same could be said of Death flights, Explosives, and maybe a few others on closer examnation. Astronaut (talk) 20:59, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Execution by robots
Does any legislation of the world use execution by robots or have plans to use it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.108.248.90 (talk) 04:19, 3 March 2010‎
 * Yes, since drones (such as UAVs) are robots. But for domestic executions, there's no point in spending large amounts of money to execute someone with robots if it's easier/cheaper to use human executioners. - M0rphzone (talk) 06:54, 18 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Opposed - An interesting thought, but not valid, not even Hollywood-style. "Death by robots" would cover a wide range of methods of executions already in the list, so a robotic tool would simply go into the boxes on the right instead of the list on the left. At the very, very least, you would have to define "robot" for this use, and demonstrate how it would differ from machines and devices that have, or currently exist for the purpose of carrying out executions. I highly doubt that robots would ever be created for autonomous condemnation. Even military drone strikes against combatants would not be considered as "death by robot", but instead would be defined as "an act of war" and not judicial.


 * &#8212;&#160;CJDOS,&#160;Sheridan,&#160;OR&#160;(talk) 10:44, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

References/External links
the references/external links headers are at the top of this column as opposed to the bottom, I looked and it appears to be in there correctly, but I'm not familiar enough with coding to fix it...24.120.127.162 (talk) 23:12, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Sources needed
I have added a few tidbits to the article, but I have also removed some bits I had tagged as "dubious" about two years ago. If anyone can find a reliable scholarly source on the "Cave of Roses" (which is described as 17th century by some internet sites, and 13th century by others, and without any sources in all of them) or on the "cyphon/kyphon" method of Ancient Greece (Athens?), please supply them. I do not have a copy of Geoffrey Abbot's book, and I do not know if he includes any sources for his information in the footnotes. Trigaranus (talk) 21:43, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Gatch gereftani
Gatch gereftani ("seizing-up of plaster") was a Persian method of capital punishment. The victim was bound upright to a stake and was bricked in by a wet cement wall with only his head exposed. As the bricks dried in the sun, the pressure on his chest prevented him from breathing and eventually suffocated him. Marauding jackals or hyenas would typically take care of the protruding head before morning, after which the top was paved over to complete the grisly monument.

Sair, R. (1944). The book of torture and executions. Toronto: Golden Books. p. 153 (illus. p. 150: I can scan in the illustration if you like: I imagine the eighty-year-old copyright no longer governs)

B. D. Wilner, Coconut Creek, FL

Suffocation
In the description box for Suffocation, was written "Gatch gereftani," which has no Wikipedia article of it's own. A quick Google search reveals that this was added by an individual who claims that this is a bona fide method of execution, but while they mention a source in their discussion, they completely fail to define what Gatch gereftani is, and their attempt at adding it seems to be based solely upon original research. At the very least, I would like someone to actually define what a "Gatch gereftani" is, and why it should even be displayed in the description for Suffocation. Until it is defined, I have deleted the phrase from the description box.

The user who claimed to be unsure about whether they created the original article, which was subsequently debated and deleted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Gatch_gereftani), made the following claim (abridged):
 * "Gatch" appears in Hirsch, Arnold, ed., The Book of Torture and Executions (Toronto: Golden Books, 1944); the author's name, Richard Sair, appears only on the Library of Congress catalog card (HV8593 .S3 Delta). I learned the full term "gatch gereftani" from a friend of mine, Dr. Amir Aliakbar Elahi, who—when I asked him about "gatch"—said that his grandfather used to point out various vaguely human figures atop a certain building in Teheran and tell him how prisoners had been subjected to "gatch gereftani" to prepare those figures in the days of "the shah's father," Reza Shah.
 * 50.128.184.140 (talk) 14:00, 28 June 2014 (UTC)
 * (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jerzy/Vfd#Gatch_gereftani_-_Add_to_this_discussion)

If someone is able to define what "gatch gereftani" is, add it back into the description box, but label it as "Of disputed historicity" until a citable reference can verify it's use, whatever it is.

&#8212;&#160;CJDOS,&#160;Sheridan,&#160;OR&#160;(talk) 11:20, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Please refer to the recent discussion at Articles for deletion/Gatch gereftani (2nd nomination). —Psychonaut (talk) 12:05, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah! Thank you. The last comment made 20:54, 30 June 2014 (UTC) on the page you referred me to, clarifies this subject. It would appear then that someone decided to add gatch on their own, but added it to the wrong category, which is understandable considering the similarities of the victims' expulsion.


 * &#8212;&#160;CJDOS,&#160;Sheridan,&#160;OR&#160;(talk) 02:43, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Stoning
it is still practiced in certain muslim countries so it should be moved.84.212.111.156 (talk) 17:54, 17 April 2018 (UTC)


 * cvfh fg d  rgdfgdgd  h. 2601:152:A00:ED9D:208D:4F4E:6992:34EB (talk) 23:53, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

Crucifiion - current?
Crucifuxion is listed as a current method. If there are any countries where it has been used in recent years, or, at least, is on the books as a method that could be used, they should be listed. If there is no such country, it should be moved out of "current". Davidhof (talk) 12:38, 8 November 2018 (UTC)