Decapitation

Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head), or beheading, is the cutting off of the head of a person or animal. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, garrote, or by means of a guillotine. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, automobile or industrial accident, improperly-administered execution by hanging or other violent injury. Suicide by decapitation is rare, but not unknown. An executioner carrying out decapitations is called a headsman.

The word decapitation can also refer, on occasion, to the removal of the head from a body that is already dead. This might be done to take the head as a trophy, for public display, to make the deceased more difficult to identify, or for other reasons.

In an analogous fashion, decapitation can also refer to the removal of a head of an organization. If, for example, the leader of a country were killed, that might be referred to as 'decapitation'. It is also used of a political strategy aimed at unseating high-profile members of a party, as used by the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom general election, 2005.^[1]

Decapitation is fatal, as brain death occurs within seconds to minutes without the support of the organism's body.

History

Honour

Decapitation has been used as a form of capital punishment for millennia. The terms "capital offence", "capital crime", "capital punishment," derive from the Latin caput, "head", referring to the punishment for serious offenses involving the forfeiture of the head; i.e. death by beheading^[2]. Decapitation by sword (or axe, a military weapon as well) was sometimes considered the "honourable" way to die for an aristocrat, who, presumably being a warrior, could often expect to die by the sword in any event; in England it was considered a privilege of noblemen to be beheaded. This would be distinguished from a "dishonourable" death on the gallows or through burning at the stake. High Treason by nobles was punished by beheading; male commoners, including knights, were hanged, drawn, and quartered; female commoners were burned at the stake.

In countries where beheading was the usual means of capital punishment, such as in Scandinavia, the noblemen would be beheaded with a sword, symbolizing their class as a military caste, thus dying by an instrument of war, while the commoners would be beheaded with an axe.

Painlessness

If the headsman's axe or sword was sharp and his aim was true, decapitation was quick and was presumed to be a relatively painless form of death. If the instrument was blunt or the executioner clumsy, however, multiple strokes might be required to sever the head. The person to be executed was therefore advised to give a gold coin to the headsman so that he did his job with care. Not getting their proper money's worth, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Mary, Queen of Scots required three strikes at their respective executions. But compared to Devereux and Mary, Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury required ten strokes before the fatal blow.

The Beheading of Cosmas and Damian, by Fra Angelico

To ensure the blow would be fatal, executioners' swords usually were blade-heavy two-handed swords. Likewise, if an axe was used, it almost invariably would be used by both hands.

However, if the head is sawn off with the sword (or any other weapon), the beheading will be extremely painful for the condemned.

Guillotine

Decapitation by guillotine was a common, mechanically-assisted form of execution, invented shortly before the French Revolution (although an earlier version of the guillotine, the Halifax Gibbet, was used in Halifax, England from 1286 until the 17th century). The aim was to create a painless and quick form of execution that did not require great skill to carry out. The executioner, after chopping off the head, would hold it up to the crowd. It was believed (with dubious evidence) that the head could still see for around ten seconds. The French had a strict code of etiquette surrounding the executions; a man named Legros, one of the assistants at the execution of Charlotte Corday, was imprisoned and dismissed for slapping the face of the victim after the blade had fallen in order to see whether any flicker of life remained ^{[citation needed]}. The guillotine was used in France during the French Revolution and remained the normal judicial method in both peacetime and wartime into the 1970s, the firing squad being used in certain cases. France abolished the death penalty in 1981. The guillotine was also used in Algeria before the French relinquished control of it, as shown in Gillo Pontecorvo's film The Battle of Algiers. Another guillotine existed in Vatican City until recent years. It had been brought in by Napoleon's forces during the early 19th century; and, in 1870, the Pope still claimed the authority to use it and did indeed use it, once. In recent times however, the Vatican has abolished capital punishment in its own jurisdiction, and recent Popes have condemned capital punishment where it is still practiced.

German Fallbeil

Many German states had used a guillotine-like device known as a Fallbeil since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution in Germany until the abolition of the death penalty in West Germany in 1949. In Nazi Germany, the guillotine was reserved for criminal convicts and political crimes including treason. A famous example of the guillotine being used was the members of the White Rose resistance movement, a group of students in Munich led by Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans. Contrary to popular myth, executions were generally not conducted face-up, and chief executioner Johann Reichhart was peculiarly insistent on maintaining "professional" protocol throughout the era, having administered the death penalty during the earlier Weimar era. Nonetheless, the Nazis' use of the Fallbeil was chillingly routine. It is estimated that some 40,000 persons were guillotined in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. This number includes resistance fighters both in Nazi Germany itself and in those countries that were occupied by them. As these resistance fighters were not part of any regular army they were considered common criminals and were in many cases taken to Germany and decapitated. Decapitation was considered a "dishonorable" death, unlike an "honorable" death, e.g., by execution by firing squad.

Nordic countries

In Nordic Countries, decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with a sword, and commoners with an axe. The last executions by decapitation in Finland in 1825, Norway in 1876 and in Iceland in 1830 were carried out with axes. The same was the case in Denmark in 1892. The last decapitation in Sweden was carried out in 1910 with a guillotine. The last execution in Sweden carried out with an axe was in 1900.

Book of Revelation

It is of note that in the biblical Book of Revelation, beheading is named as a method of execution of Christian martyrs during a great persecution (Rev. 20:4). There is no historical record of precisely such an event, so certain commentators believe that this verse refers to a last great persecution of the church that some Christians believe will occur shortly before the Second Coming of Christ. There are some who interpret this as losing the natural (or carnal) mind, and taking on the "mind of Christ".

China

In traditional China decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment than strangulation although strangulation caused more-prolonged suffering. This was because the Chinese believed that their bodies were gifts from their parents, and that it was therefore disrespectful to their ancestors to return their bodies to the grave dismembered. The Chinese however had other punishments, such as the lingering death, that involved cutting the body into multiple pieces. In addition, there was also a practice of cutting the body at the waist, which was a common way of execution before being abolished in early Qing dynasty.

Japan

In Japan, decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offenses. Samurai were often allowed to decapitate soldiers who had fled from battle, as it was considered cowardly. Decapitation was historically performed as the second step in seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment). After the victim had sliced his own abdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with a wakizashi to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck - to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a decapitated head rolling about, or towards them, whilst spraying blood; such an event would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out - avoiding dishonor to him, and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored enough to take part. In the late Sengoku period, decapitation was performed as soon as the person chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen. Decapitation (without seppuku) was also considered the severest and most degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that of a daimyo, Ishida Mitsunari, who had warred against Ieyasu Tokugawa. After he lost the Battle of Sekigahara, he was buried in the ground and his head was sawn off with a blunt bamboo saw. These unusual punishments were abolished in the early Meiji era. However, the Japanese used decapitation extensively during World War II, especially against Chinese Nationals. A particularly brutal case is that of the Nanking Massacre, in which thousands of Chinese were killed through decapitation. The Japanese viewed the Chinese, Koreans, and other East Asian peoples as inferior to Japan and not worthy of humane treatment, partially explaining the many decapitations carried out by the Japanese.^{[citation needed]} After World War II, Japan stopped using decapitation as a punishment against both Japanese citizens and foreign citizens.

Modern world

Condemned Chinese about to be beheaded by Japanese soldiers, 1901

Mexico

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Ignacio Allende, José Mariano Jiménez and Juan Aldama were tried for treason, executed by firing squad and beheaded during the Mexican independence in 1811. Their heads were on display on the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, in Guanajuato.

Canada

On July 30 2008, at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time, on a Greyhound Canada bus traveling from Edmonton to Winnipeg; 22 year-old Tim McLean was stabbed repeatedly by complete stranger, 40 year-old Vince Weiguang Li.^[3] The victim was also later beheaded by Li, and reports from the scene indicated that he ate pieces of the corpse. Li was barracaded inside the bus by three survivors. After a lengthy stand-off with R.C.M.P. officers, the attacker jumped from a broken window, was subdued and taken into custody, and later charged with Second Degree Murder. ^[4]

Colombia

Less orthodox instances of decapitation have also occurred in recent times in some areas of Colombia. Marxist FARC guerrilla as well as right-wing paramilitary groups such as the AUC have sometimes used this method to intimidate local populations and political opponents, and it has not been uncommon for criminal gangs of druglords to also make limited use of decapitation on occasion.^{[citation needed]} The primary means of decapitation in these cases has been the use of a machete or a chainsaw.

Chechnya

Chechen rebels were known to practice beheading against the captured Russian Army soldiers during the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War. Four Western telecommunication workers (three Britons and a New Zealander) who were taken hostage for ransom in Chechnya in 1998, were eventually beheaded and their heads were found on a side of a road^[5]. In 1999, a beheading video was widely circulated on the internet, depicting a Russian soldier being beheaded by Chechen rebels.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) there were a number of ritual beheadings of Serbs who were taken as prisoners of war by mujahedin members of the Bosnian Army. At least one case is documented and proven in court by the ICTY where mujahedin, members of 3rd Corps of Army BiH, beheaded Bosnian Serb Dragan Popović.^[6]^[7]

Kosovo

A Serbian newspaper, Večernje Novosti, published photos in 2003 of men in Kosovo Liberation Army uniforms holding decapitated heads. According to the paper, the Albanian terrorists commited the crime in April 1999, during the Kosovo War.^[8]

Thailand

In Southern Thailand, there were at least 15 cases where Buddhists have been beheaded in 2005. Thai officials suspect the attackers are part of the South Thailand insurgency who are seeking to separate the Muslim-dominated south from the rest of Thailand^[9]^[10].

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian authorities also beheaded four men in February 2007— Sangeeth Kumara, Victor Corea, Ranjith Silva and Sanath Pushpakumara. These four Sri Lankan workers were convicted in a Saudi Arabian court for an armed robbery committed in October 2004. Their deaths sparked reactions from the international human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which called on the Saudi authorities to abolish the death sentence. The court also ruled that the bodies of the four workers be crucified for public view as an example for others. In most of the cases the respective embassy gets notification only after the execution thereby eliminating chances for international or diplomatic uproar.^[11] On January 12, 2008, an Indonesian housemaid was beheaded in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of killing her employer.^[12]

Iraq

Beheadings have emerged as another tactic especially in Iraq since April 2003. Foreign civilians have borne the brunt of the beheadings, although U.S. and Iraqi military personnel have also been targeted. After kidnapping the victim, the kidnappers typically make some sort of demand of the government of the hostage's nation and give a time limit for the demand to be carried out, often 72 hours. Beheading is often threatened if the government fails to heed the wishes of the hostage takers. Frequently the crude beheadings are videotaped and made available on the Internet.

Judicial execution is practiced in Iraq, but is generally carried out by hanging.

Ghulam Nabi (Pakistan)

A video obtained by the Associated Press on April 20, 2007 shows a young boy, appearing to be around 12 years of age, viciously beheading a man identified as Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying the Taliban. According to the AP report, "A continuous 2 1/2-minute shot then shows the victim lying on his side on a patch of rubble-strewn ground. A man holds Nabi by his beard while the boy, wearing a camouflage military jacket and oversized white sneakers, cuts into the throat. Other men and boys call out "Allahu akbar!" — "Allah is greater!" — as blood spurts from the wound. The film, overlain with jihadi songs, then shows the boy hacking and slashing at the man's neck until the head is severed."^[13]

Somalia

On March 13 2008, it was reported that Hizbul Shabaab militants fighting the presence of an interim government backed by thousands of Ethiopian combat troops in Somalia beheaded three government soldiers. It was the first case of beheadings since the government and its Ethiopian military allies ousted the Islamists from power in late 2006, sparking a bloody insurgency characterised by roadside bombs and hit-and-run attacks.^[14]

Notable people who have been beheaded

Salome and the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, by Titian

Biblical accounts

Goliath (according to scripture, this example illustrates the aforementioned "removal-of-the-head-from-a-body-that-is-already-dead" variety)
John the Baptist in the Gospels
Holofernes in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith (historical accuracy disputed)
Apostle James, traditionally
Apostle Paul, traditionally

Christian saints

Saint Acisclus
Saint Agnes
Saint Alban (around 304)
Saint Ansanus
Saint Anthimus of Rome
Saint Christopher
Saint Columba of Spain.
Saint Columba of France.
Saint Columba (the Virgin) of Cornwall, England.
Saints Cosmas and Damian
Saint Denis, who carried his head to his final resting place, a familiar hagiographical trope (see Cephalophore).
Saint Diomedes
Saint Eurosia
Saint Felicitas of Rome
Saints Felix and Nabor
Saint Firmus and Saint Rusticus
Saint Gereon
Saint Gordianus
Saint John de Brito
Saint Marcellus
Saint Maximilian
Saint Nicasius of Rheims, at Rheims
Saint Oliver Plunkett in Ireland
Saint Pancras
Saint Polyeuctus
Saint Quiteria
Saints Rufina and Secunda
Saints Simplicius and Faustinus
Saint Typasius
Saint Urith of Chittlehampton, Devon, England.
Saint Venantius, at Camerino
Saint Winefride of Flintshire in Wales.
Saint Andrew Kim Taegon of Korea
Saint Thomas More

Islamic

680 Imam Husayn bin Ali and his 72 companions at the Battle of Karbala.