Saudi paedophile to be beheaded and crucified

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I don't think the method of execution is wrong, it's honestly one of the cleaner ones by far. Much quicker than lethal injection though not really any easier, so there are botched executions. They'd be well-recommended to switch to the guillotine, which allows far less mistakes.

[Solauren]

No lawyer: Retry him
Psychological issues: Evaluate him, and then lock him up until cured.
Otherwise: I have no problem with his being executed, or the method. Dead is dead. And beheading is fairly straight forward and expedient/quick. It's alot better then some other religious forms of execution (i.e stoning).

I agree, ye old Guillotine would better then a scimtar, however.

[Netko]

Turns out the preferred way to execute women in Saudi Arabia until the 1990's was to shoot them... And then someone figured they might as well behead those too, apparently.

Here is an interview from 2003 with the Kingdom's lead executioner. It's a pretty bizarre read. According to the guy there's training involved, and one has to be government-approved before becoming an official executioner. None of this should be particularly surprising I guess but the thought that there's someone in Saudi Arabia handing out permits to execute people with swords, that there's a bureaucracy for that sort of thing, it weirds me out.

Well, that's almost outright crazy, like something from BlackAdder brought right to life. More reasons not to ever visit any place in the Middle East. This is really crazy beyond all reproach.

Not really. Its pretty much a standard executioner interview. There was a similar one a while back with the last Yugoslav executioner, and he stated pretty much the same things, except, of course for the details like the whole sword-beheading thing (Yugoslavia executed by either hanging or shooting) and the amputations which are mostly limited to the Middle East these days.

I'm sure you'd get similar answers ("I sleep well at night", "I'm a family man", "Women are the same as men when being executed", "Its a job" etc.) if you asked, for example, an Texas "executioner" (I'm sure they have some euphemism for it).

What is creepy about all those interviews is the whole "Its just another job" attitude the executioners tend to have combined with the calmness. There has to be something fundamentally broken inside a person who grows up in a modern society and yet doesn't have a problem with directly murdering helpless people in close quarters for a living; mostly by methods that take a short but measurable time to kill them.

[ArmorPierce]

Shoot, I've read that lethal injection is in fact very painful and they won't even use it to euthanize animals and is indeed illegal in many states. The paralytic given to the prisoner is all that masks it.

[Shroom Man 777]

Potassium is an electrolyte used in muscle contraction, and is the killing component in lethal injection. Basically I think it makes your heart squeeze itself and contract so hard that you die.

[General Zod]

Shoot, I've read that lethal injection is in fact very painful and they won't even use it to euthanize animals and is indeed illegal in many states. The paralytic given to the prisoner is all that masks it.

They use a mixture of drugs for lethal injections. The only reason one should be painful is if it was administered improperly, which is possible given the people performing them aren't trained medical personnel beyond providing the injection.

[ExarKun]

Turns out the preferred way to execute women in Saudi Arabia until the 1990's was to shoot them... And then someone figured they might as well behead those too, apparently.

Here is an interview from 2003 with the Kingdom's lead executioner. It's a pretty bizarre read. According to the guy there's training involved, and one has to be government-approved before becoming an official executioner. None of this should be particularly surprising I guess but the thought that there's someone in Saudi Arabia handing out permits to execute people with swords, that there's a bureaucracy for that sort of thing, it weirds me out.

Of course there is a bureaucracy, you can't have any joe schmo doing executions.

Turns out the preferred way to execute women in Saudi Arabia until the 1990's was to shoot them... And then someone figured they might as well behead those too, apparently.

Here is an interview from 2003 with the Kingdom's lead executioner. It's a pretty bizarre read. According to the guy there's training involved, and one has to be government-approved before becoming an official executioner. None of this should be particularly surprising I guess but the thought that there's someone in Saudi Arabia handing out permits to execute people with swords, that there's a bureaucracy for that sort of thing, it weirds me out.

Well, that's almost outright crazy, like something from BlackAdder brought right to life. More reasons not to ever visit any place in the Middle East. This is really crazy beyond all reproach.

Not really. Its pretty much a standard executioner interview. There was a similar one a while back with the last Yugoslav executioner, and he stated pretty much the same things, except, of course for the details like the whole sword-beheading thing (Yugoslavia executed by either hanging or shooting) and the amputations which are mostly limited to the Middle East these days.

I'm sure you'd get similar answers ("I sleep well at night", "I'm a family man", "Women are the same as men when being executed", "Its a job" etc.) if you asked, for example, an Texas "executioner" (I'm sure they have some euphemism for it).
What is creepy about all those interviews is the whole "Its just another job" attitude the executioners tend to have combined with the calmness. There has to be something fundamentally broken inside a person who grows up in a modern society and yet doesn't have a problem with directly murdering helpless people in close quarters for a living; mostly by methods that take a short but measurable time to kill them.

I think I've read the same interview. I don't think the guy had the it's a job attitude, although I could be wrong, it was a while ago. I think he said that there was nine executions and that he remembered each and every one of them. They were all guilty and committed heinous crimes, so I didn't feel sorry at all. Firing squad was too good for them.

As for beheading, there is something disturbing about it even if it's clean and painless....

[Shroom Man 777]

Because, yeah, there's a headless body that's gonna be spurting blood everywhere all Kill Bill-style.

[ExarKun]

Because, yeah, there's a headless body that's gonna be spurting blood everywhere all Kill Bill-style.

There is something more to it than that. It's hard to describe. Seeing a had without anything underneath it...I don't know..

[FSTargetDrone]

It's a savage response to a savage act. Beyond that, I don't quite understand the sentence of mutilating a body after death. Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

To me, there sure does seem to be a unhealthy interest in dismemberment in that part of the world.

[General Zod]

It's a savage response to a savage act. Beyond that, I don't quite understand the sentence of mutilating a body after death. Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

To me, there sure does seem to be a unhealthy interest in dismemberment in that part of the world.

More than likely there's some religious motivation to it, given some superstitions beliefs about desecrating a corpse.

[The Spartan]

Muslims are supposed to be buried facing towards Mecca as I recall.

There are similar beliefs in Christianity, even if not all Christians subscribe to them. That was one of the reasons that being quartered was such a horrible method of execution, aside from the horrific pain it inflicted. In previous ages much the same thing applied to crucifixion.

My grandmother is like that. My parents want to be cremated when they die, but she's adamant that we not burn her baby, to paraphrase her. Not that she has any say in the matter. I'm shocked she's even still alive much less lucid.

[Junghalli]

What is creepy about all those interviews is the whole "Its just another job" attitude the executioners tend to have combined with the calmness. There has to be something fundamentally broken inside a person who grows up in a modern society and yet doesn't have a problem with directly murdering helpless people in close quarters for a living; mostly by methods that take a short but measurable time to kill them.

I imagine after a while you just get used to it, just like you do with being a doctor, mortician, infantryman, sewer worker, or any other viscerally unpleasant job.

[Darth Wong]

It's a savage response to a savage act. Beyond that, I don't quite understand the sentence of mutilating a body after death. Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

It's a visible reminder of authority and justice. People have been making a point of hanging corpses out for public display for thousands of years, for precisely that purpose. Crassus nailed up 5000 slaves on the road to Rome after the Spartacus revolts. Medieval lords would lock prisoners in man-sized cages and dangle them from a cantilever arm for public display until they starved to death, then leave the corpse up there for months afterwards. Call it barbaric if you like, but don't pretend you've never heard of this concept before.

I imagine it's expected to serve partly as deterrent, and partly as reassurance to the community that the wicked will be punished.

To me, there sure does seem to be a unhealthy interest in dismemberment in that part of the world.

What makes it any worse than American executions? Is this like chicken, where you're happy to eat it when it comes in plastic wrap but the sight of a freshly decapitated chicken would be disgusting?

[Simon_Jester]

It's a savage response to a savage act. Beyond that, I don't quite understand the sentence of mutilating a body after death. Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

It's a visible reminder of authority and justice...

Well, authority, at any rate.

That sort of thing is well established historically, but it's not consistently covered in the most basic-level history, so you can "learn history" in the superficial sense without knowing about gibbets and the like. Then you have your first "holy shit people actually did that?" moment, at which point you usually decide that the past was full of savages.

[Shroom Man 777]

To me, there sure does seem to be a unhealthy interest in dismemberment in that part of the world.

What makes it any worse than American executions? Is this like chicken, where you're happy to eat it when it comes in plastic wrap but the sight of a freshly decapitated chicken would be disgusting?

It just looks ugly and messy. Chickens are alright because, well, they're food and I'd totally eat 'em. But even as shitpieces as pedophiles are, seeing people get their heads lopped off and blood spurting out of their amputated necks is still an ugly and unpleasant sight. Yeah, it is death, yeah it's putting some fuckpiece criminal down for good, but maybe they could make the presentation less gruesome for the more squeamish of us. Like, put some flowers or play some music, or let the person just die in a relatively bloodless and hopefully painless manner.

[Stargate Nerd]

Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

This is exactly why they publicly parade the body, to dissuade others from committing crimes.

Any Muslims no matter how much of a criminal will get a proper Islamic burial at the end, which is also why the head gets sewn back to the body at the end as mentioned in the article.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

This is exactly why they publicly parade the body, to dissuade others from committing crimes.

Any Muslims no matter how much of a criminal will get a proper Islamic burial at the end, which is also why the head gets sewn back to the body at the end as mentioned in the article.

But that doesn't work.
crimes are committed for hard to rework impulses, in this case crosswired sexuality and a sexuallly repressive society brings out the worst in devients.

[Simon_Jester]

Is it to just add a +10 Horrify for the onlookers? Is anyone who was contemplating doing what he did going to be less likely to do it now, knowing that his (or her) body will be beheaded?

This is exactly why they publicly parade the body, to dissuade others from committing crimes.

But that doesn't work.
crimes are committed for hard to rework impulses, in this case crosswired sexuality and a sexuallly repressive society brings out the worst in devients.

Do you expect smart criminology from one of the world's last surviving medieval states, ruled by a dynastic clan who allied with one of the most lunatic religious fanatics in the history of fanaticism nearly three hundred years ago, and who have been joined at the hip to his followers ever since?

Me, I think it's a minor miracle they're still using the wheel.

Besides, it's not as if the idea of doing something extremely nasty to someone as a deterrent isn't ubiquitous. Most countries don't apply it to executions as such, but when someone does something that really pisses us off, our first thought is often to wreak an extra-large helping of revenge as a way of stopping it from happening again. It's based on the very popular delusion that human beings are rational actors, and it's cathartic for the person doing it.

This is just the same principle applied to the punishment of criminals. It's still probably not going to do any good, but I can see how it happens.

[The Yosemite Bear]

At least The Ottoman/Turks were better and more progressive, a few centuries ago...

[Spyder]

At least it's for an actual crime and not for a woman refusing to marry her rapist or whatever.

[Stargate Nerd]

But that doesn't work.
crimes are committed for hard to rework impulses, in this case crosswired sexuality and a sexuallly repressive society brings out the worst in devients.

Whether it is effective or not is pretty much irrelevant. Being "tough" on crime is appealing whether in a Medieval society or a first world democracy.

[mr friendly guy]

What is creepy about all those interviews is the whole "Its just another job" attitude the executioners tend to have combined with the calmness. There has to be something fundamentally broken inside a person who grows up in a modern society and yet doesn't have a problem with directly murdering helpless people in close quarters for a living; mostly by methods that take a short but measurable time to kill them.

Hmm. Murder is a loaded term and it will depend on how well the court system holds up, ie is the evidence there or were they charged on trumped up charges. I am curious, if hypothetically they really did do it, and there was a smoking gun level of evidence and the perp admitted doing it, would you still consider it murder if he / she was executed.

While its clear you don't like capital punishment, the fact you talk about how death row people are "helpless" makes one ask, do you think it makes it better it they killed a non helpless person (like in European duels), and why? Otherwise if you don't think it makes it better, it just seems a blatant use of emotional words to try and demonise the executioner.