List of Methods of Capital Punishment

This is a list of methods of capital punishment.

Method Description
Animals
  • Crushing by elephant.
  • Devouring by animals, as in damnatio ad bestias (i.e., as in the clichĂ©, "being thrown to the lions").
  • Stings from scorpions and bites by snakes, spiders, etc. (e.g. the "Snake pit" of Germanic legend)
  • Tearing apart by horses (e.g., in medieval Europe and Imperial China, with four horses; or "quartering", with four horses, as in The Song of Roland and Child Owlet).
  • Trampling by horses (example: Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad).
Back-breaking A Mongolian method of execution that avoided the spilling of blood on the ground (example: the Mongolian leader Jamukha was probably executed this way in 1206).
Blowing from a gun Tied to the mouth of a cannon, which is then fired.
Boiling to death This penalty was carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tar, tallow, or even molten lead.
Breaking wheel Also known as the Catherine wheel, after a saint who was allegedly sentenced to be executed by this method.
Buried alive Traditional punishment for Vestal virgins who had broken their vows.
Burning Most 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 in torturing captives to death.
Cooking Brazen Bull
Crucifixion Roping or nailing to a wooden cross or similar apparatus (such as a tree) and allowing to perish.
Crushing By a weight, abruptly or as a slow ordeal.
Decapitation Also known as beheading. One of the most famous execution methods is execution by guillotine.
Disembowelment Often employed as a preliminary stage to the actual execution, e.g. by beheading; an integral part of seppuku (harakiri), which was sometimes used as a form of capital punishment.
Dismemberment Being drawn and quartered sometimes resulted in dismemberment.
Drawing and quartering English method of executing those found guilty of high treason.
Electrocution The electric chair.
Falling The victim is thrown off a height or into a hollow (example: the Barathron in Athens, into which the Athenian generals condemned for their part in the battle of Arginusae were cast).
Flaying The skin is removed from the body.
Garrote Used most commonly in Spain and in former Spanish colonies (e.g. the Philippines).
Gas Death by asphyxiation or poison gas in a sealed chamber.
Hanging One of the most common methods of execution, still in use in a number of countries.
Immurement The confinement of a person by walling off any exits; since they were usually kept alive through an opening, this was more a form of imprisonment for life than of capital punishment (example: the countess Elisabeth Báthory, who lived for four more years after having been immured).
Impalement
Keelhauling European maritime punishment.
Lethal injection
Pendulum A type of machine with an axe head for a weight that slices closer to the victim's torso over time. (Of disputed historicity.)
Poisoning Lethal injection is the modern form of poisoning and is used in some countries.
Sawing (Of disputed historicity.)
Scaphism
Shooting
  • By cannon (see Blowing from a gun)
  • By firing squad
  • By a single shot (such as the neck shot, often performed on a kneeling prisoner, as in China).
Slow slicing
Starvation / Dehydration Immurement
Stoning
Strangulation

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    “Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?”
    —Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)

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    —Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)

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    —Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar)

    “Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.”
    —Agatha Christie (1891–1976)

    “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
    —Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    “Confession is always weakness. The grave soul keeps its own secrets, and takes its own punishment in silence.”
    —Dorothy Dix (1861–1951)