Execution by burning

Execution by burning is capital punishment by fire. It has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason and for other unpopular acts such as heresy and the practice of witchcraft. For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments. The particular form of execution by burning in which the condemned is bound to a large stake is more commonly called burning at the stake.

Cause of death

If the fire is large (for instance, when a large number of prisoners were executed at the same time) death often came from the carbon monoxide poisoning before flames actually caused harm to the body.

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However, if the fire is small, the convict burns for a few minutes in pain until death from heatstroke or loss of blood plasma. Typically, the executioner would arrange a pile of wood around the condemned's feet and calves, with supplementary small bundles of sticks and straw called faggots at strategic intervals up his/her body.

Related Topics:
Heatstroke - Blood plasma

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When applied with skillful cruelty, the victim's skin would burn progressively in the sequence: calves, thighs and hands, torso and forearms, breasts, upper chest, face; and then finally death. On other occasions, people died from suffocation with only their calves in fire. In many burnings a rope was attached to the convict's neck passing through a ring on the stake and they were simultaneously strangled and burnt. In later years in England, some burnings only took place after the convict had already hanged for a half-hour. In some Nordic and German burnings, convicts had containers of gunpowder tied to them or were tied to ladders and then swung into fully burning bonfires. A container of gunpowder tied at the neck might be used to bring about a quicker (and thus more merciful) death, since the victim would suffer only until the gunpowder was heated enough to explode. Some victims refused this, however.

Related Topics:
Cruelty - Suffocation - Hanged - German

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