[pmyteh]

This is one reason why, when the UK had capital punishment, a premium was placed on speed. The condemned cell was set up a few yards from the scaffold and the idea was that the time from the executioner entering the cell to the trap being dropped could be well under one minute.

The movie 'Pierrepoint' shows this pretty well (and has a very good performance by Timothy Spall as the eponymous professional but slightly conflicted hangman).

[samizdis]

Yes, but that didn't seem always to be the case when the British were hanging people overseas. George Orwell wrote an essay, A Hanging [1], about an execution that he witnessed while serving in Burma. The prisoner, and escort, have a walk of several minutes from the cell to the gallows outdoors. At one point, with 40 yards to go to the gallows, the party is disrupted by a large playful dog. He notes that after the disturbance, the prisoner steps to one side to avoid a puddle on the ground. Orwell writes:

"It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working — bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming — all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned — reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone — one mind less, one world less.

It's powerful stuff, whatever your thoughts on capital punishment.

[1] https://orwell.ru/library/articles/hanging/english/e_hanging

[jxramos]

that is astounding! Makes me think of not smothering out a smoldering wick let alone a vibrant living man. Written in 1931, wow.

[WalterBright]

> Written in 1931, wow.

Indeed. I always assumed that people did not have sophisticated thoughts until at least 1960!

[jxramos]

Sophistication and rich thought goes back much further than the 20th century for sure.

[Clewza313]

In Japan, those condemned to death are not informed of their execution date until the day it happens, and can languish in jail for decades until that day.

Imagine spending 32 years in solitary confinement, under the knowledge that the next knock on your door could be last:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Japan