The guillotine was one of the fastest and most painless ways to kill people. Before that though there were a lot more painful and torturous ways to execute people. For example, they used to hang people but they would also torture them, to make their death even more painful. During the Enlightment, people favored human rights and their well being, so they didn’t torture people as bad as before. During the Enlightment, people got more rights so they couldn’t be tortured as much like former executions. The guillotine made execution a lot better. The guillotine was an enlightened way to execute people.
The guillotine made people die a lot faster. Before there was even a guillotine, people would be executed in numerous, horrible ways. In the 5th century with the Romans, “Death was often cruel and included
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crucifixion, drowning at sea, burial alive” (Source C). Drowning people at sea sounds pretty awful because they would try to breath but they couldn’t since they might not be able to swim towards the surface. Also they were buried alive, which is really bad because they would suffocate under the ground until they die. On top of that, the Romans did some weird things like, “the condemned was submersed in water in a sack, which also contained a dog, a rooster, a viper and an ape” (Source C). This is just completely strange, and most likely extremely painful for people to endure. To continue, they also said “There is evidence that Jews used many different techniques including stoning, hanging, beheading, crucifixion (copied from the Romans), throwing the criminal from a rock, and sawing asunder” (Source C). Stoning is just a horrible way to die because you are being humiliated in front of everybody, while getting pelted with rocks until you die, which could take some time. Beheading is one of the better ones, because with just a swing of the axe a person would be dead instantly. It is similar to the guillotine, but the guillotine was an even more enlightened way to die. During that time, one of the most famous executions was Jesus’s. Jesus Christ’s execution was a very important execution, because he was very influential during that time. What they did was nail him to the cross, and torture him. That was one of the most painful executions somebody could have, because they would be nailed to a cross in front of everybody, and have to die over a long time. The guillotine would have made all these executions less painful and a lot faster like in the Enlightment. To continue, getting closer to the Enlightment in the 10th century people would be hanged which is a very famous execution process. Hangings were common and sometimes happened fast, but other times they can hold you by your neck and torture you before letting you just “hang”. In the 15th century though it said, “Boiling to death was another penalty approved in 1531, and there are records to show some people boiled for up to two hours before death took them. When a woman was burned, the executioner tied a rope around her neck when she was tied to the stake” (Source C). People were boiled which is something that should only happen to food. When a person is boiled, they are stuck, and it could be very painful and long. Also what they did to women was just horrible, because women were not treated that well originally, but on top of that they would have a painful and long execution. There was also a man who was against all this punishment called Cesare Beccaria. He said, “The torture of a criminal during the course of his trial is a cruelty consecrated by custom in most nations” (Source B). What he is saying is that the torture of a criminal isn’t right during their punishment, and it should only be used for them to confess their crime. If they already confess then they shouldn’t be tortured. The guillotine helped people not ne tortured as much as other execution devices. Cesare Beccaria also made some good points when he said, “the more horrible as this punishment is usually attended with formal pageantry.
Is it not absurd, that the laws, which detest and punish homicide, should, in order to prevent murder, publicly commit murder themselves” (Source B). He is saying that the laws that are supposed to protect them are mostly committing public murder in execution. To continue, he also stated, “It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them” (Source B). He is saying that they should prevent crimes instead, if they want to conduct men to the maximum of happiness. A guillotine might be an execution device, but it didn’t hurt people as bad as the execution methods used before.
In conclusion, the guillotine was a more enlightened way to execute someone than what people used to do. What they did to execute people before the guillotine was horrendous and inhumane. Hanging people and stoning people isn’t one of the kindest ways to execute a person. The guillotine went along with the enlightened way of thinking, and made executions less painful. The guillotine was one of the best execution devices ever created for its way of killing
people.
The guillotine was first introduced during the French Revolution by a man named Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin. He is a physician who first was involved with the issues of medicine. On December 1, 1789 he became interested in the idea of capital punishment. He invented the guillotine. It was a contraption used for causing immediate and painless death. It included a falling blade, running between two upright boards of wood and later a basket. Therefore, one may believe that the design of the guillotine helped with executions.
A guillotine is a decapitation device that quickly chops off it’s victims head in the blink of an eye. According to document F, About 16,000 people were believed to have died at the hands of it. No matter how small or petty a crime was, people would have been executed for it. Even Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, the leaders of France before the Revolution, were decapitated by one, as was the leader of the Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre. Another method to weed out the counter revolutionaries was a network of spies that watched out for anyone who spoke out against the government, “A careless word of criticism spoken against the government could put one in prison or worse” (Document E). The punishment for a crime as small as ththis was more often than not
The one thing about this argument, though, if it were valid, it would not show that capital punishment is never proportionate and just, but only that it is very rarely so. The implication of this argument is not that we ought to do away with capital punishment altogether, nor that we ought to restrict it to those cases of murder where the murderer had warned the victim weeks or months in advance of what he was going to do, but we ought to reexamine the procedure of carrying out this kind of
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.) One of the most common ways of killing was the guillotine. The guillotine was a quick and rational means of execution and eliminate human error from the equation. (LYNN, MICHAEL. "
- The Guillotine is associated with the French Revolution. The French Revolution took place between 1789 to 1799 and was an uprising in France against the monarchy after France became a Republic. The Revolution was mainly caused by a financial crises after losing and spending money in various wars such as the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. When the Estates General convened, it was clear that the higher class levels were not going to give up their privileges to save the country which angered the lower classes. This lead to the people stormed the Bastille prison in opposition to the government. In turn, this lead to the Reign of Terror which had 15,000 people executed in order to eliminate all controversy. The Guillotine was proposed by Doctor Joseph Ignance Guillotin as punishment for criminals. Before the Guillotine, people were tortured for long periods of time, so
...st powerful symbols of the French Revolution and killed an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people during the Reign of Terror. (Doc F) The guillotine was a sharp, angled blade that killed quickly the most deadly and feared method of invoking fear during the revolution. (Doc F) These methods; however, became too extreme and the deaths of the incident was not justified.
I believe that the execution and technically assassination of Marie Antoinette was unjustified. There are reasons and it will be presented today, because she didn’t commit theft, treason and she wasn’t properly tried. She may not have been the best queen at times but she still didn’t deserve to be executed by guillotine, because it wasn’t her fault she got made queen at such a young age.
Throughout America’s history, capital punishment, or the death penalty, has been used to punish criminals for murder and other capital crimes. In the early 20th century, numerous people would gather for public executions. The media described these events gruesome and barbaric (“Infobase Learning”). People began to wonder if the capital punishment was really constitutional.
Several other punishments of the medieval period were also rather gruesome. If you were charged with treason, but you were a noble person otherwise, you were to be simply hanged and buried. If you committed murder, and were found guilty of attempted murder, you’d be tied up, near the scene of the crime and left to starve to death. If you were convicted of a successful murder, you’d be hung for a little while, have your hands cut off, and then led to where you’d be executed. Rouges were to be sent to the stockades and whipped, anyone who disturbed the peace were to be continuously du...
“I personally have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.”
While one person lays with their wrists circumscribed to the worn leather of the gurney, another person holds two skin-piercing needles. The individual holding the needles is an inexperienced technician who obtains permission from the United States federal government to murder people. One needle is held as a precaution in case the pain is too visible to the viewers. Another dagger filled with a lethal dosage of chemicals is inserted into the vein that causes the person to stop breathing. When the cry of the heart rate monitor becomes monotone, the corrupt procedure is complete. Lying in the chair is a corpse when moments ago it was an individual who made one fatal mistake that will never get the chance to redeem (Ecenbarger). Although some people believe that the death
The Renaissance Area was a time of very tragical brutality punishments, with machines such as the guillotine. Today this paper will be going to go over what the guillotine is: how it was used, who was the first person to use it, and when it was used. It will also, be discussing the history of the machine and why it was invented. Also, when and where the guillotine was used in different countries such as France, Germany, and During the 1700s, the death penalty was a common punishment in Europe. The executions were a very bloody and extremely painful death.
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.
Sixteen thousand die in the guillotine. During the French Revolution, citizens wanted a change and they went to extreme measures to make these changes. The French revolution knows as the reign of terror because the national assembly, which was the new people’s government, insisted on using force in order to see change. Unfortunately, because of this conflict many people had to die for what they believed in. This causes one to think, could the French government have done things differently. The reign of terror was necessary for these three reasons: all citizens would have the rights, the guillotine was a symbol of change, and the revolution would allow all citizens to participate in political affairs.
I will accomplish this by first providing you with a brief history of the death penalty, then I will discuss grounds for justifying the death penalty, and finally I will dispute some of the popular arguments against the death penalty. To start off, I will discuss the history of the death penalty. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, boiling, beheading, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain.