Is death instant for someone who is hanged the moment the trapped door is released?

Answer 1

When hanging someone the death is not instant.

After the hanging, the sentenced loses consciousness almost immediatelly; the death occurs by asphyxiation, because of a slipknot put around the neck and fixed to a support by the other end. The weight of the body, hanging in mid-air or inclined forward, rests on the slipknot, determines its closing and the compressing action on respiratory tract.

The hanging leaves different signs, both inside and outside the body: the sentenced becomes cyanotic, the tongue hangs out, the eyes pop out of his head, there is a groove on the neck; there are also vertebral lesions and internal fractures.

The cause of death in hanging depends on the conditions related to the event. When the body is released from a relatively high position, death is usually caused by severing the spinal cord between C1 and C2, which may be functional decapitation.
In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death.

Answer 2

In the old west the hangmens noose was made with thirteen loops, ( that is why the number 13 is considered unlucky ). It was made with so many loops to insure the knot would hold. Despite what movies show, the knot was put to the side of the face, not behind the head ( I will explain this in a moment ). The sheriff woudl then weigh the person to be hung. The reason they did this was because they had a formula. I believe it was one inch for every pound to be hung. Once the trap door opened, the body would fall, and the knot on the side of the face would pull one of the vertebre on the neck to the side ( which is why the knot was on the side of the face ) breaking the neck.
I read in a history book about a bank robber ( I dont remember who) who was measured as soon as he was put in jail, but he was shot during the robbery, and they had to amputate his arm, and he gained sixty pounds while in jail before they hung him. The sheriff didnt compensate for the added weight, and the bodies center of gravity was off due to the missing arm. When they hung him instead of breaking his neck it poped his head off.
In short to answer your question, Yes they die pretty much instantly. The brain will live about four seconds with the oxygen already stored in it, but its the best that can be done.

Jeremy

Answer 3

No it is not instant. There are variables involved in the process. The rope pulls very tight very fast around the neck, essentially cutting off blood supply to the brain, and also crushing the windpipe, asphixiating the person. If the fall is far enough and the persons neck is weak enough, it can also break the persons neck. If this occurs, then most likely the person will die instantly, but not always is the case either. That also does not mean that the heart stops beating instantly, the person as you know them is dead, but the body is still alive for a few more minutes. There are many variables to consider, but as the first person stated, once that indiviual passes out, there is no more pain or suffering. Hope that makes sense.

Answer 4

Believe it or not there's a science to it.

There is an execution table. It tells how long to make the rope for a person of a certain weight and build. If the table is followed the neck is snapped and the spinal cord is severed without severing the tendons. It is essentially death by internal decapitation without the gruesome sight of a head being ripped off. Death is as instant as a guillotine, depending on your definition of death.Muscle twitches continue for maybe 15 minutes, but breathing and heart beat have ceased.

If the rope is too short, the person will strangle. Depending on how short, he may not even die at all, and will have to be rehung. He may take 30 mins. to die.

Too long an the head is severed. Death in this case is instant.

Answer 5

A proper hanging breaks the neck and severs the spinal cord -- it has exactly the same result as the Guillotine, except that there's no blood. You can read the autobiography of Albert Pierrepoint (now a motion picture) and learn more than you wanted to know about a proper execution by hanging.

Poor or evil hangmen -- like those who hanged American Indians en masse in the 18th and 19th centuries -- deliberately use insufficient drop and place the noose so that death is by slow strangulation. They do that today in Iran, too,

Answer 6

Only if they are very lucky. In most cases the planned ideal of the hanged person's neck snapping and instant death is a fairy tale. There are far, far more cases where the person's neck does not break and instead they slowly strangle to death.

Answer 7

No, not usually. After the rope tightens the hanged will pass out in 2-4 minutes. They die about 4-10 minutes after that.

Answer 8

depends.
if the noose is put under the left ear the neck should snap and death will be instantanious. there are other factors that could stop this- like the drop not being fast, sharp, or high enough.

if the noose isn't under the left ear the person will be slowly strangled

Answer 9

It depends. Heavier people usually die quicker than light people because there's more weight on the rope. Some people's necks snap, which is pretty sick, and they die very fast. Others are basically being choked to death, and that can take several minutes, depending. However fast they die, it's creepy.

Answer 10

In most cases yes. When the trap door is released, due to the sudden jerk, the spinal cord is snappped and the person dies. In the rare case in which it doesnt happen, the person chokes to death. In this case, it takes a few minutes for the person to die.

Answer 11

If done correctly yes it is - it would snap the neck instantly, but if it wasn’t done right they slow choke to death as the windpipe is crushed from their body weight pulling them down.