Fun fact for the day ! The Guillotine was still in use in France, when the first Star Wars film was released.
If that is true it can possibly be said that worldwide the guillotine has never completely dissapepared from use. I'm saying this simply because Evangelicals point to the book of revelation and claim "in the end times they will bring back use of the guillotine."
Dang! I've even seen a clip of a guy being executed by one. Some time in the thirties. That's scary!
The guillotine has been around for much longer than most people know. In France it was adopted to ensure that all, no matter their rank or class received equality in means of execution. It was used in the British Isles four hundred years before the revolution.
Guillotine - Wikipedia [en.m.wikipedia.org]
The UK only abolished the death penalty for treason in 2002.
Death by hanging. At least drawing and quartering subsequent to hanging had long been abolished.
True we moved from 'death by painful torture' to something more swift and less painful a long time ago. Not so much making an example out of people, as just removing them from society. I'm sure being beheaded isn't pain free, but it must be a better way to go than being left dangling by your neck, still alive, with your guts ripped out through your anus.
I think it's also worth mentioning that while we still had the death penalty until 2002, it hadn't actually been used for several decades. The last few people convicted were never executed. At least one of them ended up being released on appeal, which highlights the main issue with the death penalty.
Beheading has remained on the statute books for various crimes such as rising the Jacobite flag or burning the London docks because it is technically not a death sentence. It merely states that your head should be severed from your body. Whereas hanging states that you should be hung by the neck until dead.
That's nothing. The electric chair was still in use in the USA when the last Star Wars film was released.
(Interesting fact for you: there was an unsuccessful attempt to replace the electric chair with the guillotine in Georgia in 1996 [legis.ga.gov]
An associated fun fact is that an anagram of The Guillotine is 'I get out in hell'
Incorrect. Guillotine only contains one "t" your phrase contains 2. Nor does guillotine contain an "h".
nice try though.
@FrayedBear Au contraire Monsieur. ' The Guillotine' works fine for 'I get out in hell'
@ipdg77 accepted I stand corrected. Lol.
Off with their heads!
Said the Queen of Hearts.
I wonder if it would have remained in use if they had added the light saber sound effect to it? Too soon?
Maybe too late for some!