Usually, a criminal who has survived an execution is not subjected to a second procedure. It is not for nothing that the key word in the sentence is “mortal,” which means the inevitability of the onset of retribution and the inevitability of the execution of the sentenced penalty.
In the past, the very fact that the offender managed to survive after the execution of the capital punishment was considered nothing other than God's providence, that is, it was considered a proof of innocence sent from above. Below are six real life stories of people who were able to survive against the law, even if only for a short time.
1. Man Franks
One of the Australian newspapers published a note in 1872 about how the murderer named "Man Franks" survived his own execution thanks to the monstrous incompetence of the performers.
This is a photo of another execution, 1896. This guy is probably far less fortunate than Franks.
At first, the execution itself was delayed by several hours, as the sheriff found the scheduled time inconvenient. During the waiting time, it rained and the wet rope prepared for execution was taken to dry over the fire.
Because of this, the rope stopped sliding. Before putting the noose around the convict's neck, the executioner had to stick his leg into the noose and pull with all his might in order to move the tightly stuck knot. Then the would-be executioner tried to fix the stranglehold on Frank's neck, but despite all his efforts, he could not do it as tightly as the rules require.
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In the end, a support was knocked out from under Frank, but after three minutes of unsuccessful attempt to suffocate, he began to twitch, asking to end his suffering and finish him off at last. And since his hands were as “tightly” tied as his neck, it was not difficult for him to pull himself up and, moving the rope from his throat, curse the organizers of the execution for their “hack”. Finally, one of the officers cut the rope, and the long-suffering victim of justice met the hard ground with a thud, as no one thought to spread something soft on him.
Needless to say, after all that they saw, no one wanted to bring the matter to the end, and Franks had the sentence commuted, replacing him with imprisonment, and the executive power of the new monarchical elite of Fiji became the subject of ridicule all over the world.
2. Anna Green
In 1650, twenty-two-year-old Anne Green was a servant in the home of Sir Thomas Read. She became pregnant by his grandson, but did not know that she was carrying a child in her womb. After 18 weeks, while Anna was grinding malt, she suddenly became ill. She had a miscarriage in the toilet. In horror, the girl hid the corpse.
At that time, there was a law that any unmarried woman who hid a pregnancy or a newborn was considered an infanticide. Despite the fact that the midwives' fetus was declared stillborn, Green was sentenced to death by hanging in the courtyard of Oxford castle.
During her last words, she asked to condemn "debauchery in the family in which she lived." She asked her friends to hang on her body in order to hasten the demise, and they did not refuse.
After the execution, the supposedly lifeless body was removed and taken to the anatomical theater for training students. But when the coffin was opened, the doctors discovered that the chest of the “corpse” was making subtle respiratory movements. They forgot about their original purpose and began to perform resuscitation actions using bloodletting, stimulation of respiratory reflexes and application of warm heating pads.
The public saw this as a sign from above and Green was pardoned. Taking the coffin with her as a souvenir, she settled in another town, got married and gave birth to a child.
3. Half-hanged Maggie
Maggie Dixon became pregnant while waiting for the return of her sailor husband, which was not at all a rosy situation for a woman in 1724. She, of course, tried to hide the pregnancy (concealment was punishable by law), but she failed and she was sentenced to death by hanging.
The cover of Alison Butler's The Hanging of Margaret Dixon.
After the execution, her family managed to retrieve the body without giving it to the butchers from medicine for dissection. As they accompanied Maggie to her last journey to the cemetery, they heard a knock from inside the closed coffin. The resurrection of Maggie was perceived only as the will of God. So she became a celebrity and acquired the nickname "Half-Hanging Maggie". She lived for another 40 years and to this day, not far from the place of her execution, there is a tavern named in her honor.
4. Inetta de Balsham
For harboring thieves, she was sentenced to death in August 1264. Sources say she was hanged at 9 am on Monday 16 August and left to hang out until the next morning. When the rope was cut, it turned out that she was still alive. Her windpipe was deformed in such a way that the knot was unable to completely restrict air access. Intta's miraculous rescue attracted the attention of King Henry III, who bestowed upon her the monarch's grace.
5. Romel Broome
Lethal injection was created as a humane, quick, painless and guaranteed means to take a person's life. However, Romel Broome proved that this is not entirely true.
In 2009, Romel was convicted of kidnapping, rape, murder, and became the first criminal to survive a lethal injection.
The performers spent two hours trying to find a suitable vein for the IV. Having searched Brum's entire body, they never found a vein, which is why the effect of the drug was not guaranteed. In the end, he was sent back to his cell with a death sentence suspended for a week.
During this time, Romel's lawyers began to argue that their ward experienced cruel and unusual treatment for prisoners during an unsuccessful execution. They managed to initiate a major movement to change the US lethal injection law, and Romel is in this case the main witness who cannot be executed. Broome is still alive and awaiting amnesty.
6. Evan MacDonald
In 1752, Evan MacDonald had a falling out with Robert Parker and cut his throat, which caused the latter to die. MacDonald was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging on a city wall in the English city of Newcastle.
His "corpse" was sent to the same place as the bodies of the rest of the tortured criminals - to the anatomical theater of a local medical institution. In those days, doctors almost specifically hunted for such corpses, since they were the only practical "manuals" by which it was possible to legally study human anatomy.
This is probably why MacDonald was not destined to survive: when the surgeon who entered saw the dumbfounded convict sitting on the operating table, he, without thinking twice, grabbed a surgical hammer and completed the executioner's work, cutting the skull open to the criminal. They say that God's punishment overtook this doctor when his own horse mortally wounded him in the head with a hoof.