This content explores the historical evolution and diverse methods of capital punishment, questioning its efficacy as a deterrent and highlighting its deep entanglement with societal concepts of justice, power, and retribution.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
Hey, Fareed. How are you feeling?
I'm getting executed in 5 minutes.
-What do you think? -Why the long face?
-Want some cashews? Macadamias? -Cashews? Really?
-What's with you? -Fareed…
You're a lucky guy. You'll be the first to be executed using the new method.
I knew it! I dreamt last night you'd cook me and serve me as food for the prisoners.
So what’s it gonna be, shawarma?
Execution is such a harsh and depressing process.
That's why we decided to change the whole process.
The executed must go out happy.
Fareed…we've decided to kill you…
with laughter…
-You'd die of happiness and joy. -What?
Why die sad when you can go out with a smile?
I even ordered you some kebab.
So how exactly do I die of laughter?
We could tickle you, or make you watch prank shows.
We could hire a monologist,
or a stand-up comedian if you're the progressive type of prisoner.
Aren't you gonna hang me?
Nah, that's not how we do it nowadays.
We've got Ziad. He's a copywriter by day and a monologist freelancer by night.
-Happy Execution Day! -Ziad?!
Good evening. Ready for the first joke?
A pharmacist dug near his house…
and found side effects.
That was awful!
I have another one!
A man wanted to outsmart the bus conductor so he bought a ticket…and didn’t get on the bus.
Is that supposed to make me laugh?
Be patient. You’ve got to sit through a thousand of these, take it all in.
A cow was dehydrated so it produced powdered milk.
A guy bought a BMW. Next morning, he found a "U" missing.
A man bought a glass door and added a peephole.
A guy went to a café, only to find out it was a tea.
Once a chick farted so hard it did a back flip.
Fareed! Wait! Don't ruin the experiment!
Comedy is subjective!
I can slip on a banana peel and make you laugh!
I wish you'd cooked me and served me as shawarma instead of this nonsense!
Hello dear viewers and welcome to a new episode of El-Daheeh.
Let me take you to a small village in Nebraska.
In 1871, a man named Jack Marion, age 21, married a woman named Lydia Finley.
Congratulations on the wedding!
Sounds like good news!
But he'll soon discover that it was probably the biggest mistake of his life.
"That he got married? Is that the mistake? Don't lie. Just tell me the truth!"
That's not what I meant!
The biggest mistake of his life was marrying Lydia.
In 1872, Marion told his wife he had agreed to buy his friend Cameron’s horses.
He'd paid 30$ but he wouldn’t take them until he’d paid the rest of the money.
Then Marion and his friend Cameron left town to work on the railroad.
Then, Lydia found her husband returning with the horses but without his friend.
When she asked, "Where’s Cameron?"
He told her he had an emergency and had to leave Nebraska.
Lydia felt like something was off.
She told her mother who never really liked Marion.
Both mother and daughter concluded Marion had murdered his friend and taken the horses,
even though there was nothing against Marion, not even a body.
A year later, the police found a partly decomposed corpse in Otoe,
near the area where Marion and Cameron had travelled.
The forensics team at the time said the corpse had been dead for about a year.
Lydia and her mother didn't hesitate.
They reported to the police that it was probably Cameron’s body,
and that her husband had killed him.
Of course, the newspapers went wild.
It was a chance to sell papers: "Man murders friend for horses!"
Seeing what the newspapers wrote about him, Marion was terrified and ran away.
He went into hiding for 10 years.
He was arrested and his trail lasted for 4 years.
During the trial, the forensics team presented the body
that had been decomposing for more than 15 years.
Lydia and her mother identified it as Cameron.
They even testified that the clothes were his.
"You evil woman!"
They even said they were certain Marion was the murderer.
All Marion could say was "I swear I’m innocent.
My friend left and gave me the horses."
But no one believed him.
"If you were innocent, you would have stayed and not run away.
You ran away for 10 years! Of course you're the killer!"
In March 1887, Marion was executed for killing his friend.
Nebraska slept peacefully, thinking justice had been served.
"Thank God, we did good!"
But one man, William Wymore, couldn't sleep.
He was Marion's uncle. He believed he was innocent, even after he was executed.
He did everything to prove his innocence.
After 4 years of digging around,
William found a piece of evidence that completely changed the course of the case.
William didn’t find the real killer. William found Cameron.
"Surely you mean James Cameron, the famous director of Titanic and Avatar."
We're in the 1800s, my friend! James Cameron who?
I'm talking about the guy who was supposedly killed!
He saw Cameron, alive and well.
Apparently, Cameron had spent 19 years in Mexico.
[Marion's Uncle] [Cameron]
-[Marion's Uncle] You're alive?! -[Cameron] Hola!
[Marion's Uncle] I lost the boy! I lost him!
So why did he go into hiding?
The story goes that while Cameron was with Marion,
he learned that a woman was pregnant with his child.
Like many young men in that situation, he panicked and bailed.
He sold Marion his horses before leaving without a trace.
He didn’t even know his friend had been sentenced to death until it was too late.
Marion's story is tragic.
It raises lots of questions:
How can an innocent man be executed simply because his in-law disliked him?
How could we ever be certain that someone deserves the death sentence?
To find answers, we need to understand the history of execution.
Turn off the lights, call Sameh Sanad and let me tell you.
The word "execution" in Arabic comes from a root that means "non-existence",
to be turned from something into nothing, from "to be" to "not to be".
It’s hard to say who the very first person executed was,
but we can at least refer to the earliest legal document that mentions it
which is the Code of Ur-Nammu in ancient Iraq from 2100 BCE.
It imposed the death sentence on 3 crimes: murder, robbery and adultery.
Later came the Code of Hammurabi in 1754 BCE,
expanding capital punishment to 31 crimes,
including accusing someone of murder without evidence,
or committing perjury in a murder trial.
So, the accuser and the false witness would be executed,
but not the judge who made the wrong call,
because he had ruled based on what he believed were truthful testimonies.
Instead, he'd be relieved of his service and the false witness would be executed.
If Lydia and her mother lived in Hammurabi’s era, they would've been executed.
I won’t list all 31 crimes, but here are a few headlines.
Hammurabi’s 31 offenses included kidnapping, stealing,
banditry, harboring fugitive slaves,
and falsifying or altering the measure.
You could be executed for tampering with the scales.
Imagine being put to death for some tomatoes.
Hammurabi’s laws were harsh.
31 ways to die.
The death row was given for offenses that could’ve been met with less severe sentences.
-"Why are you talking like that?" -I'm a bit scared, my friend.
They believed that if they applied such a severe punishment,
that would deter wrongdoing.
The Code of Hammurabi was a bit harsh…really harsh.
In his code, attempting a crime was punished as severely as committing it.
If you tried to steal and were caught, you'd be executed.
Attempting gets you on the rope.
Even worse, it didn't adhere to the principle of culpability,
Punishment didn't just stop at the offender.
They applied the concept of retributive justice.
For example, if someone hit a pregnant woman, and both mother and fetus died,
he and his son would be executed.
If an engineer built a house and it collapsed, killing the owner and his son,
the engineer and his son would be put to death.
If engineers, traders or soldiers fell short of their duties, they'd be executed.
If you think doctors were exempt, think again.
If a doctor made a fatal mistake, he'd be executed too.
For the sake of action and suspense, execution methods were various.
Thieves were hanged over the house they'd robbed,
like human key chains.
You'd be left with a robbed, haunted house.
The Code of Hammurabi aimed to uphold justice,
but in doing so, it spread fear.
No one would ever wish to have been born under that system.
Let's just continue our story and see if you'd change your mind.
After Hammurabi came the Assyrian laws from 2000 to 950 BCE,
which mercifully removed the retributive justice concept,
and introduced blood money instead of execution.
"That's great! Finally laws that are similar to ours!"
Just wait, my friend, till you hear the rest.
Assyrian laws had something called trial by river, in Game of Thrones lingo.
If someone accused a married woman of adultery, they’d throw him into the river.
If he drowned, they’d say the woman was innocent.
If he survived, he'd be telling the truth and they execute the woman.
Women could be executed for abortion.
They would tie the women to a tree and left there till they die.
They didn't even bury them so that they'd be an example.
These are terrifying practices too.
Let’s move to the Pharaonic era that existed around the same period as the Assyrians.
Unlike Hammurabi, the Egyptians had degrees of punishment.
Theft wasn't treated the same as murder.
Involuntary manslaughter wasn’t the same as premeditated murder.
According to some sources, killing a sacred cat could get you the death penalty.
Execution in ancient Egypt was very creative.
They included mutilation, burning alive,
or throwing into the Nile. They even had executions by impalement, excuse my French.
But to be fair, that wasn't the worst.
The Code of Hammurabi was just as evil.
If we go to Greece, we'll find that they were inspired by these laws.
The lawgiver Draco introduced some laws:
theft could mean death; mere intent to kill could get you executed.
Are you gonna scream at every sentence? There's worse.
Despite how harsh those laws were, their legislators were treated with reverence.
According to some sources, Draco's death was epic.
One day, he was giving a speech and people started clapping and cheering,
throwing their cloaks, robes and hats at him.
But there were so many of them that he suffocated under the pile and died.
But after that, things developed.
New legislators came like Solon, who reformed the laws and put less severe punishments.
And thank God, he didn’t die buried under cloaks.
"I’m done. I’m completely done with these eras.
I don’t want laws made by some humans. I want divine laws!
Where is God’s law in the death penalty?
Where’s the mufti?"
You’re dragging me into sensitive topics. I know you, I know your tricks.
I never look for controversial topics. They just come looking for me.
Now, your favorite part. But I only need the poison since you’re already here, honey.
The rules of Torah are extremely strict, especially the 10 Commandments
mentioned in the Book of Exodus and the Book of Deuteronomy
Execution wasn't just for murderers and adulterers.
It was for much simpler offenses like mistreating your parents.
If you forget to take the trash out, you'll get the capital punishment.
The Book of Exodus reads,
"Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death."
That's because parents hold a sacred status in Judaism.
Honoring them was one of the 10 Commandments.
In Judaism, if you work on a Saturday, you'll be executed.
Execution wasn’t limited to humans. Even animals were subject to it.
If an ox killed a man, it was stoned to death.
And if the owner knew the ox was dangerous and didn’t restrain it,
and it killed someone, they'd both be executed.
You’ll notice that the core principle behind punishment in Judaism is deterrence.
That’s why executions and penalties were carried out publicly, in front of everyone.
As it says in Deuteronomy 21:
"Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death.
Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst,
and all Israel will hear and be afraid."
The idea was that all of Israel had to witness the punishment,
so no one would think of committing the same crime.
If we turn to Islam, we’ll find many shared principles with Judaism
including the capital punishment.
But in Islam, it’s not as harsh as it is in Judaism.
For example, disobeying one’s parents is a major sin,
but it has no worldly punishment.
Similarly, working on a Friday isn't considered punishable in Islam.
It’s just not a good idea to work on weekends in general!
In Islam, execution applies in other cases, like murder.
But it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Islamic jurisprudence varies, with different rulings for each case.
Whether in Judaism, Islam, or any civilization we discuss,
there are always different opinions and interpretations.
Societies then adopt what they see as most just.
We can summarize the philosophy of the death penalty in Islam
with verse 179 of Surah Al-Baqarah:
"There is 'security of' life for you in 'the law of' retaliation, O people of reason"
Retaliation here isn’t vengeance. It’s a way of preserving life within society.
That’s why the victim’s family is the one who decides what to do with the accused:
they can demand execution, an eye for an eye, a life for a life,
accept monetary compensation (Diya), or forgive.
In Islam, there is no distinction between a single killer and multiple killers.
If one kills another, they’re executed.
If 10 people kill one person, all 10 are executed.
"Hold on, Abo Hmeed. I feel like I need to correct you.
You talked about Judaism and Islam,
but you forgot the religion that came in between: Christianity.
You didn’t mention it at all. Was that intentional or just forgetfulness?"
I’m not looking for sectarian conflicts! I have enough accusations on my plate.
I don’t need new ones.
Christianity emerged within a Jewish environment.
And Christ (peace be upon him) was clear when he said:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
So, many Christian denominations considered the death penalty acceptable,
since it was part of the law of Moses.
But at the same time, there are other texts like
"Do not resist an evil person.
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."
Many clergy interpreted that as a call to renounce violence,
that there should be no such thing as execution.
Historically, after Christ, the Church didn’t have executive authority.
If you recall, they were still under the Roman rule.
It was hard to execute someone even if they'd been sentenced to death.
Some popes objected to execution.
But in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church did enforce the death penalty in cases like
heresy, witchcraft, or speaking against the Church or the state.
In modern times, however, there’s been a major shift within the Catholic Church.
The popes began to see the death penalty as an unnecessary cruelty.
In 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was officially amended
and the death penalty was completely inadmissible.
Because there’s always a chance of error
and humans should be given a chance to repent.
That wraps up the segment on the death penalty in religions.
I hope I got through it in one piece.
Everything I just said is meant to show you
how deeply the death penalty has been woven into human history.
It’s been a ready-made punishment for many acts,
some that we’d now consider minor, and others truly destructive.
And regardless of whether people see capital punishment as necessary, just,
or unnecessarily cruel, let’s move on to the most extreme part of it,
the execution itself.
To talk about execution methods, we first need to understand how humans die
so that we can come up with ways to kill them.
-"You're becoming more sciatic" -You mean sadistic.
Anyway, one of the certain ways a person dies is when the heart stops,
and the blood doesn't reach the brain.
When someone suffocates, oxygen can't get into the blood,
so the brain doesn't get any oxygen.
If someone’s shot or stabbed, and they bleed heavily,
the oxygen in the blood no longer reaches the brain.
Of course, all that could end much faster if you just hit the brain directly,
like Thanos says,
"So if we’re going to execute someone, why not just hit them in the head?
Why the fire, electricity, and hanging fiasco?"
Don’t forget that most societies I mentioned
didn’t see execution as a tool for justice,
but for deterrence.
They wanted to protect their community.
Most of them believed that executions had to be public
for everyone to see, so that no one would dare commit the same crime again.
That’s why, for much of history, execution was a show, a spectacle.
People would gather in the streets to watch.
During the French Revolution, there was a cabaret called Cabaret de la Guillotine.
It literally had tables overlooking the guillotine.
It was hard to get a reservation sometimes. "Sorry, all the front-row seats are reserved.
Tonight they’re executing the leaders."
Because it had turned into such a public show, methods became more varied.
In ancient times, crucifixion was widespread across the world.
They'd tie people to a cross or a pole and leave them till they die.
People just didn't like the wait.
They wanted something more exciting.
"We want humiliation, degradation, torture…"
Then came a creative idea,
and spread from the 8th century BCE,
the impalement method.
I don’t know if Tarantino or some horror director came up with that,
but it became very popular among the Assyrians and Persians.
For the faint hearted, you might want to switch to Sameh Sanad instead.
It's going to get nasty.
Let me tell you about something you’ve probably never seen before…
the implement method.
-"Can't be more painful than your jokes." -Please don't kid about that!
Impalement is when a long wooden stake is driven through a person’s body
from the bottom up. The victim basically becomes a human kebab,
left skewered like that for hours, even days, until they die.
It was usually used against rebels,
or revolutionary figures and leaders of resistance movements against colonization.
It was a humiliating punishment meant to send a clear message:
"Don’t you dare defy your masters."
In Rome, there was the real show.
The condemned prisoners were thrown into the Colosseum,
torn apart slowly by lions while crowds cheered.
A few centuries later, in the Middle Ages, came the magical show…literally.
Those accused of witchcraft, usually women, were tied to trees and burned alive.
And here’s the twisted part: if she burned, she was innocent.
If she didn’t, she was a witch and had to be killed anyway.
I don’t need to tell you about other refined execution methods
like drawing, quartering, or the brazen bull,
where they’d lock the condemned inside a bronze bull and light a fire beneath it.
That "execution show" mindset carried on for quite some time.
At least over the years, the methods became more humane
like the guillotine which could sever the head in seconds without prolonged suffering.
In a blink of an eye… that’s it, you’re out.
Or even hanging.
"Didn't you just say that hanging goes way back to Hammurabi's era?
They used to hang thieves at the door of the house they’d robbed."
Yeah, but not all hangings are the same, right?
Then came America, the queen of humanity, saying,
"Guys, you’re so cruel! Be more compassionate like me!"
So America decided to introduce new execution methods.
In the 19th century, executions in the U.S. were mostly by hanging.
But hanging had its problems. Sometimes the person died instantly if the neck broke.
Sometimes, they died very slowly, suffocating in front of the crowd.
And sometimes the math was wrong, and the rope snapped.
That’s when the state of New York started thinking about a more humane alternative.
In 1888, a special committee was formed to find a more humane alternative,
a more merciful way for executing people.
Coincidentally, at that time there were 2 shining geniuses
whose inventions were trending everywhere,
2 names lighting up the scientific world: Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Edison represented direct current (DC),
while Tesla stood for alternating current (AC).
If you remember from our earlier episodes, there was a fierce rivalry between them
known as the war of the currents.
Edison was terrified that AC would win,
so he decided to ruin AC’s reputation.
He went straight to the committee:
"If you want a quick, humane way to kill someone,
use AC. It’s dangerous and deadly."
And indeed he electrocuted dogs, cats, and horses in front of the committee
and they all died instantly.
Of course, his real goal wasn’t to help the committee at all.
He just wanted to make AC look bad
so people would think it was the current used for killing.
"Wait… but that's what we use in our homes…AC!"
The committee actually bought into Edison’s idea.
Because, as I told you, death means stopping the brain,
and the brain functions through electrical signals.
So if we pass a very high voltage through the body,
it disrupts the brain, shuts down the organs, and stops the heart,
cutting off oxygen to the brain.
And so, my friend, the first electric chair was built.
On August 6, 1890, it was time for its grand debut,
the execution of a criminal named William Kemmler.
He had murdered his wife with an axe,
and all of America was waiting for this new merciful experiment.
In front of a huge audience, the officer activated the chair,
sending 1,000 volts through Kemmler’s body for 17 seconds.
The doctor checked him and declared his death.
Not quite. Kemmler suddenly woke up in agony.
People screamed.
Panicking, the officer turned the current back on, 2,000 volts this time
until the smell of burning flesh filled the room.
A large part of Kemmler’s body was burned.
And yet, despite the horror of what happened,
New York simply said, "We’ll get the calculations right next time,"
and officially adopted the electric chair as the standard execution method.
For the next 80 years, many campaigns were launched against the electric chair.
The country tried to find more humane alternatives
and that’s when a prison doctor in Nevada, Dr. Allan McLane suggested:
"What if we execute death row inmates while they’re asleep so they don’t feel any pain?"
"If a man’s got a deadline on his life, you think he’s going to sleep?
I lose sleep if I have a project deadline!"
Simply, they'd put them in a room and drug them.
They'd fill the room with poisonous gas and call that room the gas chamber.
[Hitler] Are you sure?
If you watched the episode 'Eugenics', you'd know that
the ideas the Germans used originally came from the Americans.
Forced sterilization, euthanasia, and gas chambers were actually inspired by America.
When it comes to innovation in torture, America is second to none.
So, in 1924, the first gas chamber execution took place.
It was anything but humane. It was pure torture.
The prisoner would struggle for 15 minutes, gasping for breath,
convulsing, shaking, his body turning blue,
sometimes even vomiting until finally dying.
The people watching fainted, horrified by the brutality of it.
The gas was also dangerous to prison staff,
who had to wear protective suits. If there was ever a leak, it could poison them
which happened many times, forcing entire prisons to be evacuated.
Human rights organizations declared this method a form of legalized torture.
Gradually, gas chambers were abolished in most states,
and in 1977, the lethal injection was introduced
which was so much worse.
The process involves 3 injections, with slight variations between states.
First, a general anesthetic to make the person unconscious.
Then, a muscle relaxant is administered to stop breathing and paralyze the body.
Finally, a potassium chloride injection that stops the heart.
In theory, the person dies peacefully in their sleep, without pain.
But scientifically, this method has caused the most problems.
In 2014, in Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett was given the injection but something went wrong.
He spent 43 minutes writhing in agony before dying.
These injections were so horrific that
European pharmaceutical companies refused to them to the U.S.
"We make medicine to save lives, not to end them."
So they started using weaker substitutes,
which only made things worse.
Just like the electric chair lasted for 80 years,
the lethal injection has remained in use from the 80s to this day.
But after all that drama, some states decided to bring back the firing squad,
a few men with rifles or pistols. They count to three, bang, done.
Usually, only one of them has live ammunition, while the others have blanks,
so no one knows who actually fired the fatal shot.
Some states said, "We’ll abolish the death penalty altogether",
and they turned to life imprisonment as an alternative.
According to Death Penalty Information Center,
around 27 U.S. states still apply the death penalty,
while 23 states have replaced it with life sentences.
And that was an opportunity to compare crime rates
between the states that have the death penalty and those that don’t.
The truth is, since we have both kinds of states,
some scholars decided to use that as a chance
to see whether harsher punishment actually reduces crime.
Researcher Stephen Oliphant tried to answer that question.
In 2022, he published a study
examining the relationship between the death penalty and homicide rates.
He studied 4 states:
Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Pennsylvania
and collected data from 1979 to 2019.
Surprisingly, he found no direct correlation between the two.
In most cases, there wasn’t much difference.
Crime didn’t increase when they stopped executing people.
That’s quite the opposite of the common belief that executions deter crime.
Actually, in some cases, crime rates went down after the death penalty was abolished.
As we know from our show:
Stephen admitted he couldn’t say one thing directly caused the other.
He saw that execution doesn’t really prevent others from committing crimes.
It might be simply because the economy improved.
The study concluded that the death penalty doesn’t stop crime.
It just stops the criminal of ever repeating his crime.
Well, after being put to death…it's impossible.
But execution doesn't deter other people.
In 'Reflections on the Guillotine', Albert Camus wrote
that the death penalty punishes a criminal twice
once when the sentence is announced, and again when it’s carried out.
In this episode, we talked about the cases that can result in a death sentence
and the moment it’s carried out.
But actually, the worst punishment of all
is the time between the sentence and the execution.
How do you think that time would pass for you?
There are multiple recorded cases ever since the Middle Ages
of people who died from heart attacks before their execution took place.
And sometimes, years pass between sentencing and execution,
without knowing when it’ll happen.
In countries like the U.S. and Japan,
there are prisoners who have waited 15 whole years
before being executed.
They died every day just thinking about their own deaths.
Execution isn’t just a courtroom verdict followed by a gavel.
It’s a sentence with no return, one mistake costs a human life.
Throughout history, many countries used it not only to serve justice,
but also to assert their power and control their societies.
It wasn’t enough for them that the condemned dies,
his body had to be displayed in public squares to set an example.
The body had to be hanged, burned, exposed,
and turned into a tool to assert the authority
of the country, the colonizer, or even the resistance.
Some saw that the corpse was a symbol of justice
and others saw it was a symbol of oppression, injustice and cruelty.
The story of execution is the story of humanity’s attempts to serve justice
in the most extreme and severe form, a unanimous decree to kill a human.
It's a ruling that kills one person, yet through its method, timing, and form,
reveals what each society truly believes about justice and retribution.
May God protect us from ever killing or being killed
and may He save us from this cursed topic.
Meanwhile, until any verdict is issued against us, God forbid,
watch the new episodes and the old ones.
Check the sources below and subscribe if you're on YouTube.
You know, my friend, there’s a saying: "I didn’t die when I was killed,
I died when I learned who did it."
"Surely he didn't die with the impalement method.
Because if he had, he would've…you know?
May you never be in his shoes."
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
