hanging , execution or murder by strangling or breaking the neck by a suspended noose. The traditional method of execution involves suspending victims from a gallows or crossbeam until they have died of asphyxiation. In another common method, persons to be hanged stand on a trapdoor, and, when the trap is released, they fall several feet until stopped by the rope tied around their neck. The jerk breaks the cervical vertebrae and is thought to cause immediate loss of consciousness. A knot or metal eyelet (the hangman’s knot) in the noose helps jerk back the victim’s head sharply enough to break the neck. Hanging was one of the modes of execution under ancient Roman law, and it was subsequently derived by the Anglo-Saxons from their Germanic ancestors. It had become the prescribed mode of punishment for homicide in England by the 12th century, and in time it came to supersede all oth...