Hanging is a form of execution or a method of committing suicide. It has been used throughout history as a form of capital punishment, first in the Persian Empire, and is still used in some countries. There are four methods of hanging — the long, short and standard drops, as well as suspension hanging.

The typical sentence involving hanging is that the condemned person "be hanged by the neck until dead". A more elaborate sentence, once used for particularly heinous crimes such as high treason in England, was for the person to be hanged, drawn and quartered — here the victim was saved from asphyxiation in order to endure further ordeals.

History of hanging

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Punishment

Hanging has historically been the method of execution used for common criminals; in feudal England, for example, peasants were usually hanged for crimes, while the nobility were usually beheaded 'according to their station' (death from a bladed weapon being considered not ignoble as it is like the military 'field of honor'). Since as a result hanging has become associated with dishonorable execution, the courts in the post-World War II which presided over trials for war crimes in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, such as the Nuremberg Trials mandated its use for war criminals rather than execution by firing squad.

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One person killed when struck by train in Loudon County
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