Cause of death in judicial hanging: a review and case study

The cause of death in judicial hanging is controversial and often attributed to 'hangman's fracture' of the second cervical vertebra. Research has shown that such fractures are the exception in judicial hangings and the cause of death can be attributed to a range of head and neck injuries, particularly compression or rupture of the vertebral and carotid arteries leading to cerebral ischaemia. The rapidity of loss of consciousness and death is highly dependent upon knot positioning and the length of drop which has varied through the history of hanging as a capital punishment in the UK. The skeletal remains of Mr. George Kelly, wrongfully hanged for murder at Walton prison, Liverpool (1950) were exhumed, examined and are reported on herein. The first cervical vertebra was found to be fractured but no 'hangman's fracture' of the axis--second cervical vertebra--was present. The hangman (Mr. Albert Pierrepoint) has been quoted as stating that the hanging of Mr Kelly took longer than 'it should have' (Dernley and Newman, 1989) but no skeletal evidence of death by strangulation was found by the authors. Unconsciousness, if not death, would probably have been rapid due to vertebral artery damage as a result of the observed neck fracture, although this cannot be concluded with absolute certainty.