Was it to make the prisoner more docile or for the benefit of the firing sauad themselves?
(I know this is morbid, sorry. Research for a novel.)
In: 26
A bit of both.
It was meant as a benefit to the prisoner and the firing squad. Some argued that it was more humane for the prisoners to not have to stare down the guns about to kill them.
And on the flip side, there are argument that it helps the executioners, as they don’t need to look the person they are about the kill in the eye.
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I am wondering. I heard that the firing squad has only 1 live bullet loaded, and the rest of the guns have blanks. The people firing the guns don’t know which gun has the live round, which is said to give them a plausible deniability if it kept them up at night.
Any truth to that?
What’s the cigarette for then ?
Its for the benefit of the firing squad.
Shooting someone knowing you will end their life is a incredibly traumatic event. Shooting someone LOOKING at you is even worse. Outside of of psychopath, people develop PTSD, which is why many mechanics designed to let them “sleep better at night”. Things like blank round, multiple people per person executed, hood over their head so you don’t see them, these are all things designed to protect the shooter and not the person being shot.
You want to protect the executioner because they are not criminals, and having life altering PTSD is defiantly a form of severe punishment.
they also put a bag over the head of those about to be hanged, beheaded…
but I don’t think they did for those executed by guillotine though once placed in the machine they are facing straight down.
not only is it for dehumanizing the victim but also to prevent communication muffling shouts and preventing blinking code???
I read that one of the reasons the Nazis used gas chambers (Himmler’s idea) was so they did not to have to kill people and witness the deaths. Murdering humans themselves apparently really upset them and Himmler did not like this. On a side note, Fuck Himmler and fuck the nazis.
I read once that it was in part due to superstition, that the persons spirit couldn’t haunt the individual who executed them if they couldn’t identify who did the executing in the first place.
But I suspect it’s there for the practical reason that the executioners didn’t like/want to look someone in the eyes when they killed them.
I don’t know if the person being executed would feel better or worse having the blindfold on.
Would it create more fear from not seeing it coming or would it instill a sense of calm in an otherwise chaotic moment.
Mostly the firing squad.
Take it like this: Execution in general is not about the prisoners or the good of society. It’s about humiliation. You’re putting someone down like a dog to send a message to others.
Problem Though: It is a freaking traumatic experience to see someone die. Much worse if you can look into their eyes. It’s a lot easier to stomach seeing a bullet drive into a “sack of meat” than it is to see it go into a person.
That’s why hooding prisoners is basically a constant in public executions going back centuries, even with things like Electrocutions or Hangings where the executioner is behind the prisoner; You wanna send a message to others by word of mouth, not traumatize the 40 people in attendance.
Blindfolds were to help reduce the fear felt by prisoners facing execution. If the prisoner is not full of fear before execution, the meat will taste better.
Just me linking the shooting of Jose Miguel Carrera, Chile’s first dictator/founding father.
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