Man Survives Hanging, Found Alive in The Mortuary the Following Day - May Be Re-hanged

A judiciary staff ties ropes ahead of the hanging in Iran while the crowds watch in anticipation (Courtesy: IRNA)

In a piece of news reported in Arabic, an IRAN-based information service, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Monday, reported about a convicted Iranian drug trafficker who survived an attempt at being hanged by the Iranian authorities. The 37-year old man identified only as Alireza, M. from his prison tag is now in coma, says another report from IRNA on Thursday.

After hanging for 12 minutes from a noose suspended from a crane at a prison in northeastern Iran, the medics certified Alireza dead and his body deposited in a mortuary only to be discovered the following day to still be breathing by mortuary attendants.

This event has ignited a debate among Islamic jurists. While one side of the divide is arguing for Alireza to be hanged again, others are saying he has served his punishment and should not be re-hanged. What's your view on this?

This is not the first time ever that someone survived a hanging attempt. Before now, an Englishman named Joseph Samuel once survived 3 hanging attempts in quick succession. On 26 September 1803, Joseph Samuel convicted of robbery in 1795 and sentenced to death by hanging in 1801 and another criminal, convicted of another crime and not a member of the same gang, were driven in a cart to a site where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the execution. Nooses were fastened securely around their necks from the gallows and after they were allowed to pray with a priest, the cart was driven away. This was the common method of hanging of the day, and caused death by slow strangulation. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did the British employ the drop method, which breaks the neck.

The ropes used were made of five cords of hemp, which enabled one to hold 450 kg for up to five minutes without breaking - more than sufficient for human executions. The other criminal ultimately died by strangulation, but Samuel's rope snapped and he dropped to his feet, sprained an ankle and collapsed. The executioner hastily readied another rope, also five-hemp, and placed it around Samuel's neck, forced him onto the same cart, and drove the cart away again. The other criminal was still kicking weakly at this point.

When the cart drove out from under him, Samuel fell again, and the noose slipped off his neck, whereupon his boots touched the ground. The executioner was sure to have fastened the noose securely around his neck, and as he stood Samuel up to try again, the crowd had become boisterous, calling for Samuel to be freed. The executioner very quickly readied another five-hemp rope, ordered the cart driven back, forced Samuel onto it, fastened the noose around his neck, secured it very carefully and tightly, and then ordered the cart driven away. The rope snapped, and Samuel dropped to the ground and stumbled over, trying to avoid landing on his sprained ankle.

 Now the crowd stood around in an uproar, and another policeman, watching on horseback, ordered the execution delayed momentarily, while he rode away to find the governor. The governor was summoned to the scene and upon inspection of the ropes, which showed no evidence of having been cut, and the other criminal, who was successfully executed with an identical rope, the governor and the entire crowd agreed that it was a sign from God that Joseph Samuel had not committed any crime deserving of execution and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment instead. A doctor tended to his sprained ankle.

In a kind of historical resonance, another Englishman named John Henry George Lee (a.k.a John 'Babbacombe' Lee or 'The Man They Couldn't Hang') on 23 February 1885, survived three hanging attempts. the trapdoor of the scaffold failed to open despite being carefully tested by the executioner, beforehand. As a result, Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Lee continued to petition successive Home Secretaries and was finally released in 1907. After his release, Lee seems to have exploited his notoriety, supporting himself through lecturing on his life, even becoming the subject of a silent film. (History culled from: Wikipedia)

Could these be proofs of the hands of providence in the lives of real people?

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