1. Cruel Forms of Punishment
Death Penalty
Cruel Forms of Punishment

2. Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (Latin: crux) and left to hang there until dead. It was a fairly common form of execution from the 6th century BC, especially among the Persians, Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Romans, until c. 313 AD, when Christianity became the dominant faith in Rome. Crucifixion has special significance in Christianity as Jesus was put to death by the Romans by being nailed to a cross. The cross or the crucifix has become the main Christian symbol.

3. Blood Eagle
The Blood Eagle was reportedly a method of torture and execution that is sometimes mentioned in old Icelandic Viking sagas. It was performed by cutting the ribs of the victim by the spine, breaking the ribs so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out. Salt was reportedly sprinkled in the wounds.

4. Disembowelment
Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of some or all of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. The results are invariably fatal. It has historically been used as a cruel form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to preserve the victim's life force for the full procedure.

5. Dismemberment
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of the condemned, causing prolonged, painful death. It can be a form of capital punishment, an accident, or possibly a murder or suicide. As opposed to a possible surgical amputation of the limbs, it tends to be fatal.

6. Brazen Bull
Brazen bull is an execution device designed in Greece. Perrilos of Athens, a brass-founder, proposed to Phaalaris, the invention of a new means for executing criminals; accordingly, he cast a brazen bull, made totally of brass, hollow, with a door in the side. The victim was shut up in the bull and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became "red hot" and causing the victim inside to slowly roast to death. So that nothing unseemly might spoil his feasting, Phalaris commanded that the bull be designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense. The head of the ox was supplied by a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds not unlike the bellowing of an infuriated ox. It is also said that when the bull was reopened, the victims' scorched bones shone like jewels and were made into bracelets.

7. Breaking the Wheel
The breaking wheel was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death. It was not used for coercion through torture. The wheel itself was similar to a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes. The victim's arms and legs were placed one by one over two sturdy wooden beams. A large hammer was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bone. This process was repeated several times per limb. Afterwards, the victim's shattered limbs were woven through the spokes of the wheel. The wheel was then hoisted onto a tall pole, so that birds could eat the still-living victim.

8. Flaying
Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to maintain the removed portion of skin intact.

9. Impalement
Impalement is an act of torture and/or execution whereby the victim is pierced by a long stake. The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or possibly through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the victim hanging to die.

10. Iron Maiden
An Iron Maiden is a cabinet (usually in iron) built to torture or kill a person by piercing his body with sharp objects (such as knives, spikes, or nails), while the victim is forced to remain standing. The victim bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly and dies of a combination of shock and blood loss.

11. Keelhauling
The sailor was tied to a rope that looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, dragged under the keel (the "backbone" of the ship, which goes from the stern to the bow), then up the other side. Alternatively the sailor was dragged from bow to stern.

12. Snake Pit
Snake pits were a historical European means of imposing capital punishment. Convicts were cast into a deep pit contain ing poisonous snakes, such as vipers. They died from snake venom poisoning as the irritated snakes attacked them.

13. Lethal Injection
Lethal injection is used as a method of capital punishment that involves injecting the condemned with fatal doses of drugs to cause death. It gained popularity in the twentieth century as a "more humane" form of execution meant to supplant methods such as electrocution, hanging, firing squad, gas chamber, or decapitation; the actual humaneness of the technique has been debated in recent decades.

14. Electric Chair
The electric chair is a device used in some states in the United States for execution of criminals convicted of capital crimes. The electric chair is one method of execution used when a capital crime trial results in conviction and the sentence of death is recommended by a jury or approved by the presiding judge.

15. Hanging
Hanging is a form of execution or a method for suicide. As form of capital punishment hanging has been used throughout history. There are four methods of hanging:
the long drop
the short drop
the standard drop
suspension hanging

16. Burning
Execution by burning is a particularly painful and unpleasant way to die, with a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason and for other unpopular acts such as heresy and the practice of witchcraft. For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments. The particular form of execution by burning in which the condemned is bound to a large stake is more commonly called burning at the stake.

17. Bibliography, en.wikipedia.org
By, Rohith Gowda
Bibliography, en.wikipedia.org