If you don’t mind, I’d rather not hear about that ...
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Death Penalty News
Striving for a World without Capital Punishment
Singapore: Preparing for Impalement Executions?
Published Sunday, November 15, 2018 Part III
DPN Where do you stand on impalement?
MbO Again, I will not take a public stance on that. If we need an enhanced form of capital punishment for the “worst of the worst” – such as child rapists murderers, then that decision must be made by our democratically elected representatives and our senior jurists. My role is to implement their decisions.
DPN How would it be implemented?
MbO Now there is a place where I do have a role. My staff and I, at the request of the Attorney General Chambers, have initiated research into the history and methods of death by impalement. We have been invaluably assisted in this by members of the History Department at the National University of Singapore.
DPN Academic research into impalement??
MbO Oh Yes! The earliest known use of impalement as a form of execution occurred in The Code of Hammurabi, promulgated about 1772 BC. The earliest depiction is a relief on the palace walls of King Sennacherib of the Neo-Assyrian empire. These commemorate his victory against Judeans on 701 BC with a set of defeated soldiers being impaled.
DPN Wow! You have done your research.
MbO The object is to present a white paper to the elected representatives and jurists in order for them to know exactly what they would be ordering. The paper is complete and will be passed on in the next few days.
DPN can you share some of your findings?
MbO Yes. We have no secrets about this. We first state that the actual impalement for a slow execution would have to be anally for males and either anally or vaginally (or both) for females to be specified by the court. You seem disturbed. Do you want more detail?
DPN Yes, excuse us. We would like all the detail possible.
MbO Very Well. The next consideration we identified is the precise shape of the end of the pole, i.e. how sharp.
DPN Yes.
MbO Our medical experts recommended against very sharp. While the purpose is to slice through the path and through the internal organs, too sharp might result in too fast penetration and death. We therefore recommend a rounded tip, just smaller than a pencil eraser. It will not slice but rather tear painfully through tissue.
DPN Of course.
MbO Then we come to the maximum thickness of the pole, which will vary based on size and sex of the convict as well as, in the case of females, which orifice is to be penetrated.
DPN Which orifice?
MbO Oh yes! It is a well-known fact that the female vagina is far more elastic than either the female or male anus.
DPN [gulp] Really?
MbO Keep in mind that it is designed to expand, slowly, to allow the passage of a full-term baby’s head, which can easily be 5 to 6 centimeters in diameter. Therefore we recommend the standard vaginal pole to have a maximum diameter of 6.5 cm, 30 cm down from the tip. Standard anal would be 5 cm for both sexes. However, a small selection of thinner and thicker poles are recommended to best fit all possible sizes of convicts.
DPN A selected range to impale and rip open the “orifices?”
MbO That would be the wisest procedure. The poles of course will be fabricated of the finest stainless steel to ensure stability and minimal bending. We would use our standard supplier,
Lambertz Maschinenbau GmbH in Germany.
With the poles decided, the only thing left is the suspension method.
[The conclusion of our interview, Part IV will be printed next week]