If the execution is supposed to be long and painful, then the point of the stake should in no case be sharp or jagged. Otherwise, damage to the vessels of the mesentery will certainly occur. And the tip of the stake should not pass through the chest, no matter how erotic the appearance of the stake from the victim's mouth looks. Otherwise, instant death will occur due to displacement of the mediastinal organs or hemothorax. I’m already silent about the banal suffocation after the passage of a thick stake through the esophagus or trachea. To extend the life of the stake, a cross-bar is used, which limits the lowering of the body down - this was proved by Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who was very fond of this method of execution.