Torture Essay, Research Paper
??We went to the torture room in a kind of solemn
precession, the guards walking ahead with lighted candles.
The chamber was underground and dark, particularly near
the entrance. It was a vast shadowy place and every device
and instrument of human torture was there. They pointed
out some of them to me and said I should have to taste
them. Then they asked me again if I would confess. ?I
cannot.?, I said.?? (Abbott, 1)
Those words were spoken by John Gerard, a Jesuit priest accused of spreading
Catholicism in England. And in 1597 he was captured, taken to the Tower of London
and ?put to the question.? Whatever the country, whatever the crime, one could see the
authorities? dilemma, when suspicion, strong and sometimes reinforced by evidence,
would point to an individual, who usually vehemently denied all accusations. Yet the
truth had to be determined. While in an age where social conditions were brutally harsh,
where epidemics of fatal diseases decimated the population and violence was almost a
way of life, what more natural than to attempt to extract a confession by using force.
Torture which is understood to be the torment and suffering of the body in order to elicit
the truth. It?s concept is based on two fundamental facts, first, that we all have
imaginations. (Abbott, 1-4) Torture is a vile and depraved invasion of the rights and
dignity of an individual. It is a crime against humanity, for which there can be no
possible justification.(Innes, 7)
Torture was used as early as the 11th century, as evidence shows that William the
Conqueror ordered the maiming of criminals, while Henry I ordained that those guilty of
counterfeiting the nations currency, would be punished by having their right hand
severed and then afterwards castrated. The human anatomy seems to have been
expressly designed to be pierced. The human body?s soft, yielding flesh, with
vulnerable parts such as fingers and toes, ears and nose?s, sticking out, positively
invited the attention of a torturer?s keen blade and sharpened spike. (Abbott, 67) Since
the primary principle of torture is to inflict pain or, at the very least, to threaten pain,
therefore exploiting the fear of it. Probably the most infamous instrument of torture in
Medieval England was the rack. (The Tower…..,2) It is believed that the rack was
introduced into England around 1420 by the Duke of Exeter, who was constable of the
Tower of London at the time. (Innes, 87-88) Although many variations of the rack have
been used throughout the centuries, the basic principle has always been the same. The
victims? hands are secured by ropes to a beam at one end, and their bodies gradually
stretched by ropes attached to their feet. At first, they resist the stretching, not only with
the muscles of their arms, and legs but also with their abdominal muscles. Then
suddenly, the muscles of their limbs give way, first in the arms and subsequently in the
legs: the ligaments, and then the fibres of the muscles themselves, are torn. Further
stretching ruptures the muscles of the abdomen, and finally torn from their sockets.
(Innes, 123) If they did not die of their injuries, they were often so injured that they
could not take part in their public confessions. (Tower of….., 2)
Persuasion by means of pressing usually ended in death, hardly desirable in court
cases where confessions and names of accomplices were required. However in the 16th
and 17th centuries, a device was used which, while not endangering life in any way,
positively encouraged the victim to reveal everything he knew, whether true or
imagined. The instrument was known as the Boot. As it?s name implies, the boot was
designed to torture a prisoners legs and feet, and the device was so effective that even
the early stages of it?s application caused injuries so harsh that a hasty confession was
usually the result. the most common form of the boot required the victim to sit on a
bench, to which he was securely tied. An upright board was then placed on either side of
each leg, splinting them from knee to ankle; the boards were held together by ropes or
iron rings within a frame. With the victims legs now immovable, the torture begun with
wooden wedges hammered between the two inner boards and then between the outer
boards and their surrounding frame, compressing and crushing the trapped flesh.
(Abbott, 30-31) The torture of the boot was described by those who witnessed it as it as
?the most severe and cruel pain in the world.? Indeed, as Bishop Burnet wrote: ? When
any are to be stuck in the boots, it is done in the presence of the council, and upon that
happening, almost all offer to run away. The sight is so dreadful that, without an order
restraining such a number to stay, the press would remain unused.? (Innes, 3)
Torture remained strong throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period,
however; punishment by death was beginning to become a very infamous form of
torture. The ultimate torment, slow death by burning at the stake, was practiced in
England for several centuries. The victim would be smeared with pitch, and then
dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution. There the accused was made to stand on a
barrel of pitch surrounded by faggots, and chained to the stake. A noose was then placed
about the victims neck, the rope ran through a pulley at the top of the stake and into the
executioner?s hands. The fire was lit, and the rope was pulled, however; sometimes the
fire would reach the victim before the executioner?s had a chance to strangle the accused.
Because of this the victim would suffer feeling their body being burned from the outside
in at least till the flames consumed their whole body, which in some cases could take up
to an hour. (Innes, 94)
To be executed by having one?s head removed by cold steel was considered an
honorable death by the Norman?s, in as much in keeping with one?s rank as being killed
in battle by the battle-axe or the sword. This method of being punished for one?s crimes
was introduced into England by William the Conqueror in 1076. The instrument used
was the sword, and this type continued to be used for many years to come. (Abbott,
191) In England the sword was soon superseded by a weapon which resembled the
battle-axe in name only, for the ?heading axe? was a crude and ill-balanced implement
little better than a heavy, unwieldly chopper. The clumsy weapon weighs seven pounds
fifteen ounces and kills, not with a clinical cutting action, but by crushing it?s way
through the vertebrae, not unlike a very blunt chisel.(Beheadings, 3) To a dedicated
executioner, and even more to the victim prone in front of him, a sliced shot had results
too horrific to contemplate, as James, Duke of Monmouth, found out to his cost in
1685. Jack Ketch, the public executioner could not after five strokes sever the Duke?s
head from his body. Ketch had to take a knife, and sever the strip of skin still
connecting the head to the torso. After every decapitation it was the executioner?s duty
to pick up the head by the hair, remove the blindfold if necessary, and display it from
each corner of the scaffold, shouting, ?Behold the
(Abbott, 94)
Stocks were perhaps the most widely used punitive device, some also being
utilized to secure offenders awaiting trial. Portrayed in Anglo-Saxon books, Stocks were
in constant use for many centuries, changing little in design. They were of simple
construction, consisting of two sturdy uprights fixed in the ground, having grooves
down their inner surfaces in which were slotted two solid timber boards, one above the
other. Each plank had semicircular notches in it, positioned so that when aligned with
the other, the notches formed holes which encircled the culprits ankles. With the upper
plank locked in position with a padlock, there was no escape for the victim until he or
she was released by the appointed official. (Abbott, 149) Situated as they were in the
centre of the village, the unhappy occupant of the stocks was inevitably the focus of
attention. They became targets for jibes and taunts, if nothing more injurious, the
victims could do little to retaliate, or even defend themselves. This of course was the
whole purpose of the punishment, literally to make a laughing-stock of them by exposure
to the scorn and opprobrium of the others in the community. (Peters, 35)
In an age when there was little or no entertainment as we know it , and poverty
and disease made life cheap, an excution anywhere in the country was a diversion to
look forward to. A wide range of offenses, from shoplifting to murder, carried the death
penalty. In earlier days London boasted to have the best hangings. The vast majority of
the criminals were hanged at Tyburn. Tyburn fields originally consisted of 270 acres of
rough ground It is estimated that over 50,000 people died a violent death at Tyburn. In
the early part of the 12th century the gallows, used for hanging, consisted merely of two
uprights and a crossbeam, capable of accommodating ten victims at a time. Once the
victim arrived, at Tyburn , the doomed men and women were forced to mount a ladder
and the rope about their necks was tied to the beam above. After a prayer or a speech,
one by one they would be the ladder would be kicked out from under them so that they
swung in the empty air. (Hanging, 4) In course the procedure was speeded up by the use
of a horse and cart , one large enough to transport a number of prisoners together with
their coffins. The English language was thereby enriched by such phrases as ?in the cart?
and ?gone west,? the direction of Tyburn from the two places of imprisonment.
(Hanging, 1) Even though the process of hanging was speeded up, the effectiveness was
brought down. Many times a victim didn?t die by the snapping of the neck, but by the
strangulation which was very tormenting to the victim. (Davis, 112)
At a more domestic level, and years away from barbaric religious tribunals and
torture chambers, the Ducking stool it?s place in the life of many villages. ? Innocuous
as the words may sound, nevertheless its name sent shivers down the spines of nagging
wives, shrews, harlots, strumpets and, rarely, dishonest tradesmen. The device took
many forms, and was governed by deciding factors as whether the village had a deep
river nearby, a muddy scream with or with out a bridge, or just a pond. (Abbott, 116)
In its simplest form, a chair or stool was fixed to one end of a long pole, which was
either pivoted on a support, or manhandled by a number of people. Sometimes it was
mounted on a wheeled trolley, when it was known as the tree bucket. The victim was
strapped in the seat, and then lowered into water, generally a muddy or stinking pond.
The process could be repeated several times, until the victim, spluttering furiously; was
nearly drowned and, on at least one occasion, the outcome was death. (Innes, 137-138)
Such rural punishments gave rise to many a ribald verse. One, composed by Benjamin
West in 1780 read,
There stands, my friend, in yonder pool,
An engine call?d a ducking stool;
By legal pow?r commanded down,
The joy and Terror or the town.
If jarring females kindle strife,
Give language foul or lug the coif,
If noisy dames should once begin
To drive the house with horrid din,
Away, you cry, you?ll grace the stool,
We?ll teach you how your tongue to rule.
The fair offender fills the seat
In sullen pomp, profoundly great,
Down in the deep the stool descends,
But here at first we miss our ends.
She mounts again, and rages more
Than ever vixen did before.
So throwing water on the fire
Will but make it burn the higher.
If so, my friend pray let her take
A second turn into the lake;
And, rather than your patience lose
Thrice, and again repeat the dose
No brawling wives, no furious wenches,
No fire so hot water quenches. (Abbott, 119-120)
We are to understand that torture is a pretty usual part of criminal proceedings,
unless the defendant is a noble whose alleged crime does not touch the safety of the state.
It is also true that wise men have discouraged the practice, which Pope Nicholas I did in
AD 866. When he wrote ? A confession must be voluntary and not forced, by means of
torture an innocent man may avowal in such a case what a crime for the judge! Or a
person may be subdued by pain, and acknowledge himself guilty, though he be innocent
which throws an equally great sin upon the tribunal!? (Abbott, 166) The official
justification for torture has always been the need to obtain information: from a criminal
concerning the extent of his crimes, and the names of his accomplices; from a prisoner
taken in war, who may have knowledge of his general?s intentions; from heretic who
can be persuaded to confess his beliefs and implicate others; or from a terrorist whose
actions can endanger dozens maybe hundreds of innocent lives. Sadly, the application of
torture in such instances in itself is inexcusable, has been over shadowed by the fact that
it is regarded also as a punishment. The inevitable outcome is that the trade of torturer
has attracted only the most sadistic of human beings, and that the use of torture has
moved away from any practical need to obtain information, or impose a legal penalty for
wrongdoing, to allow the more powerful to enjoy the pleasure of inflicting random pain
upon the less fortunate. (Innes, 7-9) Anyway you look at it torture is just a vile and
depraved invasion of the rights and dignity of an individual, a crime against humanity for
which there can be no possible justification.
Bibliography
Press.Abbott, G. (1997). Rack, Rope And Red- Hot Pincers. Great britain :
Brockhampton
?Beheadings? (1999). [1/12/00], www.auburn.edu/chaucer/judicial-torture.html.
Davis, W.S. (1951). Life on a Mediaeval Barony. New York: Harper and Row
?Death by Hanging? (1999) [1/12/00], www.auburn.edu/chaucer/hanging.html.
Innes, B. (1998). The History of Torture. New York : St. Martin?s Press.
Peters, E. (1985). Torture; expanded edition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyvania
Press.
? The Tower of London.? [1/13/00], www.torture-museum.com/tower.html.
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