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Show T HE GARROTE IN MANILA. High Sheriff May be Compelled to TJs It at An Execution. High Sheriff Peterson is wondering how it feels to garrote a man, says the Manila New American. The subject sub-ject was suggested to him by the discovery dis-covery that there was a murder case on the docket of Judge Odlin's court and that the mode of punishment prescribed pre-scribed by the Spanish code, under which the courts are now operated, is death in the chair. The murderer is i,orenzu auu, charged with killing a native policeman police-man last September in Tondo. If convicted con-victed and condemned to death, so the learned say, there is but one way to carry out the sentence: Section 101 of the code reads: "Thejpjmalty of death shall be executed by garrote upon a scaffold." The subject seemed to prey upon we sheriff's mind all day yesterday. He wore a preoccupied look and at times was seen to give his hands a sharp, twisting motion, followed by a look of shock and disgust, as in the imagination imag-ination he heard the neck crack oi listened to the strangled victim's dying dy-ing struggle for breath.- Opinions differed as to the form oi the machine by which the death penalty pen-alty was executed in years gone by. Originally it consisted of a chair with an upright post for a back. To this was attached an iron collar, which fitted around the criminal's neck. Through the post passed a screw, the point of which pressed upon the back i of the neck of the man in the chair One turn of the crossbar handle oi , this screw forced the point through the cervical vertebrae of the con- demned and Kineo. .v--..,. This was the machine used in' Cuba. Spanish lawyers say that in the Philippines Phil-ippines the apparatus differed in that the pointed screw and collar .were absent. ab-sent. The back post had a broad board behind the head, through two holes in which passed ropes The-ends The-ends of the ropes were fastened to a short board, narrow enough to pass under the chin and cover the throat. The other ends of the rope wound round a drum, and when this was turned the throat piece was drawn back till the victim's wind was snu oft and strangulation followed. II properly worked the shock killed Instantly In-stantly or rendered the man uncon-sclous, uncon-sclous, but if the executioner faltered slow death by suffocation ensued and the struggles of the unfortunate wer terrible to witness and listen to. |
