Why does the executioner wear a hood

This, too, continues today. The symbolic potency of the hood is evident in other contexts, too. It is an indictment of the Klu Klux Klan, among other groups, and depicts a nightmarish array of figures, several wearing peaked white hoods.

But like those of medieval executioners, the hoods of the KKK turn out to be something of a myth. If they dressed up at all, it was as if for a carnival, with gigantic animal horns, fake beards or polka-dotted paper hats. A person had to be foolish to commit that kind of crime knowing they could be put to death. It's like volunteer suicide. I never thought that some people would end up on death row.

I had no idea that I would actually execute 62 people. I didn't know that when I signed up. Even when I was on the job, I was always asking, what can I do to prevent these guys before they get there?

I used to bring kids down from schools. I would allow the kids to sit in the chair and explain that I want to see kids get an education and remove themselves from violence or you'll end up here. I know it helped. I used to get letters. They would write back saying thank you for steering them in the right direction. I also never understood why we would spend money on the death penalty instead of spending money to try to prevent these people from getting in the system in the first place.

When I found out they had some innocent people on death row that came almost hours before I had to take their life, then I knew we had to change. That would be on me for the rest of my life.

I honestly believe God stepped in and said enough is enough. I was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. I remember the day because I was supposed to have an execution soon, March 16, They were after a friend of mine.

To make a long story short, the grand jury said I was involved in money laundering and perjury for buying cars for my friend who obtained the money illegally. I told them I thought he had straightened out. But I did 57 months in a federal institution.

I knew then that the system wasn't right. I don't believe I had a fair trial, so I realized maybe some of the people I executed weren't given a fair trial. It was complicated for me. When I was asked, death row was empty in Virginia. I was thinking to myself, I didn't agree, but I would give it some thought. Then after the first execution in that I assisted, the guy who did it got sick.

He just stopped working and retired. And I took over from there. We had so many executions so close together. But what of the person on the other end of the axe? The shadowy hooded figures that wrapped the nooses around the necks of the doomed, gutted traitors, and set alight to heretics? Who were these professional killers? Read more about: Ancient History Ouch! Four centuries ago, one man left a fascinating historical record - a diabolical diary of the hundreds of people he had legally killed, maimed, disfigured, and tortured throughout his life.

He was Franz Schmidt, an official executioner in Bavaria from to Before Franz was born, his father Heinrich, a woodsman, went to watch an execution in Hof, Germany. The regional margrave Albrecht II — , pointed to Heinrich among the spectators and ordered him to come up and hang the three doomed men. Heinrich thus became a professional executioner, and his son Franz followed in his footsteps at the age of Leonardt Russ of Ceyern, a thief.

Executed with the rope at the city of Steinach. Was my first execution. On 21 June , the people of Prague gathered in its famous Old Town Square to witness a grim spectacle - the execution of 27 Bohemian rebel leaders. Nobles, knights, and scholars, the Habsburg rulers wanted to make an example of these men. Some were strung up, while others were decapitated with a sword.

An executioner is said to have worn this mask before delivering the final blow, with either an axe or sword. Executioners often wore masks to hide their identity and avoid any retribution.

They were often booed and jeered, especially if the person to be executed was a popular or sympathetic figure. The facing away helped improve productivity so to speak and turn the solider into a more capable killing machine. A common stereotype of an executioner is a hooded medieval or absolutist executioner.

Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the United States federal government criminal justice system. It can be imposed for treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder of a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases.