Editing Hanging (section)

===Standard drop===
[[File:Execution of Henry Wirz.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The execution of [[Henry Wirz]] in 1865 near the U.S. Capitol; Wirz was given a standard drop, which did not break his neck]]
The standard drop involves a drop of between {{convert|4|and(-)|6|ft}} and came into use from 1866, when the scientific details were published by Irish doctor [[Samuel Haughton]]. Its use rapidly spread to English-speaking countries and those with judicial systems of English origin.

It was considered a humane improvement on the short drop because it was intended to be enough to [[cervical fracture|break the person's neck]], causing immediate unconsciousness and rapid brain death.<ref>{{cite web|title=How Does Death by Hanging Work?|work=How Stuff Works|url=https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/death-by-hanging.htm|date=2007-01-04|access-date=30 January 2019|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125084920/https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/death-by-hanging.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Cause of death in judicial hanging: a review and case study |journal=Medicine, Science, and the Law |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=18–26 |pmid=19306616 |year=2009 |last1=Hellier |first1=C. |last2=Connolly |first2=R. |doi=10.1258/rsmmsl.49.1.18 |s2cid=34469210 }}</ref>

This method was used to execute condemned [[Nazism|Nazis]] under United States jurisdiction after the [[Nuremberg Trials]], including [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] and [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]].<ref>Report by Kingsbury Smith, International News Service, 16 October 1946.</ref>{{nonspecific|date=January 2023}} In the execution of Ribbentrop, historian Giles MacDonogh records that: "The hangman botched the execution and the rope throttled the former foreign minister for 20 minutes before he expired."<ref>MacDonogh G., ''After the Reich'' [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]], London (2008) p. 450.</ref> A ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine report on the execution merely says: "The trap fell open and with a sound midway between a rumble and a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared. The rope quivered for a time, then stood tautly straight."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iU0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42 "The Gallows Chamber"]. ''Life'', 28 October 1946. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512222220/https://books.google.com/books?id=iU0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42 |date=12 May 2016 }}.</ref>