Chapter 1: What historical case involved winemakers suing weevils?
The vineyards of Saint-Julien had been destroyed, crops pillaged, the harvest ruined, and French winemakers were not happy about it. But at least they knew who to blame, and so eager for retribution, the winemakers took the Vandals to court. Now, we have to be clear here. It wasn't prank-pulling teenagers or even rival farmers who ransacked St. Julian's vineyards.
In fact, the culprit wasn't even human. It was a weevil. Or rather, many weevils. That's right. In 1545, French winemakers took a bunch of bugs to court. The crime? Chowing down on grapevines. Granted, the chair of the ecclesiastical court, François Bonnevard, found this just as ridiculous as you probably do today.
He ordered the winemakers to chill out and repent for the sin of blaming an innocent animal for snacking. But in 1587, the winemakers tried again, and this time they weren't backing down. For eight wild months, the winemakers and the weevils battled it out in court. Or rather, the humans battled it out. The weevils had no idea what was happening.
The defense, yes, the Weevils had a lawyer, argued that as God's creatures, it was their prerogative to eat what they wanted. The mayor of Saint-Julien even got involved, offering the Weevils the opportunity to move to a sanctuary under threat of excommunication. Now, before you ask exactly how one excommunicates a swarm of weevils, I cannot answer that question.
Unfortunately, the final page of the court proceedings didn't survive the centuries. Ironically, it seems to have been destroyed by insects. Throughout time, society has struggled to determine the balance between crime and punishment. Who is guilty? And what do the guilty owe? Perhaps money? Perhaps in time behind bars or banishment from their home?
And then there are the times when the condemned are forced to pay the most precious currency of all. Life itself. I'm Aaron Manke, and this is Lore. There has always been some form of capital punishment. No matter where or when in history you lived, if you messed up badly enough, you might be put to death.
And while today we try to prevent what's known as cruel and unusual punishment, let's just say that for much of human history, cruel and unusual was kind of the goal. Take this tactic from way back in the 23rd century BCE, one of the earliest execution methods we know of, in fact, and you can thank pre-imperial China for this creative bit of gore.
It was called the Five Punishments, and as the title suggests, it had five distinct steps. 1. Tattooing 2. Cutting off the nose 3. Cutting off one or both of the feet 4. Castration 5. Death And number five, by the way, was dealt out via strangulation, decapitation, or for the real ne'er-do-wells, the cheery little something called death by slicing that I would rather not go into here.
You see, in ancient China, it was believed that the body did not belong to you. It was a gift from your parents. So if you really wanted to punish someone, then messing up that precious gift was pretty much the worst thing you could do to a person. Ancient Egyptians placed a similar importance on a pristine body, but for different reasons.
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Chapter 2: How did ancient cultures view capital punishment?
Far worse than hanging, read the headline, a disgrace to civilization. Later, an autopsy noted that Kemmler's muscles underneath where the electrodes were placed were, and I quote, "...cooked like overdone beef." So much for a more humane punishment, right? But did Kemmler's botched death spell the end of the electric chair? Of course not.
In fact, not only did New York go right on using the thing, but soon other states hopped on the bandwagon as well. And this was the world in which Philip Jackson was executed on a spring day in 1928. Jackson, a black man, had been accused of raping and assaulting a white woman, right on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
The woman, Daisy Welling, described her attacker as a light-skinned black man around 30 years old. Which is vague, to say the least, but police were more than happy to round up any and all men fitting that profile, including Philip Jackson. So, who was Jackson? Well, he was indeed a light-skinned black man. He was also illiterate and may have had intellectual disabilities.
In short, he was an easy scapegoat. After two days of violent interrogation, Jackson confessed to the crime. He later recanted that confession, and his lawyers even produced an alibi, but it didn't matter. It took only an hour for the all-white jury to seal his fate. On May 29th of 1928, Jackson was led to D.C. 's brand new electric chair.
Accompanied by a reverend, Jackson muttered the Lord's Prayer, continuing to pray even as his words were muffled by a leather mask. The electricity surged to life, Jackson shuddered, and the chair was turned off. And then, just like Kemmler, Jackson continued to breathe. It took six total tries before Philip Jackson was finally dead.
One man who had been present for nearly 60 executions by hanging pronounced it, and I quote, "...the most horrible death he had ever seen a man die." And the story repeated itself over and over again. A corrupt justice system, the false promise of a humane death for a marginalized person who may or may not be guilty in the first place, a defective torture machine straight out of a horror movie...
And still, the electric chair has remained in use for over a century. In December of 1955, two Black brothers, Willie and Clay Daniels, were executed via electric chair in South Carolina. Willie's death went as planned, Clay's not so much. Again, the articles that followed cried for reform, for humanity and mercy.
And one newspaper in particular believed that it had the answer to painless executions. South Carolina, the headline read, needs a gas chamber. On the surface, it seemed like a progressive move. But you know what they say.
Be careful what you wish for.
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Chapter 3: What were the gruesome execution methods used in ancient Rome?
See Mint Mobile for details. John Lee woke from the strangest dream. At least, that's what the papers claimed. In this dream, Lee was visited by an angel. The celestial being spoke to him, assuring him that yes, he was innocent, and because of this, he would not hang.
Which must have been a relief, because when John Lee awoke and blinked the sleep from his eyes, he recalled that day was February 23rd, the day he was scheduled to die. It was 1885 in England, and 20-year-old John Lee had been convicted of murdering his employer, a woman named Emma Casey. The case against Lee was thin as a sheet, largely founded on circumstantial evidence, but that didn't matter.
The jury doomed him to the gallows. And now, finally, that dreaded February day had come. The day of Lee's execution. Now, you would think that he would have been afraid, trembling with nerves, or at the very least silent and morose. But no, as he marched to the gallows, his feet were steady, his demeanor almost nonchalant.
As he told a judge previously, "...the reason why I am so calm and collected is because I trust in the Lord, and He knows I am innocent." Without further ado, John Lee ascended the gallows and a noose was placed around his neck. The onlookers held a collective breath as the executioner yanked the lever to release the trapdoor below Lee's feet. The mechanism creaked, and then, well, nothing.
The trapdoor, it seems, was stuck. Officials tried to force it open, jumping up and down on the hatch, but it wouldn't budge. And through it all, John Lee merely stood on his toes and waited. Eventually, it was cleared that the door planned to stay jammed, and so Lee was removed from the gallows.
As he sat in a nearby room, the lever was tested again, and this time it worked perfectly, so Lee was brought back out, and the scene started all over again. And once again, the doomed man calmly took his position, and once again the noose encircled his neck, and yes, once again, when the lever was flung, the doors refused to swing. So they took him away for a second time.
Now, as someone who's tried and failed to get an office printer to work, I can imagine the executioner's frustration at this point. And would you believe it, but after all technical difficulties were seemingly smoothed out, it happened a third time. With Lee away from the gallows, the contraption worked without a hitch. As soon as he returned, though...
In the end, the authorities had no other choice but to call off the execution altogether. Lee's angel, it seemed, had spoken true. Unsurprisingly, news of the man who would not hang went immediately viral, as kids these days say. Lee and his close call with death became a media sensation.
And lucky for Lee that it did, because the Home Secretary, realizing the public would be furious to see Lee executed now, reduced his sentence to life in prison. After 22 years, he was released to great fanfare and lived the rest of his life as a free man.
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