10 Gruesome Execution Methods You Won't Believe Still Happen Around The World

Considered to be the most humane form of capital punishment, lethal injection is a commonly used method of execution in China, Guatemala, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. As of 2018, 31 states in America authorize death by lethal injection, which has been used widely since the late 1970s. This execution method is thought to be more efficient than the antiquated electric chair and gas chamber options - both of which are still legal, albeit in only a handful of states. 

On August 14, 2018, US state Nebraska executed Carey Dean Moore, a man who shot two cab drivers 40 years prior; he was one of the country's longest-serving death row prisoners. Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty in 2015, but Republican Governor Pete Ricketts had it restored in 2016. The state used an unprecedented combination of four lethal drugs to terminate Moore, including fentanyl. It was the state's first lethal injection and its first implemented death penalty since 1997.

While in the United States ethical debates and drug shortages stall planned executions, China has streamlined the process. As the world leader in capital punishment, China uses mobile police buses to carry out sentences - a process reminiscent of the "gas wagons" used in Occupied Germany. These ambulance-like vehicles offer quick on-the-go executions. This expedited process also allows for more efficient organ donations - 65 percent of organ transplants in China come from executed prisoners, a reportedly involuntary donation.
 

While it may seem like a dated practice, prisoners are still put to death via hanging. This occurs in more than 50 countries, including the US, where it's still legal in New Hampshire and Washington but rarely used. The last occurrence was in Delaware for the 1996 execution of Billy Bailey. 

The reason this implementation of death has stood the test of time is likely because it’s cost-effective and efficient, requiring little else than some rope and a tall structure. There are two techniques of hanging still carried out today. 

First, there is the more humane long-drop technique - used to execute Saddam Hussein in 2006 - in which the condemned is dropped at enough of a distance for the rope to snap their necks when it goes taut, causing instant termination. And then there is the other, more brutal short-drop technique, which causes extended strangulation. 

The concept of death by firing squad may seem like something out of a film, but this method of execution is hardly cinematic fiction. As of 2012, this form of capital punishment is still used in 28 countries, including the US, plus dozens more that allow general shootings. 

Firing squads are allegedly the execution method of choice in North Korea, based on video evidence smuggled out of the country. China has also relied on the technique until a court ruling in 2010 deemed fatal injection more humane. 

Domestically, the state of Utah reintroduced firing squads in 2015 as a method of capital punishment because of the difficulty in obtaining drugs for injections. In 2017, Mississippi did the same. The two states, in addition to Oklahoma, allow squads as a last resort. 

ISIS - a fundamentalist military group based in Iraq - takes public executions to an unprecedented level. In May 2016, the occupying terrorist force executed 25 people in Mosul, Iraq, thought to be Iraqi spies. This act itself is not unusual for ISIS, but the method of execution was particularly gruesome: the captured were all put into a vat of nitric acid. 

Nitric acid is a colorless liquid that is incredibly corrosive to the human body. During this execution, the prisoners were tied together and slowly placed in a large basin of the acid. The condemned were not completely submerged, but rather dipped just enough in the liquid to dissolve their organs, causing a reportedly agonizing death. 
 

Iran and Somalia are known for employing the most public stonings. However, as of 2013, there are 15 countries in the world that still authorize the method. This primitive punishment is reserved primarily for adulterers and is almost universally carried out against women who often face significant gender discrimination. 

A particularly harsh example of this form of execution is the case of 13-year-old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. In 2009, Aisha was stoned in a stadium in the city of Kismayo, Somalia, before a crowd of 1,000 onlookers. 

The young girl - who previously reported that three men assaulted her - was charged with adultery. The region's controlling militia seized her and buried up to her neck. Then 50 men threw heavy stones at her exposed head. After 10 minutes, the girl was dug up, and on-hand nurses discovered she was still alive. They militia placed her back in the hole, and the stoning continued until she passed. 
 

Execution by way of falling from a large height is an ancient method of execution. The practice dates as far back as the famous storyteller Aesop around 560 BCE. Prisoners are pushed off of a cliff or large structure where they plummet to their end. This primitive method of execution is still used.

As recently as 2016, Iran is suspected of using the method "thrown from tremendous height" as a punishment for sodomy and homosexuality. The group ISIS is also known for producing propaganda videos of pushing prisoners off of tall buildings. After the fall, prisoners may also be stoned.