opera.com
May 6, 2020 3:15 PM
The existence of time is very important in
human lives. It seems sometimes that ‘Time’
has its own whims. The following people are
those who were sentenced to death by
humans
but time made its own judgement and said ‘
your time is not up yet!’ so they lived in
spite of all human effort to the contrary.
A list of 10 people who survived their execution astonishingly:
10. Elizabeth Proctor (1652-Unknown)
In the Salem Witch Trials (1692-93), Elizabeth
Proctor along with her her husband was
accused of practising witchcraft and after a
trial was sentenced to death. Elizabeth was
pregnant and therefore was granted a stay of
execution until after the birth of
her baby. Her husband was executed on
August 19, 1692. Salem Witch Trials was a big
sensational story back then. Soon the Governor
intervened and ordered 153 people (who were
wrongly convicted without hard evidence) to be
freed. Elizabeth was among those released.
9. John Henry George Lee (1864 – Circa 1945)
John Lee was convicted of murdering his
employer, Miss Emma Keyse by clubbing her to
death with an axe followed by slashing her
throat with a knife and then setting her house
on fire. He was sentenced to death by hanging.
On the day of his hanging he was taken to the
Exeter Prison. He was made to stand on the
trap door, beneath which his dead corpse
would have been hanging, had the door not
malfunctioned. They tried hanging him again
but failed. After three failed attempts, the
Home Secretary reduced John Lee’s sentence
to life imprisonment.
8. Zoleykhah Kadkhoda (1977)
In Iran a young woman named Zoleykhah
Kadkhoda was charged of adultery and
sentenced to death by stoning. Kadkhoda was
buried up to her waist but soon after the
stoning began there was a sharp disapproving
reaction from the villagers. Never-the-less the
stoning went on and by the time it stopped
Kadkhoda was thought to be dead and her
corpse was taken to the morgue. Arriving there,
they soon discovered that she was breathing
and was rushed to the hospital. Zoleykhah
Kadkhoda survived that day to tell her story.
7. William Duell (Circa 1724)
17 year old William Duell was convicted of
raping and murdering Sarah Griffin in London
and he was sentenced to death. The
executioners hung his body for about 20
minutes (which was a standard procedure to
make sure the person has died) before cutting
him down. It was a practise then to donate
dead criminal bodies for training of students to
medical institutes. Accordingly Duell’s body
was brought to Surgeons’ Hall. The corpse was
stripped and laid on the board and was about
to be anatomized when one of the servants
noticed he was breathing which got quicker
every minute. He was then bled, and in two
hours, he was able to sit upright. Duell was
sent back to prison again. The authorities soon
decided to reprieve him and his sentence was
commuted to transportation also known as
penal transportation (i.e. exile).
6. John Smith (Circa 1661 To After 1727)
John Smith, from England was charged of
housebreaking and was sentenced to death by
hanging at the Tyburn gallows. When at
the Tyburn, he was being hanged, his family
and friends tugged at his legs to shorten his
suffering but some people held Smith’s feet up
for the possibility that he would not die.
Apparently it worked. After hanging for a
quarter of an hour, people began shouting for
a
reprieve. Unable to resist public clamouring the
authorities granted a reprieve; Smith was cut
down and taken to a house in the
neighbourhood, where he recovered. He was
granted freedom later.
Interestingly, he went back to his profession of
housebreaking and was convicted three more
times. The third time he was caught of theft
and was sentenced to transportation (exile)
to Virginia.
5. Anne Green (1628 – 1665)
Anne Green was a domestic servant who had
committed infanticide in 1650. The child was
her own child said to have been fathered by the
grandson of her employer. Green hid her
pregnancy and gave birth to a still born. She
tried unsuccessfully to hide the body and was
discovered and sentenced to death by hanging.
During the execution she hung with the rope
around her throat while her friends pulled at
her
swinging body, as was requested by Anne
herself. She was even struck severe blows just
to make sure that she was dead. After the
usual interval she was cut down, pronounced
dead and handed over to the medical
students.
But the students were in for a shock when they
discovered that the ‘corpse’ was actually
faintly
breathing. She was accordingly treated and
soon recovered. The event was regarded as
the
special interference of the hand of God on
behalf of the innocent and therefore Anne
Green was pardoned.
4. Maggie Dickson (Circa 1700)
Like Anne Green, Maggie Dickson was
convicted of infanticide of her own child that
she had had through an affair with the
Innkeeper’s son. She kept her pregnancy a
secret. The baby was prematurely born and
died within a few days. Unable to throw her
dead child into the river, she left it on the
riverbank. So the baby was discovered and the
authorities traced it back to Maggie. Maggie
was taken for public execution at the
Grasssmarket. After her hanging the corpse
was placed into the coffin but on the way to the
graveyard she awoke up and started banging
from inside the coffin. This strange happening
was seen as God’s will and so she was freed.
Maggie Dickson is now hailed as a legend and
is often referred to as Half-Hangit Maggie.
There’s even is a pub named after her in the
Grassmarket.
3. Joseph Samuel (1780-1806)
Samuel and his gang were charged of robbery
and the murder of a policeman. When the news
of Joseph Samuel hanging spread it attracted a
large crowd who gathered at the execution
spot. During the execution the cart on which he
was standing drove off, but instead of dangling
in air Samuel fell on the ground as the rope
around his neck snapped. The crowd quivered
and murmured among themselves. Another
attempt was made hastily but this time, the
rope slipped and got longer therefore Samuel’s
legs touched the ground. People uproar in
excitement. On the third attempt the rope
snapped again. The crowd yelled for Samuel to
be freed for they believed that it was a sign
from God. The governor was sent for, who
came and investigated and upon popular
demand commuted Joseph Samuel’s
sentence
to life imprisonment.
2. Wenseslao Moguel (Circa 1880)
Captured while fighting in the Mexican
revolution and sentenced to death without a
trial in 1915, Moguel survival story is
unbelievable. He was shot 9 times by the firing
squad, the 9th bullet passed right through his
head at close range to insure his death. But
Moguel, not only somehow survived, he also
managed to escape from prison. He came on
the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not radio show in
1937. In the above photo Moguel is seen
pointing to the scar made by the bullet wound.
1. Willie Francis (1929 – 1947)
At the age of 16 Willie Francis became the first
incident of a failed execution by electrocution
in the United States. On murdering his
employer – a pharmacy owner – Francis was
convicted and sentenced to death by the
electric chair. On administering a lethal surge
of electricity, witnesses report that they had
heard the boy scream “Take it off! Take it off!
Let me breathe! “. Another report claimed him
saying “I’m n-not dying!” The executioners were
left flabbergasted. It was later discovered that
the electric chair failed to kill Willie Francis
because it was improperly set up by a prison
guard who was drunk at the time.
So Willie was allowed to live but only for a
year,
after which he was executed on another
electrical chair which was not set up by a
drunk.
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