executed and put to death?
Love it when the judge is pronouncing sentence and says "...you shall be executed and put to death..." Isn't that the same damn thing?
shareCould be, but that phrase sounded so familiar that I suspect I've heard it elsewhere (in other movies or TV shows). Perhaps the legal language 65 years ago was based on a very old and slightly different technical definition of "execution"-- something along the lines of "the processing of the condemned person through the whole death-penalty protocol", not just the physical act of putting the person to death. You could say that the execution is more than just that act, that it includes all the little rituals that precede the killing-- the visit from the chaplain, the last meal, explaining to the prisoner what will be done to him, "Are there any final things you'd like to say?", and so on.
That's just my guess, though. Any legal eagles out there want to weigh in?
It's like the phrase "hung by the neck until dead". There's a myth that if something goes wrong during an execution, such as the noose giving way or someone surviving the electric chair, that the executee can't be executed a second time. Not true. Because of the wording, they can simply try it again until death occurs.
shareAh. I see. So they must have told Rasputin's team of lawyers, "Sorry, fellas, but the double-jeopardy prohibition applies only to trials, not executions."
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