Hanging

Death by the halter, or the suspending of a criminal, condemned to suffer death, by the neck, until life Is extinct A mode of capital punishment. In Old English Law. Pending; as hanging the process. Co. Litt. 13a, 266a. Remaining undetermined. 1 Show. 77.

In criminal law. Suspension by the neck ; the mode of capital punishment used in England from time immemorial, and generally adopted in the United States. 4 Bl. Comm. 403.

— Hanging in chains. In atrocious cases it was at one time usual, in England, for the court to direct a murderer, after execution, to be hanged upon a gibbet in chains near the place where the murder was committed, a practice quite contrary to the Mosaic law. (Deut. xxi. 23.) Abolished by 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 26. Wharton.

Pending; during the pendency.

In criminallaw. Suspension by the neck; the modeof capital punishment used in England from time immemorial, and generally adopted in the United States. 4 Bl. Comm. 403,

The judgment in a capital case is, that the prisoner " be hanged by the neck till dead." ^ Hanged is preferred to hung, as the past participle. Hangman. One who executes a prisoner condemned to death by suspension by the neck; also, he who holds the office of public executioner. See Death, Penalty.