Decapitation
Cutting the prisoner's head off is one of the oldest methods of execution. In ancient Rome, criminal jurisdiction was called „blood jurisdiction“ (iurisdictio sanguinis), while criminal law was „the law of the sword“ (ius gladii). The sword is one of the permanent attributes of the Roman goddess of justice, Iustitia: in one hand she holds the scales of justice and in the other a sword. Many lawyers in Serbia (and elsewhere) use image of Iustitia on their stationery. Since executions in Serbia were usually by shooting, one lawyer decided to arm her with a rifle rather than the sword.
„Capital“ (fr. Latin caput = head) crimes are those that are punished by death, and the death penalty is called capital punishment. In some modern languages, too, criminal law is „law of the head“ – for example, in Russian уголовное право = criminal law (and уголовшчина = criminality).
In the Middle Ages, execution by sword was considered as a privilege accorded to members of the aristocracy, while ordinary people were executed in more gruesome ways, on wheels and gallows. Severed heads were publicly displayed. „Display of severed heads had long been one of the commonest ways a European sovereign displayed his power to his subjects.“ In the late eighteenth and in the nineteenth century, European societies became more democratic. In consequence, decapitation ceased to be an aristocratic privilege and in some countries (such as France) became the regular mode of execution, regardless of the prisoner's social status. This was just one step towards universal equality, proclaimed by the French Revolution.
In Serbia, decapitation was used until the 1840's, although very rarely. According to a contemporary description of an 1817 decapitation, the technique was as follows. The prisoner, with hands tied behind the back, was seated in front of a wooden block and had his legs tied around it. The executioner's assistant put the prisoner's head in a leather strap, which went under the chin and behind the ears, and pulled the head forward. With the prisoner's neck so exposed, the executioner would hit it with a sword as many times as it took to severe the head from the body (successful beheadings with one stroke were a rarity).