Execution of Barzan Ibrahim Goes Wrong - Jamison A.

Due to a miscalculation in the rope length, a hanging in Iraq went horribly wrong. Ibrahim was to be hanged along with Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the both of them guilty of killing one hundred forty eight Shiites. Ibrahim and al-Bandar were scheduled to be hanged the same day as Saddam Hussein, but the Iraqi government postponed their execution in order to make Saddam’s day a “special day”. A week and two days after his half-brother Saddam’s execution, Ibrahim and al-Bandar were scheduled to be executed. At first, the execution was going as planned, the ten to twelve onlookers agreed to a waiver stating they wouldn’t provoke the executioneed and they had ropes. The lever was pulled and Ibrahim dropped eight feet before the rope would catch him. “His head just snapped off, just like that, in an instant,” said John Burns of the New York Times, witness of the execution. Ibrahim was decapitated by the force of the rope during his execution. Some looked on in horror, as some looked on and embraced it. There are no plans to release the video of the executions to the public.