Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Jinnah saved man from gallows?

The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, long time ago (apparently in the early 1900's), Jinnah was a famous practicing lawyer. He took the case of a man about whome everyone said would get the death sentence... Jinnah promised that he *would* be spared no matter what.... As the trial wore on, the evidence kept piling up against him... at last he was convicted and ordered "to be hanged"

The convict and the people around him deplored Jinnah about how he promised the man's life would be saved but now his death was certain... Jinnah kept saying, just wait and see....

The dreaded day arrived and the guiltly man was made to climb the scaffold... the noose was placed around his neck and finally, the trapdoor opened...

As the man struggled against death, Mr Jinnah stood up and said, Release him, 'cause the sentence said "to be hanged" and not "to be hanged to death"...

so they released him and he went to have a long healthy life....

I thought this was some urban fiction passed around by people, but it turns out they all believed it to be true... I don't see how it can be... when you hang a man (and the executioner does it correctly), it is supposed to break the neck, causing instantaneous death; you don't *choke* to death by hanging....

Googling for the story yeilded nothing.... any ideas?