How to execute this sentence?

[Speakpigeon]

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

 

[bigfield]

Pick a day for the execution without telling the convict until the moment has arrived? Seems straightforward. The only problems are practical (like preventing a lawyer or guard from leaking the date to the convict).

Where do you think someone might see a paradox? This is mundane without one.

 

[untermensche]

What is so humanitarian about it?

It creates continual stress. Thinking every day may be the day.

But with a set date you can wake up every day except one and know it is not the day.

You can better prepare for the day.

A claim of humanitarian treatment when it is not is not a paradox.

 

[steve_bank]

A better one. A criminal is sentenced to ne hanged. When asked if he had a last request he asked when walking to gallows if he could step in distances of 1/2 the remaining distance and it was grated.

Will he be hanged?

 

[fromderinside]

Do petards count?

 

[bilby]

I have seen something similar presented as a logic puzzle, wherein the judge specifies a duration within which the sentence must be carried out. With that additional stipulation (for example that the hanging must occur within the calendar month), the idea is that the prisoner can be sure he won't be hanged on the last day of the month, because he would clearly know that he would be hanged on (say) the 31st, as soon as he is not taken to the gallows on the 30th.

By extension, he also can then conclude that if he hasn't been taken to the gallows on the 29th, he is to be hanged on the 30th - so it's forbidden to hang him on the 30th.

Each earlier date can likewise be ruled out, so his sentence can never be executed.

The problem with this chain of 'logic' is that having ruled out a day in the middle of the chain, it becomes once again possible for him to be hanged on that day, because ruling it out makes it unexpected, and therefore allowable, to hang him on (say) the 20th.

I don't think there's any problem with this sentence without the judge having specified the last date on which the prisoner may be hanged - as there's no way for the prisoner to know in advance what day is the last possible date for the hanging (which presumably would be the last day of his natural life).

 

[fast]

What is so humanitarian about it?

It creates continual stress. Thinking every day may be the day.

But with a set date you can wake up every day except one and know it is not the day.

You can better prepare for the day.

A claim of humanitarian treatment when it is not is not a paradox.

The stress is continual, yes, so the situation is certainly not without stress, but the stress IS LIGHT in comparison to the stress that substantively builds in severity as the exact known day of death approaches.

We all know we will one day die. We come to that realization when young. That fact may on occasion surface to our conscious minds, but for the most part, we don’t consume ourselves with the thought daily. Passing through the days blissfully ignorant of which day will in fact be our last cannot plausibly be such a stressor to the much less mild stress that knowing would.

 

[Speakpigeon]

I have seen something similar presented as a logic puzzle, wherein the judge specifies a duration within which the sentence must be carried out. With that additional stipulation (for example that the hanging must occur within the calendar month), the idea is that the prisoner can be sure he won't be hanged on the last day of the month, because he would clearly know that he would be hanged on (say) the 31st, as soon as he is not taken to the gallows on the 30th.

By extension, he also can then conclude that if he hasn't been taken to the gallows on the 29th, he is to be hanged on the 30th - so it's forbidden to hang him on the 30th.

Each earlier date can likewise be ruled out, so his sentence can never be executed.

The problem with this chain of 'logic' is that having ruled out a day in the middle of the chain, it becomes once again possible for him to be hanged on that day, because ruling it out makes it unexpected, and therefore allowable, to hang him on (say) the 20th.

I don't think there's any problem with this sentence without the judge having specified the last date on which the prisoner may be hanged - as there's no way for the prisoner to know in advance what day is the last possible date for the hanging (which presumably would be the last day of his natural life).

You're right of course, I completely forgot! The sentence had to be carried out within seven days of the sentencing and the prisoner knew it. Thanks!
EB

 

[Speakpigeon]

OK, so, here it is again, with the correction suggested by bilby...

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged within seven days.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day of the week the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

 

[fast]

Edited out

 

[untermensche]

A better one. A criminal is sentenced to ne hanged. When asked if he had a last request he asked when walking to gallows if he could step in distances of 1/2 the remaining distance and it was grated.

Will he be hanged?

He will very quickly get to a point where he is unable to move half the distance he just moved previously.

And in the real world it is impossible to move exactly 1/2 of any distance.

The constraints of the real world which do not permit an infinite division of anything will still exist.

 

[Torin]

This short novel by Victor Hugo is a good (fictional) first person perspective on execution:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Day_of_a_Condemned_Man

I thought I would bring this up in relation to the discussion of how stressful execution is for the condemned.

 

[Lion IRC]

Another fake paradox.

The condemned prisoner will be surprised that they weren't executed on the preceding day. Therefore the judge's requirement for an element of surprise whilst on death row has been acheived.

And by not executing the prisoner until the very last day, they have fulfilled the judge's requirement that the prisoner not know which day it would be.

Note that the prisoner remains ignorant right up until one minute to midnight the day before they are executed and even then they still couldn't be sure whether that was the day.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_execution

A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution...is imminent or is taking place. It may be staged for an audience or a subject who is made to believe that they are being led to their own execution. This might involve blindfolding the subjects, making them recount last wishes, making them dig their own grave, holding an unloaded gun to their head and pulling the trigger, shooting near (but not at) the victim, or firing blanks

 

[Tigers!]

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

I note that the sentence does not say that the hanging will kill him only that he be hung.
So shoot him and hang his body.
The criminal is expected to be hung so the shooting will not be known in advance to the prisoner.

The old english death sentence can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_God_have_mercy_upon_your_soul

Here it notes that the hanging will kill the criminal.

 

[Speakpigeon]

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

I note that the sentence does not say that the hanging will kill him only that he be hung.
So shoot him and hang his body.
The criminal is expected to be hung so the shooting will not be known in advance to the prisoner.

Good marks for creativity and logic.

Still, this would be inhumane treatment. Shooting may not kill the prisoner either and he will suffer atrocious wounds. You're sadistic.

Second, the shooter will be arrested for causing grievous bodily harm and possibly unwarranted death given that no one was mandated to shoot the prisoner, let alone kill him, as you observed yourself.

And the judge being a judge will pronounce a sentence of death by hanging upon the shooter, under the same requirement that the hanging should come as a surprise.

So, we still have a paradox.
EB

 

[bilby]

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

I note that the sentence does not say that the hanging will kill him only that he be hung.
So shoot him and hang his body.
The criminal is expected to be hung so the shooting will not be known in advance to the prisoner.

The old english death sentence can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_God_have_mercy_upon_your_soul

Here it notes that the hanging will kill the criminal.

A criminal who is sentenced to death is 'hanged'. A man who is 'hung' is merely popular with the ladies.

 

[Tigers!]

We're talking about a real-world sentence...

The court sentenced the criminal to be hanged.

The court also imposed, on humanitarian grounds, as a condition for the execution of the sentence, that which day the hanging takes place had to be unknown in advance to the criminal himself, and this up until the very moment the guards come to take him to be hanged.

Can this real-world sentence be executed.

Please specify if you think this is a paradox.

If not why?

If it is a paradox, how do you propose to solve it?
EB

I note that the sentence does not say that the hanging will kill him only that he be hung.
So shoot him and hang his body.
The criminal is expected to be hung so the shooting will not be known in advance to the prisoner.

The old english death sentence can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_God_have_mercy_upon_your_soul

Here it notes that the hanging will kill the criminal.

A criminal who is sentenced to death is 'hanged'. A man who is 'hung' is merely popular with the ladies.

Must be due to that recent rain in Banana-bender land.