I bought a kindle book by Professor Robert Blecker called, Let The Great Axe Fall. I read it with interest and have read
it thrice. To know more, please read here:
For
12 years, Robert Blecker, a Harvard trained criminal law professor, wandered
inside Lorton Central Prison, without guards, armed only with cigarettes, a
tape recorder, and the assurance of leading convicts that “Slim Rob” was
“alright.” After thousands of hours kicking back with convicted street
criminals, mostly killers, probing their crimes and the meaning of their lives,
Robert feels forced to morally refine his own views on the worst of the worst
who deserve to die.
Through
the voices of his teachers, including Plato and Kant, “Itchy”, Leo, and “Papa
Bear”, take a journey through the mind of a famed retributivist who tests legal
philosophy against the reality and wisdom of street criminals.
Robert
Blecker’s debut Kindle Single “Let the Great Axe Fall” teaches us that justice
is richer than the rule of law, that the past counts and we must keep our
covenant with the dead — but most of all that the answer to the excruciating
question of capital punishment is vastly richer than a simple yes or no.
As
a Tufts University undergraduate who knew that Hitler deserved to die, Robert
Blecker fled the Philosophy Department chaired by America’s leading death
penalty opponent. Scorned by his fellow anti-Vietnam war protesters for
supporting capital punishment, he insisted we were killing the wrong people.
Tufts produced his three one-act plays and created the Balch Travelling and
Playwriting fellowship for him. After college, he taught American Culture and
Creative Writing at the University of Vincennes. Harvard Law School awarded his
thesis on Game and Sport the Oberman Prize as best of the 1974 graduates. He
returned to Harvard for a year as a Fellow in Law and Humanities.
After
a brief stint as a Special Prosecutor attacking corrupt NYC cops, lawyers, and
judges, Robert became a New York Law School criminal law professor where he
co-teaches death penalty law with leading opponents, as well as Constitutional
History. His American history play, “Vote NO!”, premiered at the Kennedy Center
and travelled to 16 states. Every audience but one — including the ACLU, and
cadets at West Point and Annapolis — immediately after performance voted to
reject the U.S. Constitution. For 12 years, he wandered freely inside Lorton,
the Nation’s only all-Black prison system, interviewing convicted killers, no
officers present. He has since documented daily life on death rows and maximum
security prisons in seven states. Robert has long been a leading public voice
appearing in national and international media and many documentaries urging a
morally informed death penalty for those who deserve it. The feature and TV
documentary “Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead” (available on Amazon) portrays his
unusual relationship on Tennessee’s death row with condemned killer Daryl
Holton. Robert is working on his own documentary, “The Death of Punishment.” He
hopes his stage play “Joseph Warren” will help bring America’s greatest
forgotten Founding Father back to life.
If
you do not have a kindle, download software for your iphone, PC, Mac,
Blackberry, Android HERE.
I soon recalled the axe used for
incapacitation during the medieval times. I got the information from Wikipedia,
and as the same time, I remember that 1995 Mel Gibson’s film, Braveheart.
William Wallace was beheaded by an axe and he died a martyr. Please note, my
friend helped me to get a weapon closest to the executioner’s axe, a Dane axe.
I want to thank him very much for his help.
The Dane
Axe is an early type of battle axe, primarily used during the transition
between the European Viking Age and early Middle Ages. Other names for the
weapon include English Long Axe, Danish Axe, and Hafted Axe.
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Replica Danish axe head, Petersen Type L or
Type M, based on original from Tower of London
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Construction
Most
axes, both in period illustrations and extant artifact, that fall under the
description of Danish Axe, possess Type L or Type M heads according to the
Petersen axe typology. Both types consist of a wide, thin blade, with
pronounced "horns" at both the toe and heel of the bit. Cutting
surface varies, but is generally between 20 cm and 30 cm (8 and
12 inches). Type L blades tend to be smaller, with the toe of the bit
swept forward for superior shearing capability. Later Type M blades are
typically larger overall, with a more symmetrical toe and heel.
The
blade itself was reasonably light and forged very thin, making it superb for
cutting. The thickness of the body above the edge is as thin as 2mm. Many of
these axes were constructed with a reinforced bit, typically of a higher carbon
steel to facilitate a harder, sharper edge. Average weight of an axe this size
is between 1 kg and 2 kg (2 and 4 pounds). Proportionally, the long
axe has more in common with a modern meat cleaver than a wood axe. This complex
construction results in a lively and quick weapon with devastating cutting
ability.
Based
on period depictions, the haft of a Longaxe for combat was usually between
approx. 0.9 m and 1.2 m (3 and 4 feet) long, although Dane axes used as status
symbols might be as long as 1.5 to 1.7 m (5 to 5½ ft). Such axes might
also feature inlaid silver and frequently may not have the flared steel edge of
a weapon designed for war. Some surviving examples also feature a brass haft
cap, often richly decorated, which presumably served to keep the head of the
weapon secure on the haft, as well as protecting the end of the haft from the
rigors of battle. Ash and oak are the most likely materials for the haft, as
they have always been the primary materials used for polearms in Europe.
History
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The Danish axe on the Bayeux
tapestry.
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In the course of
the 10-11th centuries, the Danish Axe gained popularity in areas outside
Scandinavia where Viking influence was strong, such as England, Ireland and
Normandy. Historical accounts depict the Danish Axe as the weapon of the
warrior elite in this period, such as the Huscarls of Anglo-Saxon England.
In the Bayeux tapestry, a visual record of the ascent of William the
Conqueror to the throne of England, the axe is almost exclusively wielded by
well armored huscarls. These huscarls formed the core bodyguard of King Harold
at the Battle of Hastings. The Bayeux Tapestry also depicts a huscarl cleaving
a Norman knight's horse's head with one blow. The Dane-Axe is also known to
have been used by the Varangian Guard, also known as pelekyphoros phroura
(πελεκυφόρος φρουρά), the "axe-bearing guard". One surviving ivory
plaque from the 10th century Constantinople depicts a Varangian holding an axe
that is at least as tall as its wielder.
Although the name
retains its Scandinavian heritage, the Danish Axe became widely used throughout
Europe from 12th.-13th century, as axes gained acceptance as a knightly weapon,
albeit not achieving the status of the sword. They also
began to be used widely as an infantry polearm, with the haft lengthening to
about 6 feet (1.8 m). The 13th. and 14th. century also see form changes,
with the blade also lengthening, the rear horn extending to touch or attach to
the haft. The lengthened weapon, especially if combined with the lengthened
blade, was called a sparth in England. Some believe this weapon is the
ancestor of the halberd.
While the Danish
Axe continues in use in the 14th. century, axes with an armour piercing
back-spike and spear-like spike on the fore-end of the haft become more common,
eventually evolving into the Pollaxe in the 15th. century. The simple Danish
axe continues to be used in the West of Scotland and in Ireland into the 16th.
century. In Ireland, it is particularly associated with Galloglas mercenaries.
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Iron age bearded axe head from Gotland.
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After the Battle
of Stiklestad, the axe also became the symbol of St. Olaf and can still be seen
on the Coat of Arms of Norway. However, this is because the axe is the
implement of his martyrdom, rather than signifying use.
King Stephen of
England famously used a Danish axe at the Battle of Lincoln 1141 after his
sword broke.
Richard the
Lionheart was often recorded in Victorian times wielding a large war axe,
though references are sometimes wildly exaggerated as befitted a national hero:
"Long and long after he was quiet in his grave, his terrible battle-axe,
with twenty English pounds of English steel in its mighty head..." - A
Child's History of England by Charles Dickens. Richard is, however,
recorded as using a Danish Axe at the relief of Jaffa. Geoffrey de Lusignan is
another famous crusader associated with the axe.
In the 14th.
century, the use of axes is increasingly noted by Froissart in his Chronicle,
with King Jean II using one at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and Sir James Douglas
at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. Bretons were apparently noted axe users,
with Bertrand du Guesclin and Olivier de Clisson both wielding axes in battle.
In these cases, we cannot tell whether the weapon was a Danish axe, or the
proto-pollaxe.
