Both Uses of
decapitate
in
Change of Heart, by Picoult
- In 1885, a British murderer named Robert Goodale was hanged, but the force of the drop decapitated him.†
*decapitated = to cut the head off; or with the head cut off
- This was a legal conundrum: if the sentence of death was to be carried out by hanging, then the prisoner could not be decapitated, or the sentence wasn't fulfilled.†
Definition:
cut the head of