Nguyen Tuong Van is dead

If his execution has gone as planned, Nguyen Tuong Van will be dead by now. So how did he die? Bluntly, they broke his neck, then watched while he strangled. Singapore uses long-drop hanging, in which the drop height is carefully controlled to instantly break the neck and knock the victim unconscious. Actual death occurs by asphyxiation, and typically takes between three and twenty-five minutes. Needless to say, someone who did this without colour of law (by, say, using a hammer and leaving their victim to die on the floor, rather than dangling from a rope) would be regarded as a particularly soulless sort of murderer, who revelled in inflicting a slow death. And I don't see why we should regard a government which does the same as being morally any different.