Nowadays, there seems to be a lot of controversy over lethal injections and how humane they are. From what I can tell, hanging seems like the ideal form of execution. The neck is broken instantly, there's not really any mess to be cleaned up, and it works every time. Why did the nations of the world stop doing it?
In the cases of Britain and Ireland hanging remained the standard method of execution until the abolition of capital punishment. It is quite a skilled activity as the noose has to be prepared relative to the weight of the condemned and if it is done wrongly, the result is slow strangulation. Even when done properly, immediate death cannot be guaranteed.