This post is only for the strong-hearted.
I still remember when i was working with vivian at SMRT last year, we happened to chance upon the word - capital punishment. Out of curiousity, we checked it out on the net and were horrified by what we saw. Even up till now, when i went back to find out the meanings, it still gives me the shudder.
Here's the different types of capital punishment used in the past: -
1) Flaying
An animal may be flayed in preparation for human consumption, or for its hide or fur; this is more commonly called skinning.
Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. This article deals with flaying in the sense of torture and execution. This is often referred to as "flaying alive". There are also records of people flayed after death, generally as a means of debasing the corpse of a prominent enemy or criminal, sometimes related to religious beliefs (e.g. to deny an afterlife); sometimes the skin is used, again for deterrence, magical uses, etc. (i.e. scalping). 
2) Slow Slicing
Slow slicing (simplified Chinese: 凌迟; traditional Chinese: 凌遲; pinyin: língchí, alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 to its abolition in 1905. In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly.
Liu Jin (劉瑾), (?-1510), was a well-known Chinese eunuch during the Ming Dynasty. Liu was famous for being one of the most corrupt officials in Chinese history and the standing emperor for some time.
Zhengde Emperor 's living put heavy load on the people and he would refuse to receive all his ministers and ignored all their petitions. He also sanctioned the rise of eunuchs around him. Liu made some reforms such as encourage widows to marry again, against the Neo-Confucianism views that time. Many officials and other eunuchs were against him. The uprising of Prince Zhu Zhifan (安化王朱寘鐇) was to fight Liu. After the officials suppressed the uprising, an official Yang Yiqing (楊一清) persuade another enunuch Zhang Yong (張永) to report Liu plotting rebellion. Zhengde did not believe it at first and consider expel Liu to Fengyang (鳳陽). But Zhang reported many weapons in Liu's houses. The emperor then ordered Liu executed by death by a thousand cuts in three days and being cut 3,357 times. According to witness, the onlookers in Beijing bought his flesh for one qian (smallest available currency) and ate the flesh while drinking rice wine. Liu died the second day after cruel three to four hundred cuts.
According to one report, shortly before Liu was executed, 12,057,800 tael (449,750 kg) of gold and 259,583,600 tael (9,682,470 kg) of silver was taken from his residence. In 2001, the Asian Wall Street Journal placed Liu in the list of 50 wealthiest persons in the past 1,000 years.
3) Boiling to death
This penalty was carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tar, tallow or even molten lead. Sometimes the victim was immersed, the liquid then being heated, or he was plunged into the already boiling contents, usually head first. The executioner could then help speed their demise by means of a large hook with which he sank the criminal deeper. An alternative method was to use a large shallow receptacle rather than a cauldron; oil, tallow or pitch then being poured in. The victim was then partially immersed in the liquid and fried to death.
4) Disembowelment
Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of the vital organs, usually from the abdomen. If performed on a living creature, it is fatal in virtually all cases. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to keep the condemned alive (and in pain) as long as possible.
5) Cruxification
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead. 
6) Impalement
Impalement as a method of torture and execution involves a person being pierced with a long stake. The penetration could be through the sides, through the rectum, through the vagina, or through the mouth. This method leads to a painful death, sometimes taking days. The stake would often be planted in the ground, leaving the impaled person suspended to die.
In some forms of impalement, the stake would be inserted so as to avoid immediate death, and would function as a plug to prevent blood loss. After preparation of the victim, including public torture and rape, the victim was stripped and an incision was made in the groin between the genitals and rectum. A stout pole with a blunt end was inserted. The blunt end would push vital organs to the side where a sharp end would pierce them, hastening death. A conveniently suitable branch was often used. The pole would often come out of the body at the top of the sternum and be placed against the lower jaw so that the victim would not slide farther down the pole. Often, the victim was hoisted into the air after partial impalement. Gravity and the victim's own struggles would cause them to slide down the pole.
7) DismembermentDismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of the limbs, dismemberment is often fatal to all but the simplest of creatures.
8) Sawing
Sawing is a method of torture and execution.
The condemned was hung upside down and then sawed apart down the middle, starting at the rectum. Since the condemned was hanging upside-down, the brain received a continuous blood supply in spite of severe bleeding. The condemned would remain alive and conscious until the saw severed the major blood vessels of the abdomen, and sometimes even longer. In Asian countries, the condemned stood up while constrained and sawing started at the head. According to some religious histories, the prophet Isaiah was executed in this manner.
Well, there's another scary thing which i would like to check out, but lack the courage to. I heard in Japan, the Japanese squeeze these kittens into a glass/plastic bottle and rear them inside. These kittens were fed water and food only by a straw inserted inside. And because of the limited space given to the kittens, they were grown deformed. Heart-aching. Yea, the Japanese AGAIN.
