The sword idea is good...the other thing is they could possibly do some sort of circle to prevent magic from leaving the person getting killed....idk if the sword would break the circle but it's possible it wouldn't.....

But you have to think about people like that necromancer behind the world wars.....idk how the wardens dealt with his death curse

 

I always thought a Death Curse was something instinctive. A wizard knows they are about to die, and they throw all their will and lifeforce into one last spell. No need for a structure to the spell, as the desperation that comes from impending death would be a fairly strong focuser, imo.

In the cases of warlocks and those with magical talent to be executed, power levels would be a factor. Is it possible that some Wardens may be able to 'smother' a warlock's power with their own? That, or some fancy cuffs that lock the prisoner from their magic.

 

The problem with that TWT, is Butcher's description of how Kincaid would get around the Death Curse. Thought the point is arguable I guess. Most ways of dying aren't instant however, and I believe that is the key to the Death Curse. Getting blown up or shot in the head seem to be key ways to avoid a death curse.

 

Death curses are just spells that have all the life energy in the body powering them. Nothing more than that, though considering how powerful some wizards can get, they are pretty damn powerful themselves. That's why the Wardens take so many precautions in executing them. A circle surrounds the area, preventing them from getting vengeance on whoever is outside of it. The Senior Council is present in most cases (always at least one of them though), and if they aren't able to defend against a death curse, no one is. The black hood is also used to make sure they can't see who's executing them, so no targeted death curses, as well as to prevent them from timing things right so that they fire it off right before death.

So it's about as safe as it can be, really. Jim has commented that the Wardens used pretty much everything they could in taking down Kemmler the last time, including a flamethrower (though that may be an exaggeration).

 

Not to mention that 99.9% of the time, the trial and execution is going to be conducted completely in Latin, so the warlock would be even more clueless about what's going on and when s/he was about to be executed.

 

It was in Blood Rites CT. Also, I'd question whether shutting down someone's magic is the same as shutting down their death curse. If only for the disparity in power.

 

I can't remember if McCoy was able to perfectly shut down Mavra's magic in that scene, but surely if someone's magic is shut off, and a Death Curse is the channeling of all someone's life energy/magic to one purpose, then they wouldn't be able to cast it? It seems to me that one barely in control, self-trained warlock isn't going to be as tricky to suppress as a centuries old vampire sorceress.

Also, in the case of really dangerous warlocks, they might resort to those cuffs that Nicodemus used on Harry in Death Masks (or a derivation of them, anyway).

 

Well, obviously it's difficult to keep a wizard of significant talent incarcerated, if Morgan is any indication.

 

Assuming that 'wild' warlocks are unaware of the Death Curse, one of those who is most likely to face a Death Curse in his line of work, the Blackstaff, would also have the ability to prevent his opponent from remembering they can use one.

 

Not quite. The manacles don't stop you drawing in magic, they just make you feel like you're having your hands cut off if you do. It's not about cutting a guy off from magic (circles and running water do that, as Harry found out in Death Masks), it's about making it impossible for him to make a spell out of it, since he'd be in too much pain to concentrate.

Remember, Harry learned to handle pain from a young age and had been in a hefty number of fights up to that point (and up to Proven Guilty), and still he couldn't use magic when the manacles started up.

So they probably would prevent a Death Curse from being fired, though as Nicodemus did, it would be wise to take secondary measures just in case you're dealing with someone that can handle that level of pain (such as running water in his case). Death Curses, after all, have to be formed in the mind first, even if it's just DIE ALONE!

Probably. The majority of warlocks nowadays are supposed to be teenagers and the likes who slipped through the cracks and weren't contacted by the Council.