Stoning is a very ancient and often brutal means of Public Execution. As the word implies, the victim is killed by having people hit them with thrown stones until they die. Stoning is often associated with more ancient societies, and in the modern world is primarily practiced by fundamentalist theocracies, a practice that is seen as barbaric by most of the rest of the modern world.

Stoning is controversial for many, many reasons. It's associated with mob mentality and also with patriarchal societies that brutally punish women for failing to conform to their standards, and in many ways is seen as a giant step backwards in regards to law and justice and human rights in general in favor of something a lot more archaic. Indeed, stoning is considered a form of torture by the United Nations, and many human rights organizations point out that it is a direct violation of women's rights and those of LGBT people (who are most directly targeted with this) and that many of the acts that are targeted by stoning are acts which should not be criminalized to begin with due to interfering with people's right to a private life. ...