The Romans designed the crucifixion to be very humiliating, torturous, a surefire method of execution. No one in history survived a full Roman crucifixion.
A whip called flagrum was designed to rip the skin off the body and cause excessive bleeding. After just a few lashes, the victim's skin began to come off in ribbons and their muscles tore.
After a few more lashes, the muscles became like pulp. Arteries and veins were laid bare. Sometimes the flagrum would reach around the abdomen and the abdominal wall would give away causing the victim's intestines to spill out. Obviously, many people died during the flogging alone.
After flogging, victims were nailed through their arms to a crossbeam. The nails would go right through the median nerve causing extreme pains and incapacitating the hands. A seven inch nail would then be driven through both feet, and then the crucifixion victim would be made to hang from his arms, a position that makes it nearly impossible to breathe.
He would have to use his little remaining energy to push against the nail in his feet so he could breathe out. He could breathe in as he sagged back down, but he would have to push back up before breathing out again.
When all his energy is drained, and he could not push up any longer, be he would die of asphyxiation - death due to lack of oxygen.
In order for the guards to tell when someone was dead,all they had to do was to see if the victim stopped pushing up.
Other than breaking the knees, sometimes they would crush the victim's head, sometimes they would feed the body to dogs, or as in the case of Jesus, pierce the victim's heart.
This was narrated by Gary Habermas( The historical Jesus), in the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus pg 191.
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