In 1994, US teen Michale P. Fay was sentenced to caning over vandalism charges in Singapore. The outcry was intense in the US, where punishment of this nature is not sanctioned, and the sentence was reduced from 6 lashes to 4 after President Bill Clinton intervened in the matter.

The bleeding caused by the lashes, Fay told The New York Times at the time, was "like a bloody nose." He had been beaten on his butt, and had screamed out "I'm dying" as the first lash came down. A prison guard stood by him talking him through it. "O.K. Michael, three left. O.K., Michael, two left. O.K., one more; you're almost done."