Death penalty in France

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Execution of multiple murderer Victor Prévost in front of La Roquette prison in Paris (1880, contemporary illustration)

The death penalty in France was abolished on October 9, 1981 by then President François Mitterrand by signing a corresponding law. Since 19 February 2007, is the death penalty and of the French Republic Constitution of the Fifth banned after parliament this had changed to. The last execution was carried out in September 1977 by the guillotine of Hamida Djandoubi , who had been convicted of torture and murder on French soil.

history

Ancien Régime

The execution of Robespierre , 1794

Before 1791, under the Ancien Régime , there were various types of execution of the death penalty in France . Depending on the crime and the status of the convicted person, the following were used:

Application of the guillotine

Public execution by guillotine in Lons-le-Saunier , 1897

The first protests to abolish the death penalty began as early as May 30, 1791, but on October 6 of the same year the National Assembly refused to pass a law abolishing the death penalty. However, she decided to end the torture and stated that there would only be one method of execution. Everyone sentenced to death was to be beheaded from now on, regardless of the crime committed and the convict's social status (except for members of the military who were shot by a court martial ).

Since beheading with a hand-held ax or blade was a comparatively inefficient and unreliable method of execution, the mechanical guillotine was used, which had been proposed as a means of execution by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin as early as 1789 .

The device was used for the first time on April 25, 1792, when the mugger Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was sentenced to death . The use of the guillotine quickly spread to other countries such as Germany , Italy , Sweden and French colonies in Africa .

1848

In the course of the February Revolution in Paris in 1848 , the death penalty for political offenses was abolished by decree. Proponents of complete abolition, led by Victor Hugo , did not succeed in getting their way.

1849-1981

From the middle of the 19th century , executions gradually moved to the area around local prisons, but they remained public. At the beginning of the 20th century , the guillotine was set up in front of the prison gates. The last person to be publicly guillotined was the six-time murderer Eugen Weidmann , who was executed on June 17, 1939 in front of the St-Pierre prison in Versailles . Because of the unworthy "hysterical behavior" of the public during this execution, Prime Minister Édouard Daladier decided by ordinance on June 24, 1939 that all executions were to be carried out in private behind prison walls. The first to be executed afterwards was Jean Dehaene, who murdered his estranged wife and father-in-law. He was executed in Saint-Brieuc on July 19, 1939 .

The number of executions increased considerably in the 1940s, and women were also executed for the first time since the 19th century. So was Marie-Louise Giraud on 30 July 1943 as a result of abortion , which was considered at that time as a crime against state security, executed.

From 1950 to the 1970s, the number of executions fell steadily, including by President Georges Pompidou , who pardoned twelve of fifteen people sentenced to death between 1969 and 1974.

Until 1981 the French penal code said:

  • Article 12: "Everyone condemned to death shall have the head cut off."
  • Article 13: "If the death penalty has been imposed for crimes against state security, execution will be carried out by firing squad ."
  • Article 14: "If the family of the executed person reclaims the body, it is up to them to bury them, without any support from the state."

The abolition of the death penalty

Robert Badinter at a demonstration against the death penalty in Paris on February 3, 2007

The death penalty in France was originally abolished by the National Assembly on October 26, 1795, but only until February 12, 1810, when it was reintroduced into the French penal code by Napoleon Bonaparte .

On July 3, 1908, Aristide Briand , then the keeper of the seals of France , presented a bill to the deputies to abolish the death penalty, which, however, despite the support of Jean Jaurès , was rejected by 330 to 201 votes.

Robert Badinter , who also served as defense attorney for some of the last few sentenced to death, was appointed Minister of Justice in 1981. In the same year he took office, with the support of President François Mitterrand, he pushed through the abolition of the death penalty in France.

On February 19, 2007, the French Parliament voted by a majority of 828-26 in favor of the amendment to the French Constitution, which would finally incorporate the ban on the death penalty into the Constitution. Since then, Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic has stated: “Nobody can be sentenced to death”. Article 66-1 was incorporated into the Constitution on February 23, 2007.

Executions since 1959

The following people were executed during the Fifth French Republic .

Executed person Day of execution Place of execution crime method under president
Jean Dupont April 14, 1959 Paris Child murder guillotine Charles de Gaulle
Abcha Ahmed July 30, 1959 Metz murder
René Pons June 21, 1960 Bordeaux murder
Georges Rapin July 26, 1960 Paris murder
Dehil Salah January 31, 1961
Louis Jalbaud 7th December 1961 Marseille Robbery
Albert Dovecar June 7, 1962 Marly-le-Roi Attack on Roger Gavoury shooting
Claude Piegts
Lieutenant Roger Degueldre July 6, 1962 Ivry-sur-Seine Treason, multiple murders
Lieutenant Colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry March 11, 1963 Attack on the President
Stanislas Juhant March 17, 1964 Paris Robbery guillotine
Raymond Anama June 17, 1964 Fort-de-France murder
Robert Actis June 27, 1964 Lyon Robbery
Mazouz Ghaouti Robbery
Lambert Gau June 22, 1965 Fort-de-France murder
Said Hachani March 22, 1966 Lyon Multiple murder
Gunther Volz December 16, 1967 Metz Rape and murder of a child
Jean-Laurent Olivier March 11, 1969 Amiens Multiple child murders after sexual rape
Roger Bontems November 28, 1972 Paris Hostage-taking, accomplice of Claude Buffet Georges Pompidou
Claude Buffet Assassination of a prison guard and a nurse (during his life sentence for murder)
Ali Ben Yanes May 12, 1973 Marseille Child murder after sexual harassment, attempted murder
Christian Ranucci July 28, 1976 Kidnapping and murder of a child Valery Giscard d'Estaing
Jérôme Carrein June 23, 1977 Douai Kidnapping, attempted rape and murder of a child
Hamida Djandoubi September 10, 1977 Marseille Torture, murder, pimping and rape

Known opponents

Known proponents

bibliography

  • Hannele Klemettilä: The executioner in late medieval French culture . Turun yliopiston julkaisuja. Sarja B, Humaniora. vol. 268. Turun Yliplisto, Tuku 2003, ISBN 951-29-2538-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roger Schlueter: The guillotine is named after a man who hated capital punishment. In: Belleville News-Democrat Online. Retrieved December 24, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Deux siècles de débats à l'Assemblée nationale , see also chronology here (French)
  3. ↑ Fin des exécutions publiques
  4. ^ Jean Dehaene, le premier guillotiné à l'abri des murs de la prison de Saint-Brieuc
  5. ↑ L'application de la peine de mort en France avant 1981 - L'abolition de la peine de mort en France - Dossiers - La Documentation française. Ladocumentationfrancaise.fr, October 8, 2001, accessed February 18, 2015 (French).
  6. ↑ Executions since 1959 (web archive)
  7. ^ Alain Peyrefitte : C'était De Gaulle. ISBN 978-2-07-076506-5 .
  8. ↑ Le point de vue de Zemmour sur la peine de mort. YouTube, June 17, 2011, accessed February 18, 2015 .