Capital punishment in France

Capital punishment was practised in France from the Middle Ages until 1977, when the last execution took place by guillotine, being the only legal method since the French Revolution (with the exception of firing squad for some crimes). The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was put to death in September 1977. The death penalty was abolished in French law in 1981. It is now also forbidden by the French constitution, and by several human rights treaties to which France is a party.

Prior to 1791, under the "Ancien Régime", there existed a variety of means of capital punishment in France, depending on the crime and the status of the condemned person.

The first campaign towards the abolition of the death penalty began on 30 May 1791, but on 6 October that year the National Assembly refused to pass a law abolishing the death penalty. However, they did abolish torture, and also declared that there would now be only one method of execution: 'Tout condamné à mort aura la tête tranchée' (All condemned to death will have their heads cut off).

The guillotine had been proposed as a means of execution in 1789 by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. The French Revolution marked the end of hanging by requiring all executions to be accomplished by means of the blade, rather than reserving it only for nobles. However, as beheading by a hand-held axe or blade was a comparatively inefficient and unreliable method of execution compared with hanging, the mechanical guillotine was adopted; it was also regarded as a more humane way to take the life of the condemned than earlier messy ways of execution. The device was first used on Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on 25 April 1792. Guillotine usage then spread to other countries such as Germany (where it had been used since before the revolution), Italy, Sweden (used in a single execution), and French colonies in Africa, French Guyana and French Indochina.

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