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Capital punishment in France existed officially from the Middle Ages and was abolished in 1981. The last executions took place in 1977, by guillotine, which had been the only legal execution method since the French Revolution. This was the last execution in the then European Community. The last person to be executed was Hamida Djandoubi, on September 10 1977, and France's last executioner was Marcel Chevalier.

The death penalty under the Ancient Regime
Prior to 1791, there existed a variety of means of capital punishment in France, depending on the crime and the status of the condemned person, including decapitation by sword (reserved for nobles), hanging for thieves, burning for heretics etc.

Adoption of the guillotine
The first campaign towards the abolition of the death penalty began on 30 May, 1791. On October 6 of that year the National Assembly passed a law refusing to abolish the death penalty; however they did abolish torture. With this law, they also declared that there would now be only one method of execution: 'Tous condamné à mort aura la tête tranchée' (Anyone condemned to death will have their head cut off)

The guillotine had been proposed as a means of execution in 1789 by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. 1792 and 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 is a comparatively inefficient method of execution compared to hanging, the suggestion of the mechanical guillotine was adopted. The idea behind the guillotine was a more humane way to take the life of the condemned, rather than the messy earlier ways of execution. The device was first used on Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on April 25, 1792. Guillotine usage then spread to other countries, namely the French colonies in Africa and French Indochina.

1939 onwards
Public executions were the norm and continued until 1939. From the mid 19th century, the usual time of day for executions changed from around 3 pm to morning and then to dawn. Executions had been carried out in large central public spaces such as market squares but gradually moved towards the local prison. In the early 20th century, the guillotine was set up just outside the prison gates. The last person to be publicly guillotined was Eugen Weidmann, who had murdered six times, on June 17 1939 outside the St-Pierre prison (now part of the Palais de Justice) at Versailles. Photographs of the execution appeared in the press, and apparently this spectacle led the government to put a stop to public executions and to hold them instead in prison courtyards, such as La Santé Prison in Paris. Following the law, the first to be guillotined inside a prison was Jean Dehaene, who had murdered his estranged wife and father-in-law, executed on July 19, 1939 at St-Brieuc.

The 1940s and the wartime period saw an increase in the number of executions, including the first executions of women since the 19th century.

In the 1950s to the 1970s, the number of executions steadily decreased, with for example President Georges Pompidou between 1969 to 1974, giving clemency to all but three people out of the fifteen sentenced to death. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing oversaw the last executions.

Clemency
Exclusive right to commute the death sentence belonged to the President of Republic, as in earlier ages to the Monarch.

President Charles de Gaulle, who supported the death penalty, commuted 19 death sentences and during his term 13 people were guillotined, and few others executed by firing squad for crimes against security of state (the last of them was OAS member, Lt. Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, who was an organizer of famous assassination attempt on de Gaulle in 1962).

Jean-Laurent Olivier, guillotined in 1969, had originally his sentence commuted by de Gaulle. Olivier however refused a pardon and was executed.

There were no executions during two terms of Interim President Alain Poher in 1969 and 1974.

President Georges Pompidou, who personally was a death penalty opponent, commuted all but three death sentences imposed during his term.

President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who, according to his own words, "felt a deep aversion to the death penalty", also commuted all but three death sentences. He was President at the time of the last execution in France.

Amnesties
One of the examples of general amnesty for all people sentenced to death and awaiting execution took place in 1959 when, after de Gaulle's inauguration, all sentences were commuted (amnesty in not an executive clemency but act of parliament).

Abolition
The first official debate on the death penalty in France took place on the 30 May 1791, with the presentation of a bill aimed at abolishing it. The advocate was Louis-Michel Lepeletier of Saint-Fargeau and the bill was supported by Maximilien de Robespierre. However, the National Constituent Assembly, on October 6 1791, refused to abolish the death penalty.

On October 26, 1795, the National Convention abolished capital punishment, but only to signify the day of general peace. With the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte, the death penalty, which in fact hadn't yet been abolished, was reinstated on February 12, 1810, in the French Imperial Penal Code.

The President of the Republic Armand Fallières, a supporter of abolition, continued to systematically pardon every convict condemned to death over his fisrt three year of his seven-year office.

In 1906 the Commission of the budget of the Chamber of Députés voted for the suppression of funding for the guillotine. This vote aimed at stopping the execution procedure. On July 3, 1908, the Garde des Sceaux, Aristide Briand, submitted a plan of law to the députés, dated November 1906, on the abolition of the death penalty. Despite the support of Jean Jaurès, the plan was rejected on December 8 by 330 votes against 201.

Under the Vichy Regime, Marshal Pétain refused to pardon eight women who would be guillotined (something which had not occurred for nearly 50 years) and five others condemned of common right. Pétain himself would be sentenced to death following the overthrow of the Vichy Regime and subsequent trails of Vichy officials. General Charles de Gaulle needed to grant final approval on Pétain's execution; he ultimately disapproved the death sentence and commuted Pétain's sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of poor health.

With an indictment from Robert Badinter, Patrick Henry escaped being condemned to death on January 21, 1977 for the murder of a child. Numerous newspapers predict the end of the death penalty. On September 10, 1977, Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined, the last person executed in France.

Robert Badinter, a long time opponent of capital punishment and the defending lawyer of some of the last men executed, became minister of justice and proposed the final abolition of the death penalty in 1981, which was pushed through the National Assembly with the backing of newly elected president François Mitterrand. The book Le Pull-over rouge and consequent film, documenting the possibly unsound conviction and execution of one of these, Christian Ranucci, is credited with helping to bring about this abolition.

The abolition process in 1981

 * March 16, 1981: During the presidential election campaign, François Mitterrand declared that he was against the death penalty. This was taken up in the Socialist Party's 110 Propositions for France electoral program, along with others justice reforms. Mitterrand was elected President on May 10.


 * May 25: François Mitterrand pardoned Philippe Maurice, the last person condemned to death to be pardoned.


 * August 26: The Council of Ministers approved the plan of law, abolishing the death penalty.


 * September 17: Robert Badinter presented the bill to the Assemblée Nationale. It was voted in on September 18, with 363 votes against 117.


 * September 30: Several amendments of the Sénat were rejected. The law was officially voted on by the two chambers.


 * October 9: The law was promulgated. The last western European country to practise the death penalty abolished it.

Feasibility of re-establishment
Today, although a few French politicians (mainly far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen) declare themselves to be in favour of the death penalty, its re-establishment would not be possible without the unilateral French rejection of several international treaties.

On December 20, 1985, France ratified "additional protocol number 6" at the European Convention to safeguard human rights and fundamental liberties. This meant that France can no longer re-establish the death penalty, except in times of war or by denouncing the Convention.

On June 21, 2001, Jacques Chirac sent a letter to the association "Ensemble" saying he was against the death penalty: "It's a fight which we have to lead with determination and conviction. Because no justice is infallible and each execution can kill an innocent. Because nothing can legitimize the execution of minors or of people suffering from mental deficiencies. Because death can never constitute an act of justice".

On May 3 2002, France and 30 other countries signed Protocol number 13 to the European Convention on human rights. This forbids the death penalty in all circumstances, even in times of war. It went into effect on July 1, 2003, after having been ratified by 10 states.

Despite the above, in 2004, a law proposition (number 1521) was placed before the French National Assembly, suggesting re-establishment of the death penalty for terrorist acts. The proposition was not adopted. On January 3 2006, Jacques Chirac announced a revision of the Constitution aimed at writing off the death penalty. (On the previous October 13, the Constitutional Council had deemed the ratification of the second optional protocol of the international pact necessitated such a revision of the Constitution. The protocol concerned civil and political rights aimed at abolishing the death penalty.)

On February 19, 2007, the Congress of France (the National Assembly and the Senate of France, reunited for the day) voted overwhelmingly a modification of the Constitution that states that "no one can be sentenced to the death penalty". There 828 votes for the modification, and 26 against.

Variations in French opinion
During the 20th century, French opinion on the death penalty has greatly changed as many polls have showed large differences from one time to another.


 * In 1908, Le Petit Parisien published a poll in which 77% of people asked were in favour of the death penalty.
 * In 1960, a survey from the IFOP showed that 50% of the French were against, while 39% were for.
 * In 1972, in a survey from the same institute, 27% of those surveyed were for abolition while 63% were for capital punishment.
 * In 1981, Le Figaro carried out a survey the day after the vote for abolition. It indicated that 62% of the French were for maintaining the death penalty.
 * In 1998, IFOP's and France Soir's survey showed that opinions were split in half, with 54% against the death penalty and 44% for it.
 * In 2006, TNS Sofres survey confirmed opposition of the French people to death penalty: 52% are now against death penalty, only 41% are pro-death penalty.

As with all surveys on a subject this sensitive, public opinion is quite changeable, depending on current affairs. The different surveys taken have shown that, at the time of appalling crimes (particularly those which affect children), public opinion can quickly return to a majority in favour of re-establishing capital punishment.

Notable death penalty opponents

 * Voltaire (writer and philosopher)
 * Nicolas de Condorcet (philosopher)
 * Victor Hugo (writer and politician)
 * Alphonse de Lamartine (writer and politician)
 * Gaston Leroux (writer)
 * Aristide Briand (politician, long-time Prime Minister and Minister)
 * Jean Jaurès (Socialist leader)
 * Armand Fallières (President)
 * Albert Camus (writer)
 * Robert Badinter (attorney and Minister of Justice)
 * François Mitterrand (President)
 * Jacques Chirac (President)
 * Georges Brassens (singer and poet)

Notable death penalty supporters

 * Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (philosopher)
 * Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher)
 * Benjamin Constant (philosopher and politician)
 * Auguste Comte (philosopher)
 * Charles de Gaulle (President) (was against death penalty for women )
 * Jean-Marie Le Pen (politician)
 * Alain Madelin (politician)