Somehow, the last guillotine execution was in 1977
WARNING Very gruesome description!
September 10, 1977 seems like way too close to today for a guillotine execution, but that was indeed the date France executed its last prisoner with the decapitation device. To put the date in proper context, Kristen Howard of Mental Floss notes that Star Wars premiered in the country the very next day.
The unlucky participant was Hamida Djandoubi, who had been sentenced to death for torturing and murdering his girlfriend. His motivation for this cruel crime was that he didn’t like the fact that she had contacted the authorities because he’d attempted to force her into selling herself. So, yeah, Djandoubi was not particularly nice, and neither was his end. After his appeal was denied, he was taken to the guillotine at 4:40 a.m. on the day of his execution, and France’s chief executioner Marcel Chevalier did the deed. A doctor attending the event later testified that Djandoubi was responsive up to 30 seconds after his head was severed from the body.
The guillotine had already been under fire as an execution method, and the news of Djandoubi’s half-minute added fuel to the flames. Ultimately, his death wasn’t just the last guillotine execution in the country — it was the last execution, period. Come 1981, France abolished the death penalty.
Somehow, the last guillotine execution was in 1977
WARNING Very gruesome description!
September 10, 1977 seems like way too close to today for a guillotine execution, but that was indeed the date France executed its last prisoner with the decapitation device. To put the date in proper context, Kristen Howard of Mental Floss notes that Star Wars premiered in the country the very next day.
The unlucky participant was Hamida Djandoubi, who had been sentenced to death for torturing and murdering his girlfriend. His motivation for this cruel crime was that he didn’t like the fact that she had contacted the authorities because he’d attempted to force her into selling herself. So, yeah, Djandoubi was not particularly nice, and neither was his end. After his appeal was denied, he was taken to the guillotine at 4:40 a.m. on the day of his execution, and France’s chief executioner Marcel Chevalier did the deed. A doctor attending the event later testified that Djandoubi was responsive up to 30 seconds after his head was severed from the body.
The guillotine had already been under fire as an execution method, and the news of Djandoubi’s half-minute added fuel to the flames. Ultimately, his death wasn’t just the last guillotine execution in the country — it was the last execution, period. Come 1981, France abolished the death penalty.