France’s last guillotine execution was in 1977, and the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The guillotine was adopted during the French Revolution as a more humane form of execution. Before this, criminals were executed on a breaking wheel.
The last guillotine execution took place in France in 1977, when a Tunisian immigrant was convicted of the torture and murder of his girlfriend. Hamida Djandoubi ended up losing her mind in the same way that King Louis XVI had almost two centuries before her. The National Assembly adopted the guillotine as the only method of capital punishment in 1790, during the French Revolution. Presumably, it was a more humane form of execution. France finally abolished the death penalty in 1981, putting Marcel Chevalier, France’s top executioner, out of work. Djanoubi was the last person to be executed in France, as well as in all of Western Europe.
Crime and Severe Punishment:
When Hamida Djandoubi was executed in 1977, a doctor present said Djandoubi was responsive up to 30 seconds after being beheaded.
Before the French Revolution, criminals in France were executed on a “breaking wheel,” also called a Catherine wheel, a torture device associated with Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
The break wheel was typically a large spoked wagon wheel. The condemned were tied to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a mallet until they died.
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