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WonderHistory fact

France kept the guillotine as its standard method of execution until the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The last person executed with it was Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer, in Marseille on 10 September 1977.

History

History

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The machine is named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a doctor who in 1789 asked the National Assembly for a single, quicker method of execution for everyone, whatever their rank. He did not invent it: the surgeon Antoine Louis and the engineer Tobias Schmidt built the first one, and it was first used in Paris in April 1792. During the Reign of Terror of 1793–94, about 17,000 people were guillotined. Executions stayed public until 1939, when the crowd's behaviour at one in Versailles led the government to move them inside prisons. The 1977 execution turned out to be France's last. In 1981 the justice minister Robert Badinter steered abolition through Parliament, and in 2007 a ban on the death penalty was written into the French constitution.

Türkçe oku
Fransa, idam cezasını 1981'de kaldırana kadar mahkûmları giyotinle idam etti. Giyotinle idam edilen son kişi, cinayetten hüküm giymiş Hamida Djandoubi'ydi; infaz 10 Eylül 1977'de Marsilya'da yapıldı.

Alet adını hekim Joseph-Ignace Guillotin'den alır. Guillotin 1789'da Ulusal Meclis'e, toplumsal konumu ne olursa olsun herkese uygulanacak tek ve daha hızlı bir idam yöntemi önermişti. Ama aleti icat eden o değildi: İlk giyotini cerrah Antoine Louis ile mühendis Tobias Schmidt yaptı ve alet ilk kez Nisan 1792'de Paris'te kullanıldı. 1793–1794'teki Terör Dönemi'nde yaklaşık 17.000 kişi giyotinle idam edildi. İnfazlar 1939'a kadar halka açık yapıldı; o yıl Versailles'daki bir infazda kalabalığın taşkınlıkları üzerine hükümet idamları cezaevlerinin içine taşıdı. 1977'deki infaz Fransa'nın son infazı oldu. 1981'de Adalet Bakanı Robert Badinter idam cezasının kaldırılmasını parlamentodan geçirdi; 2007'de de idam yasağı Fransız Anayasası'na yazıldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Guillotine
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