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.
During the period when the Nazi Party controlled Germany, Herman Goering made the headsman’s ax the official method of capital punishment in that country.
Terry D. Clark was the last person in New Mexico to be executed, he had refused to ask for a stay of execution and died by lethal injection in 2001, he probably would have got the stay of execution had he asked for it, two people “Black Jack” Ketchum in 1901 and Lucius Hightower in 1916, were accidentally decapitated by the noose due to their weight in New Mexico … we don’t execute a lot of people here and it tends to go wrong
Jesy Bertz Premium Member 6 months ago
Leopold at least owed the guy a heads-up.
Yakety Sax 6 months ago
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.
SHIVA 6 months ago
Somewhere, somebody will somehow find a way to bring it back!!!
The Orange Mailman 6 months ago
Smart Iron Maidens will be all the rage.
tobe1 6 months ago
TIL…
ladykat 6 months ago
Who’s the victim, Leopold?
6turtle9 6 months ago
Awwwwww, now Travis has a friend!
Claymore Premium Member 6 months ago
During the period when the Nazi Party controlled Germany, Herman Goering made the headsman’s ax the official method of capital punishment in that country.
chireef 6 months ago
Terry D. Clark was the last person in New Mexico to be executed, he had refused to ask for a stay of execution and died by lethal injection in 2001, he probably would have got the stay of execution had he asked for it, two people “Black Jack” Ketchum in 1901 and Lucius Hightower in 1916, were accidentally decapitated by the noose due to their weight in New Mexico … we don’t execute a lot of people here and it tends to go wrong