guillotine executions

The Last Guillotine Execution: When Was It Used & Why It Ended Forever

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The Last Guillotine Execution: When Was It Used & Why It Ended Forever

The blade descended for the final time on September 10, 1977, in the small French town of Marseille. A man named Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of murdering a young woman, became the last person executed by guillotine in France. This moment wasn’t just the end of a machine’s operational life—it was the death knell for an … Read more

The Last Execution: When and Why Was the Guillotine Used for the Final Time?

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The Last Execution: When and Why Was the Guillotine Used for the Final Time?

The blade descended for the last time on September 10, 1977, in France’s central prison of Fleury-Mérogis. The man beneath it, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of brutalizing and murdering a 21-year-old woman, became the final victim of the guillotine—a device that had claimed tens of thousands of lives over two centuries. His execution … Read more