when was the last time the guillotine was used in france
10 September 1977
title: Guillotine text: the French Revolution, executions began again in the city center. On 4 February 1832, the guillotine was moved behind the church of Saint Jacques, just before being moved again, to the Grande Roquette prison, on 29 November 1851. On 6 August 1909, the guillotine was used on the junction of the Boulevard Arago and the Rue de la Santé, behind the La Santé Prison. The last public guillotining in France was of Eugen Weidmann, who was convicted of six murders. He was beheaded on 17 June 1939 outside the prison Saint-Pierre, rue Georges Clemenceau 5 at Versailles, which is now title: Guillotine text: Revolution, where it was celebrated as the people's avenger by supporters of the revolution and vilified as the pre-eminent symbol of the Reign of Terror by opponents. The name dates from this period, but similar devices had been used elsewhere in Europe over several centuries. The display of severed heads had long been one of the most common ways a European sovereign displayed their power to their subjects. The guillotine remained France’s standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was guillotined on title: Guillotine text: the Palais de Justice. A number of problems with that execution (inappropriate behavior by spectators, incorrect assembly of the apparatus, and the fact that it was secretly filmed) caused the French government to order that future executions be conducted in private in the prison courtyard. The guillotine remained the official method of execution in France until the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The final three guillotinings in France before its abolition were those of child-murderers Christian Ranucci (on 28 July 1976) in Marseille, Jérôme Carrein (on 23 June 1977) in Douai and torturer-murderer Hamida Djandoubi (on 10 September 1977) title: Hamida Djandoubi text: Christian Ranucci (guillotined on July 28, 1976) and Jérôme Carrein (guillotined on June 23, 1977), had not received a reprieve from President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Shortly afterwards, at 4:40 a.m., he was executed by guillotine at Baumettes Prison in Marseille. While Djandoubi was the last person executed in France, he was not the last condemned. No more executions occurred after capital punishment was abolished in France in 1981 following the election of François Mitterrand. Hamida Djandoubi Hamida Djandoubi (; September 22, 1949 – September 10, 1977) was a Tunisian agricultural worker and convicted murderer. He moved to Marseille, France, in title: Capital punishment in France text: row to life imprisonment. The last execution took place by guillotine, being the main legal method since the French Revolution; Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian citizen convicted of torture and murder on French soil, who was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille. Major opponents to the death penalty in French history include philosopher Voltaire, poet Victor Hugo, politicians Léon Gambetta, Jean Jaurès and Aristide Briand, and writers Alphonse de Lamartine and Albert Camus. Prior to 1791, under the Ancien Régime, there existed a variety of means of capital punishment in France, depending on the crime and the status of