End of ‘Madame la Guillotine’?

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 8

End of ‘Madame la Guillotine’?

R.NZPA-Reuter Paris The five cohdemned men on death; row in French prisons will escape, the blade of the guillotine because of Francois Mitterrand's election. The “national razor,” which has lopped off an estimated 4600 heads since it was set up in what is now the Place de la Concorde during the- French Revolu-

tion, may never be used again. Mr Mitterrand formally reaffirmed his opposition to the death penalty during the election campaign. He said the law gave “an excessive power to one man: to dispose of the life of another. My disposition is that of a man who will not proceed to capital executions.” After his election, a' lawyer, Robert Badinter, a

leading death penalty abolitionist and one of the inner circle of socialist leaders said: “A new era opened for French justice on May 10 (election day).” Mr Badinter noted that formal abolition of the death penalty could only be done by Parliament, and such a move must await the legislative elections next month. President Valery Giscard

d'Estaing said he was against capital punishment when successfully campaigning against Mr Mitterrand in 1974. In office, he granted clemency to four men. but let. three others be executed. Following the practice during the Charles de Gaulle Government. executions were done in the cases of murders of prison officers, or when particular cruelty was involved.