HAMIDA DJANDOUBI WAS EXECUED IN FRANCE WITH GUILLOTINE AT LAST ON 1977 SEPTEMBER 10
HAMIDA DJANDOUBI WAS EXECUTED IN FRANCE WITH GUILLOTINE AT LAST ON 1977 SEPTEMBER 10 Tunisian immigrant living in Marseilles, Hamida Djandoubi, was executed for the torture-slaying of his girlfriend. He had killed her in revenge, after she reported to authorities that he had tried to force her into prostitution. The guillotine, despite its associations with the French Revolution, was not native to France. Variants were used in other European countries long before Marie Antoinette and Citizen Robespierre lost their heads. One machine was used as early as 1307 to dispense justice in Ireland. France's preferred method of doing away with offenders prior to the Revolution was breaking on the wheel, a ghoulish medieval practice meant to inflict as much pain as possible prior to final release. The guillotine was adopted by Louis XVI as a humane form of execution. Louis himself was soon to find out just how humane it really was. As was the un...