NCJ Number
186962
Journal
Deviance and Society (Deviance et Societe) Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 275-296
Date Published
September 2000
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article examines abolition of the death penalty in France.
Abstract
After 2 centuries of recurring debate and abortive attempts at abolition, France abolished the death penalty on October 9, 1981. Analysis of the genesis of the 1981 law led to a much wider study of the long history of attempts at abolition, with particular attention to events in 1791 and 1906, when capital punishment might have been abolished. In 1981, as in 1906, lawyers played a major role in developing the project and bringing it into legislation. Socialized in radical ideological circles, the promoters of the legislation were concerned to reaffirm their loyalty to the republican heritage. Abolition thus appeared to be a legitimate symbolic measure in the period of grace that followed the socialist victory in Spring 1981. The favorable evolution of European legislation, the approval of international organizations, the absence of mobilization of contrary elements through the draining away of controversy, and divisions among retentionists were all favorable to the promoters. Despite sporadic reanimation of the debate, the promoters managed to make absolute the abrogation of the death penalty in 1985 with France's adoption of the sixth additional protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights. Notes, bibliography