The unnecessary cruelty of the death penalty
Sylvie Bermann says France's long journey to eventual abolition of the death penalty shows other nations that mete out executions, including China, that justice is best served in other ways
Thousands of people are executed every year around the world. Since no justice system is infallible, some of them are inevitably innocent. On this World Day Against the Death Penalty, I would like to stress that the death penalty's irreversible nature makes it unacceptable to many countries. Whatever our language, culture, religious beliefs or the political system under which we live, the idea that a miscarriage of justice cannot be put right is intolerable.
With the death penalty, nothing can be put right, and it is always too late.
France enforced the death penalty for centuries. Attempts to abolish it after the French Revolution either failed (1791 and 1908) or were short-lived (1848). The death penalty remained in force throughout the 19th century and for most of the 20th. It was mostly used for punishing violent crimes resulting in death. The law stipulated that culprits "will have their head cut off" - the modus operandi being the guillotine - and executions were public until 1939. After this date, executions were carried out only behind prison walls, in front of a few witnesses, so as to conceal from public view a punishment increasingly regarded as inhumane.
France eventually abolished the death penalty in 1981. Driven by deeply entrenched moral and philosophical beliefs, president François Mitterrand and the then minister of justice, Robert Badinter, decided to abolish it. It was no easy decision: many thought the death penalty was legitimate, necessary and effective, and the majority of French people were in favour of it.
The culprit’s death is in no way a prerequisite of justice. Revenge is not justice
But the growing awareness that no justice system is infallible, and the consequent, intolerable notion that a miscarriage of justice can lead to the execution of an innocent person, eventually turned the tide of public opinion. Thirty years later, the broad majority of French people now support the death penalty's abolition, and this is part of the French national identity. Abolition is enshrined in the constitution; the reinstatement of the death penalty would be unlawful.
