The guillotine, a relic of the French Revolution, met its final use in a silent Marseille prison yard. At 4:40 AM on September 10, 1977, Hamida Djandoubi became the last person executed by guillotine in France. Convicted of torturing and murdering his former girlfriend and previously convicted of rape, his appeals failed and his request for a presidential pardon was rejected by President Valery Giscard dEstaing, who privately opposed capital punishment. In 1981, France abolished the death penalt

The guillotine was introduced during the height of the French Revolution, an era demanding equality and justice. This machine was considered a humane form of capital punishment compared to the existing methods. Its design, attributed to Dr. Joseph Guillotin and Tobias Schmidt, was intended to make execution quick and painless. The first person to experience its blade was a highwayman named Nicolas Jacques Pelletier in Paris. The crowd that gathered was expecting a spectacle but was left in silen