Hamida Djandoubi: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Tunisian murderer, last person to be executed in Western Europe(1949–1977)}}

| image image_name = Hamida Djandoubi.jpg

| birth_place = [[Tunis]], [[French Tunisia]]

| victims = Élisabeth Bousquet, 2221

| cause = [[Execution by guillotine]]beheading

'''Hamida Djandoubi''' ({{lang-langx|ar|حميدة جندوبي|Ḥamīda Jandūbī}}; 22 September 1949 – 10 September 1977) was a Tunisian convicted murderer [[Capital punishment in France|sentenced to death in France]]. He moved to [[Marseille]] in 1968, and six years later he kidnappedwas convicted of the [[kidnapping]], tortured[[torture]] and murdered[[murder]] 22of 21-year-old Élisabeth Bousquet. He was [[capital punishment in France|sentenced to death]] in February 1977 and executed by [[guillotine]] in September that year. He was the last person to be executed in [[Western Europe]],<ref name="Zimring2004">{{cite book|author=Franklin E. Zimring|title=The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRTiBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT33|date=24 September 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-029237-9|pages=33–}}</ref> and also the last person to be lawfully executed by [[decapitation|beheading]] anywhere in the [[Western world]], although he was not the last person sentenced to death in France. [[Marcel Chevalier]] served as chief executioner.<ref name="isf">{{Citation | title = Les deux derniers bourreaux français toujours vivants | url = http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2007/09/10/8914-les-deux-derniers-bourreaux-francais-toujours-vivants.html | publisher = La Dépêche du Midi | date = 10 September 2007 }} (French)</ref>

Born in Tunisia on 22 September 1949, Djandoubi started living in Marseille in 1968, workingwhere he worked in a grocery store. He later worked as a [[landscaper]] but had a workplace accident in 1971: his leg got caught in the tracks of a tractor, and resultedresulting in the loss of two-thirds of his right leg.<ref name="youtube.com">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxaflU33708 Cédric Condom, ''Le Dernier Guillotiné''], [[Planète+]] Justice, 2011 (French)</ref>

After his arrest and eventual release from custody during the spring of 1973, Djandoubi drew two other young girls into his confidence and then forced them into prostitution for him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beadle |first1=Jeremy |last2=Harrison |first2=Ian |title=Firsts, Lasts and Only's: Crime |date=2007 |publisher=Pavilion Books |isbn=978-1-905798-04-9 |page=169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQdOF2zxlGgC&dq=Murder+of+Elisabeth+Bousquet&pg=PA169 |language=en}}</ref> On 3 July 1974, he kidnapped Bousquet and took her into his home where, in full view of the terrified girls, he beat the woman before stubbing a lit cigarette all over her breasts and genital area. Bousquet survived the ordeal so he took her by car to the outskirts of Marseille and strangled her there.{{sfn|Mercer|2008}}<ref>{{cite web |title=The Infamous Guillotine Falls for the Last Time {{!}} History Channel on Foxtel |url=https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/the-infamous-guillotine-falls-for-the-last-time/ |website=History Channel |access-date=8 February 2019 |language=en-AU |date=19 June 2016 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426202646/https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/the-infamous-guillotine-falls-for-the-last-time/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After a lengthy pre-trial process, Djandoubi eventually appeared in court in [[Aix-en-Provence]] on charges of [[torture murder|torture-murder]], [[rape]], and premeditated violence on 24 February 1977. His main defence revolved around the supposed effects of the amputationloss of his leg six years earlier, which his lawyer claimed had driven him to a [[paroxysm]] of [[alcohol abuse]] and violence, turningthat had turned him into "a different man".

On 25 February, he was sentenced to death. An [[appeal against his sentence]] was rejected on 9 June. In the early morning ofOn 10 September 1977, twelveDjandoubi dayswas beforeinformed hisearly 28thin birthday,the Djandoubi was informedmorning that, he,as likein the [[Child murder|child murderers]] cases of [[Christian Ranucci]] (executed on 28 July 1976) and [[Jérôme Carrein]] (executed on 23 June 1977), he had not received a reprieve from President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]]. Shortly afterwards, at 4:40&nbsp;a.m., heDjandoubi was executed by [[guillotine]] at [[Baumettes Prison]] in [[Marseille]].

While Djandoubi was the last person executed in France, he was not the last condemned.<ref name = rfi>{{Citation | title = La dernière exécution capitale date de 30 ans | url = http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/093/article_56265.asp | publisher = Radio France internationale | date = 10 September 2007 }} (French)</ref> NoFifteen moredefendants executionswere occurredsentenced afterto [[capitaldie punishmentbefore in France|capital punishment was abolished in France]] inon 9 October 1981 following the election of [[François Mitterrand]], and those previously sentenced to die had their sentences [[Commutation (law)|commuted]].<ref name = nouvelobs>{{Citation | title = Il y a 30 ans, avait lieu la dernière exécution | url = http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/societe/20070910.OBS4158/il_y_a_30_ans_avait_lieula_derniere_execution.html | publisher = Le Nouvel Observateur | date = 10 September 2007 | access-date = 10 September 2008 | archive-date = 27 February 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080227015639/http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/societe/20070910.OBS4158/il_y_a_30_ans_avait_lieula_derniere_execution.html | url-status = dead }} (French)</ref> Djandoubi's death was the last time any Western nation carried out an execution by beheading, as well as the most recent government-sanctioned guillotine execution in the world.

* {{cite book |last1=Mercer |first1=Jeremy |title=When the Guillotine Fell: The Bloody Beginning and Horrifying End to France's River of Blood, 1791--19771791–1977 |date=2008 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-3608-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlSQE7VekvwC&q=Elisabeth+Bousquet |language=en}}