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