In the U.S., capital punishment is resurgent. What lessons can we glean from France’s successful campaign to abolish it?

Hamida Djandoubi smoked a few cigarettes in the last moments before he was executed by guillotine in a Marseilles prison, the ultimate punishment for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet.

This video documents the restoration of an Antique French Guillotine, a historically significant piece used between 1930-1950. Discovered by Tysytube at a flea market in southern France, the ...

A common rumor holds that Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the Frenchman who invented the guillotine, was also eventually executed with the device. But as the Dictionary of Eponyms notes, "Dr. Joseph ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... NANTES, France – A 19th century guillotine in perfect working order goes up for auction in France on Thursday and is expected to fetch up to $82,000, the ...

The idea behind the guillotine is this: If you’re going to execute someone, you may as well do it efficiently and humanely, at least by 18th-century standards. Decapitating the condemned with an ax or ...