Death of Robert Badinter, Former French justice minister and the abolition of the death penalty

We mourn the loss of Robert Badinter, a man President Emmanuel Macron described as a, “lawyer, Keeper of the Seals, the man behind the abolition of the death penalty in France,” who, “never ceased advocating the Enlightenment. He was a great figure of the century, with a republican conscience and French spirit.”

In this interview given for an event at the Embassy of France honoring the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty, Mr. Badinter fervently advocated for universal abolition and for the United States to outlaw capital punishment: “Abolition is the law of history.”