BOOKS: Abolition, One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty

A com­pelling nar­ra­tive of the legal and polit­i­cal fight to end the death penal­ty in France has just been released in an English trans­la­tion. Abolition: One Man’s Battle Against the Death Penalty is authored by Robert Badinter, prob­a­bly the sin­gle per­son most respon­si­ble for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in France. He begins his sto­ry in 1972 when one of his clients was guil­lotined in a case he felt was unjust. Upon ded­i­cat­ing his career to abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, he agreed to rep­re­sent any con­vict fac­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and he suc­ceed­ed in hav­ing six death sen­tences over­turned. Readers fol­low Badinter’s jour­ney from writ­ing the leg­is­la­tion to ban the death penal­ty to the push through the National Assembly and Senate. His nar­ra­tive moves from court­room expe­ri­ences to the polit­i­cal front through­out this mem­oir. Badinter cur­rent­ly sits in the French Senate and is one of the founders of the World Congress Against the Death Penalty.

The new edi­tion can be pur­chased at Amazon​.com. (R. Badinter, Abolition: One man’s bat­tle against the death penal­ty, Northeastern University Press, 2008; trans­lat­ed by Jeremy Mercer). See Books.