Former French President Giscard d'Estaing feels 'no regrets' over Ranucci execution

In an interview to be aired this week on French television, former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 84, says that he feels "no regrets" for allowing the execution of Christian Ranucci in 1976.

Christian Ranucci, 22, was guillotined after he was convicted of kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Marie-Dolorès Rambla. Ranucci proclaimed his innocence until he was executed at dawn in Marseilles' Beaumettes prison. His last words were to his lawyers: 'Rehabilitate me!', he said.

"Ranucci was guilty, he had been sentenced to death by a jury, the punishment needed to be carried out," the former President says about the controversial Ranucci case.

"I do not regret my decision. The case files (...) and the trials proved that he was guilty," the former French President says in the interview.

A tight election race, high pro-death penalty ratings in opinion polls after similar abduction-and-murder cases occurred in France contributed to Giscard d'Estaing turning a blind eye to some of the case's inconsistencies and ultimately rejecting Ranucci's clemency plea, the film's authors suggest.

Christian Ranucci was executed on 28 July 1976 for kidnapping and killing a young girl two years earlier. He claimed his innocence throughout the trial, although he initially confessed to the crime. He later recanted, arguing that his confession had been obtained under duress after being interrogated for 17 hours.

Christian Ranucci

Ranucci's lawyers pointed out several discrepancies in the case, such as finding no evidence of the child's presence in Ranucci's car, conflicting and varying eyewitness testimonies, discarded exculpating evidence and testimonies, potential tampering with evidence by the Marseilles police, and prosecution malpractice.

These discrepancies and inconsistencies became the prime material used by journalist and writer Gilles Perrault in his book, "Le Pull-Over Rouge" (The Red Sweater). Perrault questions Ranucci's guilt, suggests that the investigation was botched and claims that Ranucci was executed despite "extremely inconclusive evidence" because the country needed swift action.

Christian Ranucci was tried in Aix-en-Provence on March 9-March 10, 1976 and sentenced to death. His appeal for a second trial was overturned by a higher court on June 16. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing refused to commute Ranucci's death sentence.

Ironically, a local television station that had been misinformed by an erroneous Agence France-Presse dispatch mistakenly announced on the eve of the execution that Ranucci's death sentence had been commuted. Prison officers who had watched the TV news bulletin rushed to inform Ranucci that his life had been spared. Over half an hour later, a presidential press release officially denied that claim.

Christian Ranucci was the first of the last three death row inmates executed in France. Although Giscard d'Estaing had publicly stated before his election that he "felt a deep loathing for the death penalty" and wished to have it replaced with life in prison without the possibility of parole, he allowed three executions to be carried out during his tenure, Christian Ranucci in 1976, then Jérôme Carrein and Hamida Djandoubi in 1977, while he commuted four death sentences to life in prison.

These were the last executions carried out in France. Hamida Djandoubi was the last death-row inmate executed in France.

Capital punishment was abolished in France in 1981 after François Mitterrand became President of France. Mitterrand urged his then Justice Minister and renowned abolitionist Robert Badinter to draft a Bill providing for the abolishment of the death penalty and its replacement with life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Mr. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing also says in tonight's interview that he would "probably" have maintained the death penalty if he had been re-elected as President of France in 1981. "I think that I would not have made the decision [to seek the abolition of the death penalty]", he says. He also says that he remains "careful" about [abolishing the death penalty], even after so many years.

"To me, the death penalty was legitimized by its deterrence value. I am on the side of victims for one very simple reason, and that is because victims can't talk. And when the victims are children or frail, abused or tortured women, I think that it is no longer tolerable and that deterrence must be put into practice."

Sources: AFP & Death Penalty News staff, October 11, 2010

Comments

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

After Nearly 30 Years and a Supreme Court Reversal: Assessing the Likely Result of Richard Glossip’s Oklahoma Retrial

DPN asked Grok for a legal analysis of Richard Glossip’s upcoming murder retrial and its likely disposition. Most likely outcome of Richard Glossip’s retrial: acquittal or a hung jury leading to dismissal or no further prosecution, rather than a conviction for first-degree murder. A conviction remains possible but is the less probable result given the severely damaged core evidence and the state’s own prior admissions. Death is off the table. Case background

Doctors warn against Tennessee death penalty protocols

Tennessee’s execution protocol is medically unethical and should be revamped before further executions occur, nearly 40 health care professionals said in a letter to Gov. Bill Lee. Like the coalition of faith leaders who asked for a moratorium on executions earlier this month, the physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals who signed the July 28 letter said they were motivated to speak up after the gruesome and botched execution of Tony Carruthers in May. Carruthers spent 90 minutes bleeding and writhing in agony as an attending physician made repeated unsuccessful attempts to insert an IV into the inmate’s chest after being unable to find useable veins in the arms, legs, and feet. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the ordeal.

Iran executes 20-year-old protester as fears grow for other detainees

Iranian authorities executed 20-year-old protester Arvin Kheirkhah at Shahroud prison on Saturday morning, according to information obtained by Iran International, amid concerns that several other detainees could also face execution. Kheirkhah was arrested during the January protests and sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court on charges including moharebeh , or “waging war against God.” He was transferred to solitary confinement on Wednesday ahead of the execution. His family gathered outside Shahroud prison on Friday night in an attempt to stop the sentence from being carried out. According to information received by Iran International, Kheirkhah told his family in a final conversation: “Don’t let them forget me. We stood up for the liberation of our homeland. Don’t let the path we chose be silenced.”

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

Florida | Judge refuses to let convicted serial killer speak as she sentences him to death

A Florida judge denied a request from a convicted serial killer to speak in court as she sentenced him to death on Tuesday. A jury convicted Demorris Hunter, 60, of 1st-degree murder and theft in the death of Theresa Ann Green, 38, who was strangled and left in the trunk of her car. “Demorris Andy Hunter, you have not only forfeited your right to dwell among us as a free man, but by your actions and under the law of the State of Florida, you have forfeited your right to live, as well,” Judge Lisa Munyon said as she handed down the sentence Tuesday morning.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog