Me Gérard Christol was at the national assembly for the abolition of the death penalty: “We were at the heart of Humanity”

Gérard Christol, sixty years in the courtroom, was in the Assembly on September 17, 1981. Free Midi – RICHARD DE HULLESSEN

The Montpellier lawyer remembers this historic moment when he was at the national assembly when Robert Badinter gave his famous speech.

From his almost 60 years at the bar, Me Gérard Christol, the Montpellier lawyer, obviously knew Robert Badinter.

"I would say that he was an exceptional person" salute the one who still works in the courtrooms. Above all, Gérard Christol was present at the National Assembly on September 17, 1981, when the one who, a lawyer, had become Keeper of the Seals after the election of the socialist François Miterrand, in May 1981, defended his text for the abolition of the death penalty.

A great moment. Unique. Which inevitably marked him forever. He also remembers the date and images come back to him.

It was September 17, 1981 and Robert Badinter began with these words: "I have the honor, on behalf of the government and the Republic, to ask the National Assembly to abolish the death penalty in France. And, quoting Jaurés, the Minister of Justice had recalled that this capital punishment "is contrary to what Humanity has thought from above, it is contrary to the faith and the spirit of the revolution. Tomorrow, thanks to you, French justice will no longer be a justice that kills.

The solemn, historical, even dramatic tone, in front of the deputies, for two hours, Me Christol remembers it.

"An exceptional emotion emerged that went beyond the legal framework"  

"Of this speech on the abolition of the death penalty, I have great fond memories of it, he had such oratorical talent and an exceptional emotion emerged which really went beyond the legal framework, we were at the heart of the Human"he says.

"There was the depth of this reasoning and I was reminded that the death penalty still existed and I was reminded of a pleading from& #39;Emile Polak when I was a teenager, who had argued against capital punishment, and it still comes back to me.

The law was passed the next day by the deputies, then at the end of September 1980 by the senators before being promulgated in October.

Today, President Christol, son, grandson and father of a lawyer, recalls the importance, more than 40 years later, of vote for this law.

"It's important to remember the exceptional periods"

"In these difficult times that we are currently experiencing, of change in civilization, it's precisely important to remember the periods of ;#39;exception, those moments when civilization reaches peaks.

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