INTRODUCTION

In the summer of 1976, France experienced one of its most severe droughts ever. The drought hit the farmers hard and preoccupied Valery Giscard d'Estaing's government. A strong heat wave also afflicted the country for most of the summer. Later in July, the slump of the franc, which lost 8 percent of its value against the dollar, brought more worries to government officials. Along with Britain and Italy, the country was facing the monetary consequences of the economic crisis: Inflation and unemployment were other symptoms of this dire situation. In the middle of the traditional summer vacations, plagued by the late-July heat, many in France enthusiastically followed Guy Drut's victorious race at the Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. In brief, the public had many topics of concern during that summer other than the fate of Christian Ranucci, a twenty-two-year-old man held under sentence of death at the Baumettes' prison in Marseilles for the murder of a young girl. His execution on the morning of July 28 came as a surprise.

While campaigning in 1974, President Giscard d'Estaing expressed a “deep aversion” to the guillotine. Ranucci's defenders believed he was innocent, whereas others thought his youth warranted clemency. If Ranucci's crime had incited outrage and desire for stiff punishment, the newspapers after his execution were mostly critical of the death penalty. In fact, Ranucci's execution reignited the death penalty debate in France. True, there were two more executions in 1977.