Badinter Weighs the Morality of Death Penalty Oppositionbr The New York Public Library - New York Public Librarybr Robert Badinter, the French Minister of Justice between 1981 and 1986, led the battle to abolish the death penalty in France.He became a militant abolitionist after watching one of his clients unjustly guillotined in 1972. Over the next decade, he fought the death penalty in the courts and saved six men from the guillotine. After the election of François Mitterrand in 1981, Badinter was named Minister of Justice and pushed through the legislation that abolished the death penalty.Badinter's book, Abolition: One Man's Battle Against the Death Penalty, serves as a guidebook on the various legal and political strategies that can be used in the quest for abolition. With U.S.