In 1830, the poet entered politics. Rallying behind the July Monarchy, he backed the law of 28 April 1832, which modified the penal code at the initiative of Louis-Philippe. The king was not a strong supporter of the ultimate punishment, and mitigating circumstances were generalised under his authority. This led to an automatic reduction in the number of death sentences. Lamartine took up the cause, publishing two abolitionist speeches in the Journal de la morale chrétienne. Then, on 17 March 1838, during debates on abolitionist proposals in the Chamber of representatives, he declared that the death penalty had become useless and harmful in an advanced society.

“The systematic abolition of the death penalty in our laws would be a more potent deterrent and example to prevent crime than the drops of blood that are spilled from time to time before the people, so futilely, as you yourselves acknowledge, as if to preserve their taste for it. But there is a new sanction, a moral sanction; a non-carnal, non-lethal, non-bloody sanction, as powerful, a thousand times more powerful than yours, a sanction which society is gradually substituting for the other, as society itself grows more spiritual and moral. This consists in the powerlessness of the criminal to reoffend, in the corrective action that is inflicted on him, in the solitude that forces him to reflect, in the work that tames the passions, in the education that enlightens, in the religion that changes the heart, and finally in the whole range of these preventive and corrective measures that preserve society and improve the criminal: between these two systems, there is the entire space that has been traversed from the stakes and torture, to the penitentiary system. Well, we contend that you have reached such a point of social spiritualisation and moralisation that you should take the last step and abolish the death penalty, which you hardly apply any more. From the moment you recognise the principle of the moral regeneration of man, and you set about putting it into effect in the organisation of the prison system, the death penalty becomes an incoherence and an impiety.”

This had no immediate result, but he continued his combat, publishing several articles in which he argued for the total abolition of the death penalty, notably in the Gazette des tribunaux. His efforts led to a parliamentary review in 1848. As head of government of the fledgling Second Republic, he drafted a proclamation on the principle of the inviolability of human life and had a decree passed abolishing the death penalty in political matters.

The death penalty was therefore abolished in the following cases and replaced by deportation for life in a fortified compound:

1 – The act of a French citizen bearing arms against France (Article 75 of the Penal Code);  

2 – Schemes or intelligence shared with foreign powers, to incite them to commit hostilities or to provide them with the means to do so (Article 76), manoeuvres to facilitate their entry into the territory, to deliver them sites, arsenals, etc. (Articles 77, 78 and 79), and even acts against the allies of France acting against a common enemy (Article 79);

3 – Crime of treason (Articles 80 and 81);

4 – Harbouring spies or known enemy soldiers (Article 83);

5 – Attack on the form of government, with a view to inciting civil war, unlawful raising of troops, unlawful taking or keeping of a military command, invasion of property by armed groups (Articles 87, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97 and the Law of 24 May 1834, Article 5);

6 - Conspiracy against internal State security by a coalition of civil servants (Article 125).

Three representatives of the Chamber, Coquerel, Rabuan and Buvignier, tabled an amendment to delete the words “in political matters”. The Provisional Government of the Second Republic opened a debate on 15 September on the issue of total abolition. But it was too early, the representatives did not follow through.

Nevertheless, we credit Lamartine with having used the law to chip away at the principle of the death penalty in France.

Marie Bardiaux-Vaïente