When did France last use the guillotine?

I would have guessed 1800s, early 1900s at the latest. In fact, the last guillotining in France occurred a mere 32 years ago Thursday.

Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, was convicted on charges of torture, murder, rape and premeditated violence. He was executed by guillotine on September 10, 1977.

He was not a nice man, having raped and murdered several women in his 20s. As it turns out, he not only was the last person guillotined in France, but the last executed there.

Another execution was scheduled for 1981, but capital punishment was abolished that year following the election of François Mitterrand.

While the actual decapitation takes less than a second, some doctors have suggested that it could take up to 30 seconds before the victim lost consciousness, even without a body. Ouch.

I remember my father decapitating chickens when I was young and the headless victims would run around our yard for a brief time. I guess that's not the same thing. In fact, it's kind of the opposite.