On October 13, 2025, at the Mucem in Marseille, I had the pleasure of attending an event dedicated to Robert Badinter and his fight to abolish the death penalty, particularly when he was a lawyer and then Minister of Justice, before becoming president of the Conseil Constitutionnel (Constitutional Council).
This news provides an opportunity to shine a spotlight on L’Exécution (1973), an intense narration in which Badinter looks back on the Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems case.
The Bontems case
In 1971, in Clairvaux prison, Buffet and Bontems took hostages in an attempt to escape. The operation ended in tragedy: a guard and a nurse were killed. Buffet confessed to the murders, but Bontems, although present and an accomplice, did not fire the fatal shot
Charged as an accomplice to murder, he was sentenced to death.
Robert Badinter requested a presidential pardon, which was refused.
Bontems’ execution had a profound effect on Robert Badinter. As a lawyer, he witnessed the execution of the sentence handed down to his client. He was deeply and lastingly affected by the experience—for life.
He described capital punishment as legal murder, intrinsically violent, with no proven deterrent effect. The role of the lawyer and the moral implications.
This is the subject of L’Exécution.
Why do we like it ?
L’Exécution is not just a specific legal testimony: it is an ethical reflection on the power of the state and the responsibility of lawyers. Robert Badinter shows that defending a client in such a context goes beyond technique: it is about his deepest convictions, which are to resist injustice, protect human dignity, and transform the law into a lever of conscience.
With Robert Badinter now enshrined in the Pantheon, this book takes on particular resonance. It reminds us that his role as a lawyer—a profession he said he entered by “ fortunate chance ”—was never neutral: he made the defense of his clients a moral and civic act, helping to transform the French justice system and abolish the death penalty.
