Robert Badinter

Son of a Bessarabian Jewish immigrant deported and murdered in Sobibor, Badinter graduated in law and literature from the Sorbonne and Columbia University, becoming Paris' most formidable criminal defense barrister. The 1972 execution of his client Roger Bontems ignited his passionate crusade against capital punishment, documented in L'Exécution (1973).

Appointed Minister of Justice in 1981, he delivered a monumental parliamentary address on September 17, 1981, securing the abolition of the guillotine. He modernized penal law, abolished the anti-homosexuality laws, decriminalized consensual relations, served as President of the Constitutional Council, and was hailed as the moral conscience of the Republic.