This groundbreaking decree of the National Assembly, given 20 March 1792, suspended all pendig death punishments and authorized the use of necessary expenses to achieve a more humane method of execution throughout the kingdom. The methods for achieving this humane form of execution is explained in the the annexed text signed by Antoine Louis (see below), the permanent secretary of the Academy of Surgery.

The decree is as follows:

“The National Assembly, considering that the uncertainty regarding the method of execution of Article III of Title 1 of the Penal Code, suspends the punishment of several criminals who are sentenced to death; that it is urgent to put an end to inconveniences which could have unfortunate consequences; that humanity requires that the death penalty be as painless as possible in its execution, decrees that there is an emergency.”

The Penal Code of 1791, title 1, article 3 (Tout condamné aura la tête tranchée, “Every condemned person will have their head cut off”) should be executed “according to the manner indicated and the method adopted by the consultation signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Surgery, which remains annexed to this decree” and the National Assembly “consequently authorizes the Executive Power to incur the necessary expenses to achieve this method of execution, so that it may be uniform throughout the Kingdom.” (p. 1)

Prior to 1791, under the Ancien Régime, there existed a variety of means of capital punishment in France, depending on the crime and the status of the condemned person. In 1791, there was a campaign towards the abolition of the death penalty, but later that year, The National Assembly refused to pass such a law. However, torture was abolished and a single method of execution was declared, that of beheading, which had previously only been applied to nobles.

In 1791-92, the development of a mechanical beheading device was set in force by a committee in order to make the death penalty "as painless as possible in its execution" and "uniform throughout the kingdom”. Note that before the use of a mechanical beheading device, manual beheading and a variety of other methods of execution had been in force in France. Ironically, what is now known as the guillotine was developed with the help from Louis XVI – who was a skilled amateur locksmith – with regards to the shape of the blade.

This change towards a more painless method was ignited by physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin in October 1789 at the National Assembly. Later, a committee was formed under Antoine Louis, the inventor of the guillotine, and physician to the King and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery. This committee included Guillotin, and although he did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. After its adoption, the device remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last execution with a guillotine in France took place in 1977.