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===Death penalty===
In this context, he agreed to defend [[Patrick Henry (French murderer)|Patrick Henry]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-10-10 |title=Paying the life penalty |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/10/worlddispatch.france |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130180947/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/10/worlddispatch.france |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 1976, eight-year-old Philippe Bertrand was kidnapped. Henry was soon picked up as a suspect, but released because of a lack of evidence. He gave interviews on television, saying that those who kidnapped and killed children deserved death. A few days later, he was arrested again and shown Bertrand's corpse hidden in a blanket under his bed. Badinter and Robert Bocquillon defended Henry, making the case not about Henry's guilt, but against applying the death penalty. Henry was sentenced to life imprisonment and died months after a [[compassionate release]] from prison in 2017 (after receiving parole in 2001, revoked in 2002).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Devin |first=Willy Le |title=Patrick Henry, un prisonnier condamné pour l'éternité |url=https://www.liberation.fr/france/2017/12/03/patrick-henry-un-prisonnier-condamne-pour-l-eternite_1614221/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=Libération |language=fr |archive-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130180935/https://www.liberation.fr/france/2017/12/03/patrick-henry-un-prisonnier-condamne-pour-l-eternite_1614221/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The lenient verdict came as a shock, with several publications having already called the outcome as a virtual certainty for execution; according to speculative sources, the critical vote on the death sentence failing by a seven-to-five vote majority.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1981-09-19 |title=Les six |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1981/09/19/les-six_2714985_1819218.html |access-date=2024-02-23 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=fr}}</ref><ref>https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2673</ref> The case of [[Jerome Carrein]], condemned to 15 days after Henry's sentence for the murder of a child, was widely dubbed the "revenge of the guillotine".<ref>https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/l-affaire-carrein-ou-la-revanche-de-la-guillotine-21-01-2018-7514370.php</ref><ref>https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/24/archives/guillotining-of-a-killer-in-france-denounced.html</ref> Until the execution of [[Gary Gilmore]] in [[Utah]] on 17 January, three days before Henry's verdict, France was the only Western liberal democracy actively performing executions.
Despite president [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]]'s modernist outlook and stated opposition to the guillotine, a further three executions took place during this period, of [[Christian Ranucci]] in July 1976, Carrein in June 1977, and [[Hamida Djandoubi]] in September 1977. Badinter took no part in arguing either case.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Willsher |first1=Kim |title=Valéry Giscard d'Estaing obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/03/valery-giscard-destaing-obituary |access-date=13 February 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=3 December 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027172805/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/03/valery-giscard-destaing-obituary |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=WaPo/> However, 63% of French voters supported keeping the death penalty at the time it was abolished.<ref name=DPRU/> In 1980-81, Badinter defended [[Philippe Maurice]], whose sentence of death was confirmed by the [[Court of Cassation (France)|superior court]] in March 1981, weeks before the [[French presidential election, 1981|election of]] abolitionist [[François Mitterrand]] to [[President of France|President]].<ref name=DPRU>{{cite web |publisher=Death Penalty Research Unit |title=The DPRU honours Robert Badinter (1928–2024) |url=https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/news/dpru-honours-robert-badinter-1928-2024 |author=Carolyn Hoyle |date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/2024-02-09/robert-badinter-l-a-sauve-voici-l-histoire-du-dernier-condamne-a-mort-francais-devenu-historien-c1eb6814-8bed-4f0b-aaff-5e6ecb94d7d3</ref> A further eight sentences of death were issued before the bill of abolition was passed by the French parliament in September (the last only two days before the Senate voted) but none reached stage of execution and were converted by the abolition act.<ref>lemonde.fr/archives/article/1981/09/19/les-six_2714985_1819218.html</ref><ref>http://cewamale.free.fr/Geneami/condamnations.html</ref> Maurice's sentence, after lobbying from Badinter, was commuted by Mitterrand on May 25, among Mitterrand's first acts as president.<ref name=WaPo>{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=France Will Retire Its Guillotine and Abolish the Death Penalty |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/09/18/france-will-retire-its-guillotine-and-abolish-the-death-penalty/3ab103aa-ebc0-40db-a311-a7525c704a4b/ |author=Edward Cody |date=17 September 1981}}</ref>
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