The guillotine was invented with the specific intention of making capital punishment less painful in accordance with Enlightenment ideals, as previous methods of execution in France had proven to be substantially more painful and prone to error. After its adoption, the device remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was guillotined on 10 September 1977. Djandoubi was the last person executed by guillotine by any government in the world.