IS GUILLOTINE'S DEATH PAINFUL? Since Charlotte Corday - the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat - was guillotined in 1793 there has been much debate about this in France. Eyewitnesses had reported her face took on an angry look when the executioner picked up her head and slapped her on the face. This was far from being a scientific observation but it opened a debate that went on till the beginning of the 20th century. Then a French doctor, Beaurieux, was permitted to make an investigation of the severed head of a man called Languille, immediately after his decapitation. According to the article on guillotine on Wikipedia his report reads as follows: “Here is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the decapitated man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about 4 to 6 seconds. I waited several seconds longer. The spasmodic movements ceased. The face relaxed, the lids half-closed in the eyeballs, leaving only the white of the conjunctiva ...