France executed the last person by guillotine as recently as the same year "Star Wars: A New Hope" came out.
The first "Star Wars" movie was released on May 25, 1977. As evilcheerio pointed out on Reddit, the last person executed by guillotine in France was Hamida Djandoubi, on September 10, 1977. He was the last person to be legally executed by beheading in the Western world and the last person to be legally executed in the European Union.