French want to kill death penalty

France's new Socialist government, in a plan for sweeping reforms of the judicial system, announced its intention to abolish the death penalty. Justice Minister Robert Badinter, like President Francois Mitterand a firm opponent of capital punishment, said a draft law abolishing the death penalty would be subcommited to Parliament in October.

Other reforms would include abolition of the Security and Liberty Law passed during President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's years in office. Its most controversial element obliges citizens to produce identify papers when a policeman asks them to do so.

Mr. Badinter also said the State Security Court would be abolished and its cases transferred to normal courts. The controversial court was set up in 1963 by President de Gaulle to try mutinous Army officers during the French-Algerian War. But in recent years the cases heard concerned violent extremist groups usually seeking autonomy or independence for F rance's overseas territories.