PARIS - An average person in France could not help but be familiar with the case of Betty Lou Beets, the Texas woman who was executed on Thursday for killing her fifth husband. Her story, with particular attention to her assertion that she was abused by her father and husbands, has been on the front page of many newspapers here.

The French also know about Odell Barnes, also of Texas, who is scheduled to be executed March 1, and who has been the subject of several articles by journalists and editorial writers here contemplating whether he is innocent. A few months ago, thousands of Parisians took to the streets in support of another American inmate: Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Black Panther convicted of murder.

The United States may have become accustomed to the revival of the death penalty, but much of Western Europe is appalled by it. While executions get little notice in American newspapers anymore, the United States' willingness to put prisoners to death is often scrutinized here.

In fact, there is so much political mileage to be gotten from criticizing the executions that a candidate for Paris mayor recently went all the way to Texas to meet with Mr. Barnes.

Many Europeans find it a contradiction that the United States claims to be a leader in protecting human rights when it executed more than 75 people last year. Since the 1976 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the reinstitution of executions, 38 states have adopted a death penalty.

To many French citizens, deploring the rise in executions in the United States is no different from taking a stand against Serbian attacks on Kosovo or the Russian bombardment of Chechnya. All European Union countries either ban the death penalty or long ago placed a moratorium on its use.

"For us, what the Americans are doing is completely incomprehensible, that such an advanced country can be involved in such an act of barbarism," said Henry Leclerc, the president of the Human Rights League in Paris, "No European country does this. No advanced country does this. America is doing it along with countries like China and Russia and other countries that have terrible human rights records. To us, it looks the same as if the Americans were endorsing torture or slavery."

France gave up the guillotine in 1981, after long and heated debate, even though polls showed that the majority of the French still favored executions. But the numbers have changed significantly since then. A recent poll indicated that only 46 percent still favored the death penalty.

France's neighbors feel much the same. Last year, the European Union announced that it would submit a resolution to the United Nations Human Rights Commission calling for an end to the death penalty. The move was seen as a criticism of the United States, though it was not mentioned by name.

In Italy, sentiment against the death penalty runs particularly strong. More than two million people have signed a petition calling for the death penalty to be abolished worldwide.

The Colosseum is illuminated in gold whenever a death sentence is commuted anywhere around the world.

One of Italy's leading clothes manufacturers, United Benetton, has been running an ad campaign with photographs of American inmates on death row in seven states. The "We, on death row" ads have caused a uproar in the United States. Sears, Roebuck & Company says it will stop sales of Benetton USA apparel, and Missouri officials have sued the company, saying those who photographed the inmates misrepresented what they were doing.

Some French rights activists believe that Mr. Barnes may have been framed for the murder of a friend. Jack Lang, who on Thursday declared his candidacy for Paris mayor, made news recently when he traveled to Texas to see Mr. Barnes.

Patrick Baudouin, the president of the International League of Human Rights, pointed out that France also takes other countries to task for sentencing prisoners to death. But he said the outrage reserved for America was special.

"We think of America as being in our camp -- a democracy that defends liberty and human rights," he said. "Of the countries we consider in our camp, it is the only one that goes on with the death penalty."

He says he is well aware that Americans are not listening to European opinion on the matter.

"We know that when we have a press conference here, it does not do a lot," Mr. Baudouin said. "But 15 years ago, no one would have guessed the Berlin Wall was coming down. You keep pressing ahead. We are in an age of globalization, and sometimes our American friends have a lesson to teach us, and maybe sometime we have a lesson to teach them."

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