[2] Born in Paris, he belonged to a well-known family, his great-grandfather, Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts, count of Saint-Fargeau, having been Controller-General of Finances.

Le Peletier entered into politics by becoming a lawyer ("avocat") in the employ of the Place du Châtelet, a prison.

[3] Initially, he shared the conservative views of the majority of his class, but by degrees his ideas changed and became increasingly radical.

In the Constituent Assembly he moved the abolition of the death penalty, of the galleys and of branding, and the substitution of beheading for hanging.

His educational plan was supported by Robespierre and his ideas were borrowed in later schemes, notably by Jules Ferry.

On 20 January 1793, the eve of the king's execution, Le Peletier was assassinated in a restaurant in the Palais Royal.

Just a month after the assassination, on 23 February 1793, the Opéra-Comique presented the first of four performances of a musical treatment of his life and death called Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, ou Le premier martyr de la République française, with a libretto by Auguste-Louis Bertin d'Antilly and music by Frédéric Blasius.

A Sèvres biscuit porcelain bust of Louis Michel Le Peletier is on display in the Château de Vizille, Isère.