It is a legal battle that has lasted for 75 years. The relatives of Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot filed, Wednesday, June 1, their seventh request for review. “We ask the Court of Revision, for the memory of the deceased Mis and Thiennot and for their families who have been fighting for a long time, the annulment of their convictions as soon as their confessions extracted by violence have been punished by the Commission of instruction”explained master Pierre-Emmanuel Blard, one of the lawyers who made the request for the Mis and Thiennot support committee. “This request is the result of a long effort with parliamentarians to change the law and bring it into line with France’s international commitments.”
Both men had been convicted of murdering a game warden in the aftermath of World War II. They will then claim their innocence until their death. Franceinfo plunged back into the “Mis and Thiennot affair” to try to understand why their relatives still speak today of a miscarriage of justice.
We are on December 29, 1946, in the ponds of Berry, a game warden is killed by four gunshots. It is then necessary very quickly to find culprits and young hunters are arrested. Among them: Gabriel Thiennot, 19, and Raymond Mis, 20. “I knew them well and I loved them, explains Léandre Boizeau, honorary president of the Mis et Thiennot support committee. They were remarkable men who had fallen into a dreadful trap.” For 40 years, he has been fighting to clear them. For him, it’s the fight of a lifetime.
Mis and Thiennot did sign confessions in this case, before retracting: they had spoken after eight days of interrogation. At that time, police custody was not supervised at all and the two young men will claim to have been tortured. “These eight days and eight nights of interrogation at the gendarmerie of Mézières en Brenne [Indre]it was hell, says Léandre Boizeau. They are deprived of sleep, deprived of food, they are beaten. And despite their screams, no one comes to their aid. They wonder if they will be able to survive.
“For their memory, we must continue the fight until we obtain compensation”.
Léandre Boizeau, honorary president of the Mis et Thiennot support committeeat franceinfo
The two men will be pardoned by René Coty in 1954, after having served half of their sentence of 15 years of forced labor. “Pardoned by President Coty after eight years in prison, Mis and Thiennot are still running after their lost honour”,summarized a report from Antenne 2 in 1993. Where is the case, 29 years later? Gabriel Thiennot and Raymond Mis are dead. The first in 2003, at 76 years old, the second in 2009, at 83 years old. Today, the fight of their loved ones continues to, they say, clear their honor.
We met, near Châteauroux, in the small town of Déol (Indre), Aurore and Janine, the granddaughter and widow of Gabriel Thiennot. “For me, he has always been innocent and I want to prove it to the whole world, quite simply, says Aurora. It’s a little girl’s dream because I idolize my grandfather, I would have been very proud if he had seen me grow up, it would have been a source of pride. Even if he is no longer there, it is to pay him the most beautiful tribute by continuing to fight for it in the end.”
“He continued to believe in justice despite all that justice had done to him. He firmly believed in the fact that one day or another, he was going to be exonerated.”
Aurore, granddaughter of Gabriel Thiennotat franceinfo
“I’ve always seen it, even in his eyes, it doesn’t deceive. There is something that tells you ‘I believe in it more strongly than anything'”, remembers the granddaughter of Gabriel Thiennot.
After 75 years of proclaiming her husband’s innocence, Janine Thiennot also continues to hope: “I’ve been waiting for it for years and years, I want it to happen so badly. I still barely believe it because we’ve been so disappointed. Will it happen soon enough before I’m gone Yes, that’s what I hope, to go to his grave and say to him ‘there you are, you are recognized as innocent by everyone.’
/2022/05/31/phpdIHri7.jpg)
“We continue the fight because he is no longer there, also entrusted us with Thierry, the son of Gabriel Thiennot. But for us, it’s washing away what we all have left, washing away our honour. I see my mother who is 86 years old. She would like to leave in peace. It would give him enormous pleasure.”
However, not everyone is convinced of the innocence of Mis and Thiennot. Three quarters of a century later, this affair still fascinates, as evidenced by the very recent publication of two books. Two books that call into question the innocence of the two men. This is the case of the counter-investigation of the former police commissioner Jean-Louis Vincent: “There are elements which, in my opinion, really weigh against Mis and Thiennot. I rely on the minutes, the reports. I bring the file to the reader on a tray. But when we read, I think that we have reason to wonder.”
This Wednesday, June 1 in the morning, a seventh petition for review will be filed and this time, if it has a chance of succeeding, it is because of an amendment to the law for confidence in the judicial institution adopted at the end of year. This provision allows the investigating committee of the Court of Revision to proceed with the cancellation of the documents in a file when the conviction results from statements collected “following violence by investigators“. “Confessions extracted under violence cannot be the basis of a conviction when there is nothing else. And that is major”, summarizes the lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard. It is he who will defend the request for review concerning the Mis and Thiennot file. This type of request only concerns convictions pronounced by an assize court before the entry into force of the code of criminal procedure (in 1957) which regulated and supervised police custody.
The commission of instruction of the Court of Revision will say if it considers that the confessions of Mis and Thiennot were indeed extorted by violence and if there is therefore reason to have the case re-tried. The support committee now hopes that the procedure will go quickly so that at 86, the widow of Gabriel Thiennot has a chance to know her husband rehabilitated by justice. “It’s never too late to right such an injustice, even after their death, says Léandre Boizeau.All their life, until their death, they thought about this case which pursued them.”