Omar Raddad has been claiming his innocence for almost 30 years. This Moroccan gardener was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal, for whom he worked. The message “Omar killed me” (sic) had been written on a door with the blood of the victim. Partially pardoned by Jacques Chirac in 1996 and released in 1998, Omar Raddad has since started a long fight for his rehabilitation.
The second request for review of his conviction, on the basis of new analyzes of traces of DNA, will be examined Thursday, November 25 by the Court of Cassation. But what are the conditions for submitting an application? Have there been any similar cases? We take stock.
1What does it consist of?
An application for review of a criminal decision may be requested exceptionally if and only if a new or unknown fact at the time of the trial reappears. It is the Court of Revision and Reconsideration which examines the requests. If accepted, the court may decide to quash the conviction or retry the case. It is possible to request a review at any time, even if the convicted person is dead or if the facts are statute-barred.
The procedure for reviewing a criminal conviction in France has only existed since 1945. But until 1989, the conditions were very strict, since a “new element” was needed to establish innocence. Since the law of June 23, 1989, the new fact must be “such as to give rise to a doubt about guilt”. In addition, the law of June 15, 2000 on the presumption of innocence allows the convicted accused the possibility of appealing against a verdict of the Assize Court. Previously, the popular jury being considered infallible, only the cassation appeal was allowed. Finally, another amendment brought by the new text of the law “Confidence in the judicial institution”, which should be promulgated on December 15, expressly provides for the introduction of a new case of review when the guilt of the person results from confessions obtained through torture.
What about in civil? The review of a court decision is only possible when there has been fraud on the part of the winning party or if a decisive document has been deliberately kept. In this case, the request must be made through a bailiff before the court which issued the initial decision, be it a judicial, local or appeal court. Everyone has two months from the time they get the items. The deadline varies for people living abroad or overseas.
2Is it exceptional?
Reviews of criminal convictions remain rare in France in criminal cases. Since 1945, only around ten accused have benefited from a review and an acquittal during their lifetime: among them, Loïc Sécher in 2011, Patrick Dils in 2002, Kader Azzimani and Brahim El Jabri in 2014.
Among the unsuccessful claims, the Seznec case remains one of the greatest legal puzzles of the 20th century. Guillaume Seznec was sentenced to prison in 1924 for the murder of the general councilor of Finistère Pierre Quéméneur. Without proof, nor confession, nor corpse. The man tried unsuccessfully to have his trial reviewed in 1926. After his death, his family filed a dozen requests for review, all of which were rejected.
Another name synonymous with judicial error in France: Marc Machin. Wrongly accused of the murder of Marie-Agnès Bedot on the Neuilly bridge in 2001, he spent nearly six years behind bars. Victim of a miscarriage of justice, he was acquitted in review in December 2012. Meanwhile, the perpetrator, David Sagno, was taken prisoner in March 2008, which allowed Marc’s conviction to be quashed. Machin by the Court of Revision. Justice then awarded him 663,320 euros in compensation.
3 What are the most recent (and upcoming) cases?
In addition to the example of Marc Machin, we can cite the cases of Loïc Sécher, acquitted in 2011 after spending seven years behind bars for a rape he did not commit, or that of Kader Azzimani and Brahim El Jabri, acquitted in 2014 after having been imprisoned respectively for 11 and a half and 13 years for the murder of Abdelaziz Jhilal, in Lunel in 1997. They had been sentenced on June 25, 2004 to 20 years of criminal imprisonment by the Perpignan Court of Appeal .
One of the emblematic cases that could give rise to a rehabilitation is that of Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot, two hunters from Mézières-en-Brenne. They had been convicted of the murder of gamekeeper Louis Boistard, found on December 31, 1946 in a pond in Saint-Michel-en Brenne, in the Indre. A few weeks later, these two hunters confessed, then retracted. The two men then explained that they had been forced to confess by acts of torture.
Since then, a support committee has fought for their exoneration, but six requests for review have been rejected. With this new law, which “provides for a new case of review where the guilt of the person results from a confession obtained through torture”, in the words of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, the revision of the trial of Mis and Thiennot is possible. According to France Bleu Berry, the support committee intends to file a seventh request for review of their trial. A committee will then have to decide on the admissibility of the request.
Finally, another major case: that of Dany Leprince. On September 4, 1994, Christian Leprince, his wife and two of their daughters, aged 7 and 10, were found dead in their house in Thorigné-sur-Dué (Sarthe), massacred with a chopper. Solène, their 2-year-old daughter, is the only survivor. Found guilty of murdering his brother, his sister-in-law and two of their children, Dany Leprince was sentenced to life in 1997. He was released from prison in 2012, but demands an acquittal.