It is an old case of more than 75 years which could finally know its epilogue. A seventh petition for review will be filed during the second half of March in the Mis and Thiennot file, from the name of these two men accused and sentenced for the murder of a game warden in Brenne (Indre). Confessions had been extracted from the two men under torture in 1946, they then returned to these forced confessions. The families of Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot, as well as their support committee, have been fighting for years to have them exonerated. Six requests for review have already been rejected, but it could be different this time because a new law has just been promulgated in December; it allows the annulment of confessions made under violence. Partially pardoned by René Coty, Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot have however never been exonerated so far.
A new hope
The seventh petition for review is being prepared. It will first have to be submitted to a commission, before being sent to the Review Chamber, made up of 18 magistrates. The lawyers of the Mis and Thiennot support committee, masters Jean-Pierre Mignard and Pierre-Emmanuel Blard will support their request on two points. First, the violence suffered by the two men they want to rehabilitate (9 days of torture for Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot) can trigger the annulment of their statements made under torture. It will be up to the committee to decide on this. Then, the two lawyers will set out to demonstrate that apart from these confessions, there is nothing else that implicates the two convicted men (no material evidence or witnesses). This will be up to the Review Chamber to decide.
– Manon Klein
Until now, for a request for revision to succeed, it was necessary to bring new elements, unknown at the time in particular of the three trials of Assizes which took place in this file. This partly explains the failure of the six previous motions filed in this case.
Defenders of Mis and Thiennot both confident and cautious
The members of the defense committee Mis and Thiennot are more confident than during previous proceedings, because of this new open door. “Never have so many elements weighed in favor of a success (…) but the last word belongs to the judges” cautiously summarizes Master Jean-Pierre Mignard. “It seems to me that the way that opens before us is more royal than it was before“says Léandre Boizeau, honorary president of the Mis et Thiennot support committee. He has been fighting for nearly 43 years to request this rehabilitation; a long and trying fight : “I had to take a lot on myself, often. That I behave like a real madman, because overcoming periods of despair [la mort par exemple de Gabriel Thiennot] to go beyond that you have to dig deep within yourself“.
I had to behave like a real madman to overcome the periods of despair
This long fight is also that of Thierry Thiennot, the son of Gabriel Thiennot. He held on despite the six previous failures to rehabilitate his dad’s memory: “To be accused in place of someone else is something that is unimaginable (…) There was not a day when he [son père] didn’t think about that (…) He had his twenties under torture, that I think you can never forget. Me neither in any case, that’s why we always fight.” explains Thierry Thiennot.
Despite this new hope inspired by the law promulgated last December, all remain as cautiouslike Helga Pottier, president of the support committee “There is hope, but there is also a lot of distrust on my part because we have had too many setbacks, too much bad faith also sometimes on the part of the judges, so that is what lead to caution. But I am not completely defeatist either (…) We are moving forward“.
The study deadlines for this seventh request for revision should extend over several months. We will therefore still have to wait to know the possible epilogue of this case that is more than 75 years old.