Three murders have just been committed in Haute-Garonne by individuals suffering from serious mental pathologies in less than two months. Justice deploys a specific procedure to judge them.
On March 20, the gendarmes discovered a man prostrate next to the body of his wife whom he had just strangled in their apartment in Villefranche-de-Lauragais. To the investigators, he said “heard a noise, got up, saw his wife fall… She was dead. »
On April 22, a 30-year-old, regular cannabis user, killed his own father with an iron bar during a walk a few kilometers from Toulouse. He had convinced himself that his father had raped his girlfriend… On May 4, in Gratentour, a small town north of the Pink City, a father shot the mother of his children who had just gone to bed with several cartridges. The perpetrators of these three crimes have in common that they committed these acts in a mental state that raises questions. Samuel Vuelta-Simon, the public prosecutor transmitted, in the three cases, the file to an examining magistrate whose one of the missions will be to determine to what extent these mental disorders contributed to what these individuals kill.
“This helps to enlighten relatives on the facts”
The representative of the public prosecutor describes the possible consequences: “The investigating magistrate will endeavor to reconstruct the facts but also to find out more about the mental state of the defendant. He will ask a psychiatrist to examine the suspect to check if he has all his mental faculties. »
In 80% of cases, there are no difficulties, justice follows its normal course. If the expert finds an alteration of discernment at the time of the facts, this indication will be retained as a mitigating circumstance during the trial. On the other hand, if the practitioner concludes that at the time of the crime, the individual was not aware of what he was doing, that changes everything. As the prosecutor explains: “The examining magistrate generally orders a counter-expertise and may even request a third. If at the end of the psychiatric investigations, he considers that the suspect saw his discernment abolished at the time of the facts, he will seize the room of the instruction which will note the criminal irresponsibility of the person. She finds him guilty but not responsible due to his mental state. It offers the right to victims’ families to obtain reparation. This also helps to enlighten relatives on the facts, it is essential. The judges also decide on the security measures to be implemented. »
“We are in a world that has lost the sense of justice”
The latter generally result in internment in a psychiatric hospital for a given time. The law of January 24, 2022 on “the limitation of criminal irresponsibility in the event of taking psychoactive products” whose implementing decree fell on April 26 reshuffles the cards. Even if an individual commits a crime in a state of pure madness, he cannot be condemned for this crime but for “voluntary intoxication”. This will require the prosecution to prove that the defendant knowingly knew that taking toxic substances (drugs and alcohol) could cause him to lose his footing completely and commit a crime. This mission of extreme complexity will be the responsibility of psychiatrists, experts at the courts of appeal.
Me Pierre Dunac, criminal lawyer and chairman of the Toulouse Bar thinks that “justice is taking a wrong turn by undermining the principle of criminal irresponsibility. »
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For Me Pierre Dunac, president of the Toulouse bar, this new legislative mechanism which stems from the Sarah Halimi affair is an aberration: “We are in a world which has lost the sense of justice. We are moving away from this fundamental idea fixed by Roman law which says that we do not judge the mad. For about twenty years, this principle has been undermined for electoral purposes and we are moving towards a therapeutic justice turned essentially towards the victims. Here we take a new step. With this reform, no more person suffering from major psychiatric pathology will escape the repressive courts.”
“We must go further”, reacts Christian Stawoski, the father of Cendrine shot by a mentally unbalanced
Christian Stawoski lost his daughter Cendrine in 1998 killed by a septuagenarian suffering from acute paranoia, since then he has offered his support to the families of victims of mental disorders.
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This father of a young girl killed by a septuagenarian suffering from serious mental disorders wants French justice to abandon the principle of criminal irresponsibility.
“That day, Cendrine wore a Chinese dress. She loved to dress well. I had dropped her off like every morning in Montrabé in front of the hairdressing salon where she was an apprentice. I made her a little joke, she smiled , telling me I was cute. That was the last time I heard her voice…”
With trembling hands, reddened eyes, Christian Stawoski, catches his breath before continuing his story: “The paranoid killer shot her and the manager of the salon. After he died, I went to his hospital room. I swore to her that she wouldn’t have died for nothing. “It was a little over 23 years ago, on August 14, 1998, Sandrine was going to celebrate her 18th birthday. At 64, this former agency manager who lives in Verfeil has never betrayed his oath.
Since that date, he has used all his energy to ensure that the mentally unbalanced perpetrators of crimes no longer escape justice. He is one of those behind the Dati law (February 25, 2008). This legislative device allows the families of victims of mental illness to attend the hearing which will determine whether this individual is fit to stand trial.
Christian Stawoski sees a good eye on the law on “the limitation of criminal irresponsibility” (see elsewhere): “From now on, we will judge the insane. As in 80% of cases, these individuals ingested substances, this is real progress, but we need to go further. These hearings will take place behind closed doors, this is not normal. The real leap forward will come when all the unbalanced perpetrators of crimes will be considered criminally responsible. This will give rise to a real trial where everything will be put on the table, how and why the author got there, we will be able to flush out certain institutional or individual shortcomings, and above all provide clear answers to the families of the victims on what really happened. This will not prevent these patients from being taken care of in psychiatric centres. »
“This new law fills a void”, according to Maurice Bensoussan, president of the union of French psychiatrists
The psychiatrist Maurice Bensoussan awaits clarification from the legislator on the possible convictions of mentally ill people who would have committed after taking their treatment.
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If Maurice Bensoussan, the president of the union of French psychiatrists, is in favor of changes to a legislative framework around criminal irresponsibility. He considers that punishing mentally ill people who commit a crime because they have not taken their treatment is not going in the right direction. Maintenance.
Taking toxic products can “jump” criminal irresponsibility, what do you think?
The Sarah Halimi case has enabled experts to focus on this point, to open the discussion on the fact that someone who voluntarily intoxicates himself cannot benefit from the notion of the abolition of discernment and not be exempt from any criminal liability. This new law fills a void. Please note that this will be case by case. It is up to psychiatrists to determine whether the ingestion of psychoactive substances led to the perpetrator’s acting out.
Doesn’t this risk further complicating the criminal’s psychiatric expertise?
“It’s true, but scientific knowledge on the effect of these molecules has been greatly refined. What we thought harmless a few years ago, can turn out to be eminently toxic. Today, for example, we see that taking cannabis can greatly contribute to the passage to the act. That being said, the expert practitioner must retain the ability to say: “I don’t know”, that, given the file and the profile of the author, he cannot affirm that this individual was aware that the taking of products could make him lose his connection with reality and cause him to commit a criminal act.
Are you shocked that a mental patient who failed to take his treatment could be convicted for it if he is the perpetrator of a crime?
It is not so much the decree that poses a problem but its application notice. It was unanimously condemned by the entire medical world. A person who has not taken his treatment cannot be held responsible for not having taken it. Perhaps this slippage even sounds like a failed act by the decision-makers. They got down to business too quickly with the idea that we’re going to punish those who don’t do the right thing… We forget that behind all that, there is a pathology. Do we blame a diabetic for suffering from the pancreas?
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