Dany Leprince Case: Court of Review Quashes Conviction for Quadruple Murder and Orders New Trial
At 69 years old, Dany Leprince, who spent nearly 18 years in detention, has seen his life sentence for a quadruple family homicide in 1994 quashed by the Court of Review, which has decided to have him retried.
Dany Leprince Case: Court of Review Quashes Conviction for Quadruple Murder and Orders New Trial
The Court of Review delivered a historic ruling on Thursday 2 July by quashing the life sentence imposed on Dany Leprince and ordering that he be retried. This review procedure remains among the rarest in the history of French justice.
According to franceinfo, the 69-year-old man had been found guilty of murdering his brother, his brother's wife and their two daughters in 1994, in Thorigné-sur-Dué, in the Sarthe department. He had received a life sentence and served nearly eighteen years in prison. Now free, he denies any involvement in these deaths and has been demanding a second trial on the merits for a long time.
At the hearing on 7 May, his lawyers had argued for the case to be re-examined. The magistrate presiding over the Court of Review, Nicolas Bonnal, explained that two pieces of evidence that had been used to establish the guilt of the accused had proven fragile in light of information that the courts of the time did not have. This discovery was, in his view, liable to raise serious doubt as to Dany Leprince's criminal responsibility.
Upon hearing the verdict, the sixty-something wept before being embraced by those close to him. When questioned by journalists, he stated that the fight was not over and that the truth must come to light. He also expressed his gratitude to the judges of the Court of Review for this decision, whilst keeping the memory of the members of his deceased family.
Since the end of the Second World War, fewer than fifteen requests for the review of criminal convictions have succeeded in France, which illustrates the exceptional nature of this procedure.
Source: Google News LU FR