Conviction overturned after 32 years: Dany Leprince granted new trial for quadruple murder
The Court of Review annulled on 2 July the life sentence of Dany Leprince for a quadruple murder committed in the Sarthe in 1994. A new trial will be held before the Angers assize court.
Dany Leprince freed from the verdict after 32 years of legal battle
According to franceinfo - Justice, the Court of Review annulled on Thursday 2 July the life sentence of Dany Leprince, finding that there is doubt about his guilt in the case of the quadruple murder in the Sarthe. A decision described as extremely rare by legal observers. A new trial was ordered before the assize court in Angers, in Maine-et-Loire.
"It's difficult. It was this morning, so a few hours ago. But yes, relieved. You know, I fought so hard that when it happens, you find it hard to believe," said Dany Leprince to France Télévisions teams a few hours after the decision was announced.
The facts: four members of the same family killed with a bladed weapon
In September 1994, the bodies of Dany Leprince's brother, his sister-in-law and their two daughters were discovered in the Sarthe, brutally killed with a bladed weapon—apparently a butcher's knife. Dany Leprince, then aged 37, was quickly implicated by his own wife and their eldest daughter.
After 46 hours in custody, he partially admitted to the facts. He now reflects on the circumstances of this confession: "I had just lost four members of my family. I was very upset. And when, towards the end of custody, they absolutely had to find someone and they came to tell me that my wife saw me running after my brother with a butcher's knife. And then it was my daughter who cried and that's when I confessed." Asked what he had felt at that precise moment, he replies: "I often say, 'it cannot be put into words, it must be lived.'"
Eighteen years in prison under the nickname "butcher of the Sarthe"
Three years after the events, in 1997, Dany Leprince was sentenced to life imprisonment. Nicknamed the "butcher of the Sarthe", he spent 18 years behind bars before being released, while continuing to proclaim his innocence. "When I heard the verdict, I said that from now on the fight begins. I always thought I would get out early, but I didn't know when. And I never gave up," he states.
Now aged 69, he says he harbours no ill will towards the justice system as a whole: "No, because I would spend too much time resenting them. It's a bit easy to say you resent the justice system when a few individuals didn't do their job properly."
Witness testimonies now called into question
The Court of Review's decision is based notably on a reassessment of two testimonies from that time which had carried significant weight in the conviction. These elements, now considered insufficiently reliable, were sufficient to cast doubt on Dany Leprince's guilt and to trigger the review procedure.
His judicial fate is now in the hands of the Angers assize court, where the new trial will be held. The date of this trial has not yet been announced.
Source: franceinfo - Justice