FRENCH CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 967, 29 October 1880, Page 3

FRENCH CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.

An incident curiously illustrative of French criminal procedure occurred at the assiz-s in the Department of the Oise some time since. A blacksmith named Glahant was being tried fur the murder of a priest ; there was no doubt that he nad committed the crime, hut the medical evidence as to his sanity was very conflicting. In accordance with the French practice, the Procurer of the Republic rose, after all the witnesses had been examined, to reply upon the whole case ; but, instead of pressing for a conviction, he told the jury that he felt convinced that the prisoner was not responsible for his actions, and called upon them to acquit him. lie went on to say that though it was a generally accepted theory that the public prosecutor should endeavour to obtain a conviction, however assured He might feel of the prisoner’s innocence, he could not reconcile it to his conscience to do so, and added that he would sooner throw off his magisterial gown than outrage what he believed to be the truth. The counsel for the defence having followed in the same sense, the judge summed up ; but instead of placing the two sides of the case before the jury, he declared that, though the Proem or of the Republic had deserted his post, society should not be left •defenceless •" and lie thereupon proceeded to bring out all the points which told against the prisoner, dwelling upon his had antecedents, and seeking to discredit the evidence of the doctors who had pronounced him insane. Ho even went so far as to depict to the jury the injury which the prisoner, if acquitted on the score of insanity, might inflict in the asvluin to which he would he relegated : and finally adjured them not to forget “the God of expiation and of justice.” The jury returned a verdict of “Guilty, with extenuating circumstances,” and C ahaut was sentenced to penal .servitude for life.