“A miscarriage of justice is always a masterpiece of coherence,” writes Daniel Pennac in Monsieur Malaussène (1995).
France is not exempt from the phenomenon of judicial errors. Since 1945, justice has recognized nine errors. Here is the list of the nine people who were first convicted and then acquitted:
- Loïc Sécher – accused of raping a teenage girl in his village
- Jean Dehays – accused of killing a farmer and attempting to murder his wife
- Monique Case – accused of killing Georges Segretin, the manager of a Société Générale branch
- Jean-Marie Devaux – accused of killing the 7 year old daughter of his butcher boss.
- Roland Agret – accused of instigating the murder of a garage owner
- Guy Mauvillain – accused of killing an old woman in 1975
- Patrick Dils – accused in 1989 of the murder and rape of two children in Montigny-lès-Metz
- Rida Daalouche – accused of killing a heroin dealer in Marseille
- Marc Machin – accused of killing Marie-Agnès Bedot near the bridge in Neuilly (Hauts-de-Seine)
There are many more applications for review, but only these nine cases have reached the end of the process of recognizing a judicial error.
