Sentenced twice to the death penalty

Private Lemeunier will appear, once again, before the War Council

Paris, 26. - On December 9, 1915, the War Council of the 23rd Division of the Armed Forces had sentenced to the death penalty and military degradation in absentia, for desertion before the enemy, Corporal Pioche and Private Lemeunier, of the 780th Infantry Regiment.
Both had been taken prisoner by the Germans.

At the end of hostilities, Corporal Pioche remained in Germany, but Jean Lemeunier returned to France. Arrested by the Mobile Brigade in charge of searching for deserters, Jean Lemeunier appeared on July 22, 1924 before the War Council of the 12th Region, presided over by Colonel de Boysson, colonel commanding the 20th Dragoon Regiment. The War Council before which Jean Lemeunier admitted that he had deserted near Arras because he was feeling down and was thinking about his wife and children, unanimously sentenced him to death again. Jean Lemeunier was born in Felletin, near Aubusson (Creuse)

After having put the case under deliberation this afternoon, the Court of Cassation, in a public hearing, quashed and annulled the judgment of this War Council of the 12th region dated July 22, given that the judgment of a War Council sentencing an accused must be quashed when it is established that the president of this Council, during a witness's testimony, made a statement constituting a manifestation of opinion on the guilt of the accused
The Jean Lemeunier case will therefore be referred to another War Council to be tried a third time.