PROS AND CONS

The Aisne Assize Court therefore sentenced to death the death row inmate Marchand, found guilty of having murdered in his small death row home, in Laon prison, the guard responsible for watching over his life and his nights.

As it is difficult to guillotine the same client twice, the executioner will have great difficulty in applying this second sentence and there is every reason to believe that the second crime of the twice-convicted Marchand will remain eternally unpunished. When we have cut off the neck of this honorable assassin by virtue of the first capital verdict rendered against him, we will be absolutely obliged to hold him free from his second conviction. In short, at the same time that he will once be shortened, he will once be pardoned. His case is strange, but strictly legal.

In the meantime, the double convict will not fail, I hope, to take advantage of his second conviction and to use the advantages to which his new title of new convict undoubtedly entitles him. He will begin by appealing to the Court of Cassation and it is indeed the devil if his distinguished defender does not discover in his second trial some frightful formal flaw, some misplaced comma in an expert report, some imprudence on the part of a juror, some procedural error in the conduct of the proceedings. The twice-condemned death row man Marchand has the right to the light, as they say, to all the light and cannot tolerate the slightest judicial incorrectness. Severe jurists will scrutinize his file word for word, as if it were a difficult Greek version. His lawyer will, for his part, deploy all the resources of his art to try to save this client. The duty of a lawyer is always the same, whatever the case of the one he defends.

In the meantime, the double culprit Marchand will legally enjoy preferential treatment in his cell in Laon. He will not only be housed, washed and fed at the expense of the Republic, he will be fed in a very special way, because the regime of those sentenced to death is, as we know, a chosen regime. Colleagues of the unfortunate guard he killed will be required to play long games of split or manila in his company. In this regard, I recommend to the condemned Marchand to learn how to play the belotte. It's a very fun game that helps pass the time.

Suppose the distinguished criminal's appeal is rejected. There is still the appeal for pardon. There is still the trip to Paris and the defender's visit to Mr. Millerand. If in the meantime Marchand knocked out another guard; or if he was content to steal a watch or wallet from one of them while enjoying a particularly absorbing game of belotte; If the condemned Marchand, twice sentenced to death, committed a third crime, he would have to be tried a third time and sentenced to a third death. If he were guilty of theft, it would be necessary to put him in criminal court. In truth, if Citizen Marchand is not willing to immediately undergo one of the two separations to which he is currently entitled, he simply has to start again. It's like the story of the little ship. And there is no morality

Maurice Prax.