PROS AND CONS

I will end up believing that an accused who is openly, undoubtedly guilty has a better chance of getting away with Lady Themis than an accused whose guilt is doubtful or who is simply innocent...

An accused whose guilt appears to be proven does not wait too long during the investigation. His case is so clear, so simple that it is not possible to drag out the investigations, the counter-investigations, the expert opinions, the confrontations, the interrogations, the reconstructions of the crime, etc., etc. is a vulgar accused who can be treated casually. He was therefore quickly brought to justice. And there, if he goes to court, if he has hired a good lawyer, if the public prosecutor's office is weak, if the jurors have had a good lunch before rendering the verdict, he can perfectly well be acquitted and no longer owe anything to society... He is released. He is calm. He is "innocent" even though he cut the girlfriend of his heart into pieces...

The fate of the accused who is only accused, who may be innocent, against whom we have only been able to bring up a few vague charges is otherwise critical and perilous... We do not let go of him, this wicked accused - there, this villain, this rebel who refuses to provide tangible proof of his guilt. Judges don't like clients who spend their time protesting their innocence...

The accused who may be innocent and against whom there are only clues, only suppositions or a vague unfavorable atmosphere must resign himself to being imprisoned in preventive prison after having heard many years of 'instruc-

tion

- for him not very informative... We question him, we grill him. we take him around, we change prison or cell. He does not escape the movements which are numerous in the judiciary. The investigating judges follow one another around him... There are brown ones, blond ones, redheads and bald ones. There are some charming ones. There are some terrible ones... We press him with questions... We compile files. We forget it. We think of him again. And we're not letting go. And we consider him the worst of criminals because we are not sure that he is er.minel... He can, like Silvio Pellico or the Iron Mask, grow old within the four walls of a “preventive” cell.

We cannot bring him to justice since his case is doubtful and all evidence is lacking... We cannot release him either because we do not know if he is not guilty. His fate is terrible...

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...You remember the crime of Graulhet and the assassination of an unfortunate postmaster. You remember the “brandevinier” Ayrai who was arrested immediately after the crime... Well, the brandevinier Ayral has been waiting for who knows how long. his putting on trial or his release... Justice, after several years of investigative research, letters rogatory, expert opinions and interrogations hesitates between two contradictory theses, between the thesis of innocence and that of guilt... She hesitates. This is the story of Buridan's donkey...

So Ayral will remain in “preventive” prison until the end of the centuries... He will never be condemned or acquitted... If he is innocent, how much he must regret not being guilty.

Maurice Prax.