to any one who had about him any traces of human nature. On the other hand, Dechamps was one of the criminals, and the state of his health made it improbable that he should commit that part of the crime, and this would, to some extent, point to the inference, that a third person was engaged. When the whole matter is impartially weighed, the inference seems to be that as against Dechamps and Chretien the case was proved conclusively, for the confession in each case was made circumstantially, with deliberation, and without any particular pressure. It was also persisted in, and was corroborated by the possession of the property of the persons murdered; to which it must be added, that the two men were friends and neighbours and connections, and that they had the same interest in the perpetration of the crime. As against Joanon, I think there was nothing more than suspicion, and not strong suspicion. Chretien knew that he was suspected, and was thus likely to mention his name in his confession. Dechamps heard the evidence at the first trial, and thus had an opportunity of making his confession agree with Chretien's. He also heard at that trial, possibly for the first time, of the relations between Joanon and his wife, and this would be a strong motive for his wishing to involve him in his destruction. If it be asked what motive Chretien could have had in the first instance for adding to his other crimes that of murder by false testimony, the answer is supplied by the speech of his advocate, who pressed the jury to find him guilty with extenuating circumstances. After dwelling on the notion, that the lives of Joanon, Dechamps, and Dechamps' father, might be set off against those of the three murdered women; and on the fact that without Chretien's confession it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to convict the others, he said, "If you are without pity, take care lest some day, under similar circumstances, after a similar crime, "after suspicions, arrests, and accusing circumstances—some "criminal, shaken at first, but confirmed by reflection in his silence, may say I confess? 1I destroy myself deliberately? 1 II. 103. TRIALS. TRIALS. "Remember Chretien, and what he got by it-No, no confessions." The possibility that such arguments might be used in his favour, and that the jury might listen to them, is enough to account for any lie that a murderer might tell, if such a circumstance as his lying required to be accounted for at all. 1 THE CASE OF FRANÇOIS LESNIER. THE case of François Lesnier is remarkable as an illustration of the provisions of the French Code d'Instruction Criminelle as to inconsistent convictions. In July, 1848, François Lesnier was convicted, with extenuating circumstances, at Bordeaux, of the murder of Claude Gay, and of arson on his house. On the 16th March, 1855, Pierre Lespagne was convicted at Bordeaux of the same murder, and Daignaud and Mme Lespagne of having given false evidence against Lesnier. These convictions being considered by the Court of Cassation to be contradictory, were both quashed, and a third trial was directed to take place at Toulouse to re-try each of the prisoners on the acts of accusation already found against them. At the third trial, the act of accusation against Lesnier on the first trial formed part of the proceedings. It constitutes the only record of the evidence on which he was then convicted. Reports of the second and third trials were published at Bordeaux and Toulouse in 1855. In order to give a full account of the proceedings, which, taken as a whole, were extremely curious, I shall translate verbatim the act of accusation of 1848, and describe so much of the trials of 1855 as appears material. ACT OF ACCUSATION. The Procureur-Général of the Court of Appeal of Bordeaux states that the Chamber of Accusation of the Court of Appeal, on an information made before the tribunal of first instance 1 See the "Affaire Lesnier," Bordeaux, 1855. It is in two parts, separately paged. TRIALS. TRIALS. sitting at Libourne, by an order dated May 24, 1848, has sent Jean and François Lesnier, father and son, before the Court of Assize of the Department of the Gironde, there to be judged according to law. In execution of the order above dated, in virtue of Article 241 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the undersigned draws up this Act of Accusation, and declares that the following facts result from a new examination of the documents of procedure: Claude Gay, an old man of seventy, lived alone in an isolated house in the commune of Fieu, in a place called Petit-Massé. In the night between the 15th and 16th November last, a fire broke out in this house. Some inhabitants of the commune of Fieu, having perceived the flames, hurried to the scene of the accident. The door of the house and the outside shutter of the window of the single room of which the house consisted were open. The fire had already almost entirely destroyed a lean-to, or shed, built against the back of Gay's room. Drouhau, junior, trying to enter the house, struck his foot against something, which turned out to be the corpse, still warm, of Pierre Claude Gay. It lay on the back, its feet turned towards the threshold, the arms hanging by the side of the body. A plate, containing food, was on the thighs, a spoon was near the right hand, and not far from this spoon was another empty plate. The fire was soon confined and put out by pulling down the shed which was the seat of it. The authorities arrived the facts which they collected proved that Gay had been assassinated, and that, to conceal the traces of the assassination, the criminals had set fire to the house. It was also proved that three or four barrels of wine, which were in the burnt shed, had been previously carried off. Marks which appeared to have been made by a bloody hand were observed on one of the wooden sides of the bed of Claude Gay. A pruning-knife found in Gay's house had a blood-stain on its extremity. The head of the deceased rested on a cap (serre tête), also marked with blood. The doctors-Emery and Soulé-were called to examine the body. They found a wound on the back and side of the head, made by a cutting and striking instrument, and were of opinion that death was caused by it. Three or four barrels and a tub, which Gay's neighbours knew were in his possession, were not to be seen amongst the ruins of the shed. In the place where the barrels stood no remains of burnt casks were seen, and the ground was dry and firm. A pine-wood almost touched the house of Gay. The witness Dubreuil, remarked that the broom was laid over a width of about a yard to a point outside the wood, where a pine broken at the root was laid in the same direction as the broom, and where a cart seemed to have been lifted. The marks of this cart could be traced towards the village of Fieu, the ground which borders the public road reaching to the track through the wood. Dubreuil perceived by the form of the foot-marks that the cart had been drawn by These circumstances left no doubt that the barrels COWS. had been carried off. Justice at first did not know who were the guilty persons. It afterwards discovered that the terror which they inspired had for some time put down public clamour. It was only in the month of December that Lesnier the father and Lesnier the son each domiciled in the commune of Fieu, and at last pointed out to the investigations of justice, were put under arrest. On the 21st September, 1847, Lesnier, the son, had become the purchaser of the landed property of Claude Gay, for a life annuity of 6f. 75c. a month (5s. 71⁄2d. a month, or 31. 7s. 6d. a year). He had not treated Claude Gay with as much care and attention as he ought. The old man complained bitterly of his proceedings to all the persons to whom he talked about his position. In the course of October, 1847, he said to Barbaron, I thought I should be happy in my last days. Lesnier ought to take care of me; but instead of trying to prolong my "life he would like to take it away. Ay! these people are "not men," he added, speaking of the father and son; "they " are tigers." VOL. III. L L TRIALS. |