Article copy
On the right side of the Atlantic Ocean, Patrick Henry is a symbol of the American struggle for liberty and self-government.He's the man who urged his fellow Virginians to arm in self-defense in 1775, and pronounced the immortal words:
" I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. »On the
(From The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
Here's the story of the first French criminal saved from the horrendous and barbaric guillotine. Well, at least a digest.
Some 27 years ago, on January 30, 1976 Patrick Henry abducted a seven years old kid, Philippe Bertrand, (who he knew, being a friend of the kid's family) and demanded a ransom (1 million francs).
The police investigation lasted 18 days. Patrick Henry was arrested, kept for questioning for 47 hours (the legal limit being 48 hours) and liberated.
He then gave numerous press interviews and appeared at the French TV where he tried to exculpate himself, hoped that the kid would be handed back to his parents and even required the death penalty for the "authors of the kidnapping".
On February 1976, he was arrested definitely. The investigators used the extra hour of the legal limit for questioning that they saved in the first arrest, convinced as they were that Patrick Henry was guilty.
And he was. The body of the kid was found in a grubby hotel room rented by Henry in the town of Troyes. When they entered the room with him, Henry told blankly the investigators: "No need to search, the kid is under the bed".
Philippe Bertrand, 7 year old, had been strangled with a scarf, his body wrapped in a sleeping bag and thrown under the bed.
It appeared later that Patrick Henry killed the young boy the day after the abduction and went for a week-end trip to Switzerland, with a male and two female friends.
When, returning from his vacation, he decided to ask for a ransom, the kid was already dead.
When he made his TV shows, looking right at the camera and hoping all would end well, he already killed the kid.
Ten days after he killed the little boy, Patrick Henry played a heinous game with the father of Philippe Bertrand, who, to deliver the ransom, had to follow a track consisting of one of the kid's boot, then another one, then his coat.
When Henry was arrested and the details known, the shock was huge for the French people. From politicians to journalists, voices were heard to ask for the ultimate punishment, the death penalty.
His attorneys, Robert Badinter and Robert Bocquillon turned their defense into a prosecution of the death penalty and saved his head.
He got sentenced to life in prison.
Seven psychological experts, among the bests, studied Patrick Henry, and concluded unanimously that he was "normal".
Patrick Henry's last address to the jury after the verdict was: "you won't regret it".
On 1981, when the Socialists won the French presidential elections, Robert Badinter became minister of Justice and obtained the abrogation of the death penalty.
On 1989, Patrick Henry got an additional sentence for drug dealing in jail.
On May 2001, he was liberated, on parole, after 24 years of "Life sentence". Psychiatrists were positive: there was no risk of recidivism.
He was offered a job by Charles Corlet, printer of the anti-Semite author Roger Garaudy, the revisionist writings of Pierre Guillaume and those of Michel Caignet, neo-Nazi and organizer of the pedophile network known as Toro Bravo.
On April 2002, he got once again the attentions of the media and advertised his upcoming book (entitled - cynically? - "You won't regret it") for which he already received a 100 000 Euros advance.
On June 2002, he was arrested for shoplifting. He stole handiwork tools worth 80.81 Euros in a supermarket near Caen. He was convicted in August the same year, to pay a 2 000 Euros fine.
On October 2002, although he tried to escape, he's arrested in his personal car by the Spanish Police, 28 km north of Valencia. He broke his parole and left the French territory without authorization.
In his 4WD Honda CR-V, the Spanish Police found 10 Kgs of cannabis resin, worth 30 000 Euros which he admitted he bought in Morocco.
Since then, he's refusing the extradition from Spain to France. Spain will reconsider that issue on Wednesday.
In the meantime, his former employer while trying to reclaim documents on the computer he provided him so he could work at home found out that Patrick Henry surfed weapon sales and documents falsification websites.
He also particularly enjoyed pedophilic sites, kept pedophile documents on his hard drive and printed some, notably children rapes ones.
This is just an example. Like I wrote at the beginning, Patrick Henry is a "symbol" here as well.
I don't mean that every cold blood killers will fail to reinsert (although I never heard of one that successfully did).
All I know is that Philippe Bertrand died strangled in a crummy hotel room while he was only seven, and that his killer has shown repeatedly how irredeemable he is, despite all the help he received.
Maybe the death penalty question can't be resolved by a simple "yes" or "no", I don't know.
Maybe the real problem is the infallibility - an therefore the risk of error - of the judiciary institution, I don't know.
Maybe the punishment, by itself, is justifiable, under fair circumstances and within the specific conditions of a government by law, I don't know.
But I do know that the French people was never asked directly about the abolition of the death penalty. It's been the decision of a newly elected and highly politicized small number of "representatives" for whom that issue was also extremely... symbolic.
I hope Mr. Badinter appreciates the prestige, the peace of mind and social elevation his
Comments
Comments thread