After the stir caused by the lack of trial in the Sarah Halimi case, Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti presented, this Monday evening in the Council of Ministers, a new law on criminal irresponsibility, a request for 'Emmanuel Macron.
In the current law, "is not criminally responsible the person who was reached, at the time of the facts, of a psychic or neuropsychic disorder having abolished its discernment or the control of its acts".
Consumption of drugs or alcohol
The bill amends this article 122-1 of the Penal Code by inserting a paragraph to exclude from the causes of exemption from criminal liability the abolition of discernment when it is linked to voluntary intoxication with alcohol or drugs. "For the purpose" of committing the offense, according to the text.
The government also wishes to create independent offenses to punish this deliberate poisoning.
A person who has been declared criminally irresponsible for murder or violence due to the abolition of his discernment may, under the new law, be prosecuted for having deliberately consumed narcotics or alcohol, if it is reported that 'she knew that this consumption could lead her to commit violence.
"Delirious puff"
The bill proposes that these new offenses be punished by ten years 'imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros for intentional homicide, seven years' imprisonment and 100,000 euros fine for violence resulting in death, or even five years' imprisonment and a 75,000 euro fine for violence resulting in permanent disability.
The text, which must be submitted to the National Assembly in September, provides for an increase in penalties for people already declared criminally irresponsible in the past.
This new law had been demanded by the Head of State after the Court of Cassation confirmed, on April 14, the abolition of the discernment of the murderer of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish sexagenarian killed in 2017 in Paris, taken from a " delusional puff ”at the time of the facts according to experts.
Filling a "legal vacuum"
Eric Dupond-Moretti had announced a future text on this delicate issue of criminal irresponsibility, just before a series of demonstrations in France demanding “justice” for Sarah Halimi.
The Minister of Justice, who explained with this new text wanting to fill a "legal vacuum", had just been given the conclusions of a report recommending not to touch the current law, a "satisfactory balance text" , depending on the mission.
Declarations of criminal irresponsibility remain few in France.
In 2019, 58 irresponsibility orders related to mental disorders were issued by investigating judges, against 80 in 2018 and 68 in 2017, according to figures from the Chancellery.
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