Sentenced to life in prison in 1997 for a quadruple murder in Sarthe, Dany Leprince has continued to proclaim his innocence for almost 30 years. The Court of Review agreed, Thursday, July 2, to annul his conviction and ordered a new trial for Dany Leprince, on parole since 2012.
If he is not found guilty at the end of a future trial, Dany Leprince will join the very short list of convicts finally exonerated by the courts after having seen their request accepted by the Court of Review. A rehabilitation which has so far only concerned 12 people since 1945.
The most recent case dates back to 2022. Farid El Haïry, convicted of sexual assault and aggravated rape of a 15-year-old high school girl in 2003, had spent almost a year behind bars. In 2017, however, the complainant withdrew her complaint, admitting to having lied. Christian Iacono, acquitted in 2015, experienced a similar situation. The ex-mayor of Vence had been accused by his 9-year-old grandson of rape. The latter subsequently retracted his accusations, admitting to having lied because of a conflict between his father and his grandfather.
Youngest lifer exonerated
In 2014, the Court overturned the convictions of two men: Abdelkader Azzimani and Abdelrrahim El Jabri, having spent eleven and thirteen years in prison respectively. They had been convicted of the murder of a drug dealer in Hérault. A DNA expertise had made it possible to exonerate them.
Two years earlier, in 2012, Marc Machin was acquitted of the murder of a woman in 2001 in Neuilly-sur-Seine after more than six years of detention. The real perpetrator of the crime reported himself to the police. Involved in another case, Marc Machin is once again serving a sixteen-year prison sentence for having committed rape in Paris in 2018 at gunpoint.
Loïc Sécher, a former agricultural worker, was accused of rape and sexual assault by a 14-year-old girl, before she recanted five years after his conviction in 2003. Exonerated in 2011, he also received compensation of nearly €800,000 from the courts.
It was surely the affair which had the greatest impact. Accused of having killed two children in Montigny-lès-Metz, Patrick Dils became in 1989, at just 19 years old, the youngest person sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1998, the presence of serial killer Francis Heaulme at the scene of the crime cast doubt on his guilt. After three appeals for review and fifteen years behind bars, Patrick Dils was finally rehabilitated in 2002.
Five people exonerated between 1945 and 2000
Rida Daalouche was undergoing rehab during the murder of a drug dealer in a Marseille bar in 1991. But the Tunisian, accused by his cousin, was nevertheless sentenced to fourteen years in prison. He had to wait until 1997 before his family managed to prove his alibi. He was not acquitted until two years later.
Élise Meilhan was attacked at her home in 1975. Just before succumbing to her injuries, the victim barely named the husband of a certain Madame Mauvillain to the firefighters. Guy Mauvillain is then arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison. But without a murder weapon or an autopsy of the body, a third appeal allowed him to be acquitted in 1985. He had received the support of certain personalities, such as Yves Montand.
Sentenced to fifteen years in prison in 1973 after the murder of a mechanic, Roland Agret used all means to have his trial reviewed. He protested with a hunger strike for a year, climbed the roof of his prison and even cut off two of his fingers. He finally obtained a review of his trial and his acquittal in 1985. Since then, he founded the Action Justice association to help victims of judicial errors.
The first two exonerated by the courts after 1945 were Jean-Marie Deveaux and Jean Deshays. The first was convicted in 1963 for the murder of his employers’ daughter. Acquitted six years later, he contributed to the vote on the law on compensation for victims of judicial error. Jean Deshays had been accused of having murdered a farmer. Sentenced to ten years of forced labor in 1949, he was retried and acquitted in 1955.
