Parliament definitively adopted on Thursday July 9, after a final vote in the Senate, the bill on criminal justice carried by Gérald Darmanin, significantly reduced after the withdrawal of his criticized “guilty plea” measure.
After the Assembly on Wednesday, the senators supported this text by 232 votes to 99, the stated objective of which is to unclog the courts. Faced with opposition from the left and the revolt of lawyers, the government abandoned several proposals, resulting in a copy narrowed around a few measures on pre-trial detention, genetic genealogy or the powers of departmental criminal courts.
The Minister of Justice, who did not come to the bench on Thursday in the upper house to witness the final adoption of his project, assured in recent days that this reform would constitute “a big step forward for faster and safer justice”, in the face of ever-longer delays. The parliamentarians nevertheless overwhelmingly contradicted this analysis, noting the gradual weakening of the project over the months.
It was a “long way of the cross” for the minister, criticized socialist Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie. “We sometimes had the feeling of defending the text more than the government itself,” quipped Les Républicains senator David Margueritte, regretting “a certain number of setbacks” or even “renunciations”.
Indeed, the flagship measure of the text was ultimately withdrawn due to lack of a majority in Parliament. It established a “guilty plea” procedure in criminal matters with a reduced penalty and the rapid holding of a hearing shorter than a criminal trial, in exchange for the defendant’s confession.
The withdrawal of the “guilty plea”
What then remains in the final text? A battery of scattered measures on criminal procedure, means of investigation or even the organization of departmental criminal courts, created in 2019 and which judge crimes punishable by 15 to 20 years in prison. The government has promised to create around sixty of them.
Their composition and their powers are reformed by the text: they will be able, for example, to judge repeat offenders, a measure which was however deleted at first reading in the National Assembly. The text also includes a section to exploit genetic genealogy, in order to resolve certain cases, particularly old ones. In this context, it plans to authorize consultation of the databases of private companies, generally American, offering recreational genetic tests prohibited in France.
It also contains an emergency mechanism allowing certain pre-trial detentions to be extended, even if the constitutionality of the measure is questioned. Several parliamentarians have also promised a referral to the Constitutional Council. An emergency measure was finally added at the last minute to the project to fill a legislative void on the continued pre-trial detention of minors aged at least 16 accused of crimes.
