Trial by Jury in France.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 800, 5 May 1876, Page 3

Trial by Jury in France.

In France capital punishment is being gradually abolished by the singular acuteDesß of the jury in finding "extenuating circumstances," and in part, perhaps, by the clause in the criminal code which prevents a Judge from passing sentence of death when the verdict of guilty is accompanied by such a finding. It was mentioned the other day that a woman and her paramour had obtained the benefit of " extenuating circumstances," after having murdered the woman's husband, and attempted, almost with success, to divert suspiplan fi-ona themselves by accusing an innocent person of the crime. Equally monstrous is the finding of a jury at the assi-ses in the Meuse, where a man named Lecaillon has just been tried for the murder of a woodman in the forest of Lempire, near Verdun. The accused and his brother had several times been imprisoned for stealing wood, and about six weeks ago the former was again detected by the woodman, who told him that he should lodge information with the police. Lecaillon, who w a s a poacher as well, had his gun with him, and, following the woodman without being seen, he shot him in the back and threw his body into a thicket. He returned to the place at night and carried the body on his back a distanpe of three miles, depositing it in a ditch close to the cottage of another poacher, upon whom he hoped tp throw the s^picioiia of the

police. But, fortunately for the latter, Lecaillon had been seen disputing with the woodman, and was arrested. He was induced, moreover, to confess his crime, and this perhaps ia why the jury saw " extenuating circumstances " in his case. The number of murders in France has greatly increased during the last two or three years ; and, considering the clemency of juries and the facility which criminals are afforded for escaping from the penal settlements, such an increase need not occasion much surprise.