In France, the mobile of a violent crime – even called “passionate” – does not led to criminal qualification. While Bertrand Cantat was tried in Lithuania, how would French justice qualify the facts?
In 2003, the name of Bertrand Cantat, mythical voice of the Noir Désir group, switch from the front page of cultural magazines to the judicial columns. In 2004, the singer was found guilty of the death of actress Marie Trintignant who died of her injuries after violent blows made in Vilnius, Lithuania, on the night of July 26 to 27, 2003. The recent documentary “from Rockstar to killer: the Cantat case”, broadcast on Netflix, highlights the exact nature of the facts and the collective complacency that had surrounded them.
Indeed, the use of the term “passionate crime” to qualify the death of Marie Trintignant weighed heavily on the media treatment of the case. Presented as the tragic gesture of a man overwhelmed by his emotions, by the love he had towards his partner, this framing contributed to alleviate, in the opinion, the gravity of the violence committed. Real defense strategy, it
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