Two men tried for rape by the Lozère departmental criminal court

A session of the Lozère Departmental Criminal Court (CDD) is scheduled this week, from Monday 25 to Friday 29 November. Magistrates will look into two rape cases; the first on a vulnerable person. Valéry Morron, public prosecutor of Mende, will be the general counsel for the second case, on Thursday November 28 and Friday November 29.

Departmental criminal courts were generalized throughout France on 1^is January 2023, after a test period in different departments which did not include Lozère. Unlike assize courts, they do not have a popular jury, but five professional judges, a president and four assessors.

88% rapes, 95% men

“The CDDs are only competent to judge major perpetrators of crimes carrying a maximum penalty of twenty years of criminal imprisonment, excluding repeat offenses”, specifies in particular the report of the evaluation and monitoring committee of the departmental criminal court, of October 2022. Still according to this same document, 88% of crimes judged by the CDDs are rapes and 95% of the accused are men, as for the two Lozerian files of the week.

Their creation met a dual objective: to relieve congestion in the criminal courts and to avoid correctionalization, i.e. the reclassification of certain crimes as misdemeanors. As with other criminal jurisdictions, hearings are public, unless a decision is taken in camera.

Major media cases are sometimes judged by the CDDs, such as currently the Mazan rape trial before the Vaucluse departmental criminal court.