At the bar
Article reserved for subscribers
The Court of Cassation examined, this Thursday, June 6, the request of Gérard Fesch, who wishes to restore the honor of his father, convicted after the murder of a police officer during a robbery. An audience which raises for the first time the question of social forgiveness even after death.
A week earlier, while he was still at home in Bastia, Gérard Fesch, 69, rejoiced on the phone: “This story has occupied me for thirty years, since I discovered in 1994 that Jacques Fesch was my father. I think this time it’s the end.” The former music teacher, now retired, has been fighting for decades with a sacred inheritance (which he discovered by chance, as we told): that of a father he never knew and who is executed death. “The end”, it is this hearing before the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation. So unique that it will even be filmed. It must be said that the question is new: can we rehabilitate a guillotined man? In other words: is there social forgiveness after death or is a condemned person lost for eternity? “It will be an important decision. No death row inmate has ever been rehabilitated in the world. Well, apart from Joan of Arc perhaps…” Gérard Fesch added at the end of the conversation.
This Thursday, June 6, he takes his place with his lawyer, Me Patrice Spinosi, under the gilding of the highest French court. In the room, an old story resonates, a mixture of dil
