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Disappearance of Delphine Jubillar: the trial of a murder without a body? How to bring justice when the victim’s body has never been found

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How to judge a criminal case without a body? Me Pierre Debuisson, lawyer for the Estrabaud family, convicted three times the man who had kidnapped and killed Amandine, in Tarn, whose body was never found. It provides elements of an answer to this central question in the Jubillar affair.

Will the trial of Cédric Jubillar be a legal headache? Contrary to popular belief, a criminal court can very well sentence a man prosecuted for murder to 30 years, even if the victim’s body has never been found. “But for that, we must characterize the intimate conviction of the jurors,” confides Me Pierre Debuisson. The lawyer knows this all the better because he defended the interests of the victim’s family in the case of the disappearance of Amandine Estrabaud, in Tarn. At the trial, the accused was sentenced three times to 30 years in prison in this case without a body, without confession, without witnesses and with “scattered” material elements.

The Toulouse lawyer Mr. Pierre Debuisson.
DDM – MICHEL VIALA

“Forge certainty”

But how can we characterize this intimate conviction in these conditions? “It’s necessary a minima proof of a presence [de l’accusé]near the scene and at the time of the crime”, replies the Toulouse lawyer. “The inner conviction can result from an accumulation of elements: the motive, the personality of the accused, lies, gross contradictions or material clues…” It is the accumulation of these elements which makes it possible to “forge certainty”.

This is what happened in the Estrabaud affair and it could be the case in the Jubillar affair. “With this certainty, it’s double or nothing, either he is sentenced to 30 years or he is acquitted.”

“The central question remains the inner conviction”

And what does the Penal Code say in this type of case? “There is no legislative element which provides for an absence of conviction in the event of the absence of a body,” replies Pierre Debuisson.

In Toulouse, the famous Viguier affair, similar in many respects to the Estrabaud and Jubillar cases, resulted in the acquittal of the husband, Jacques Viguier, in 2009 and on appeal in 2010, ten years after the disappearance of his wife Suzy.

“Many people think that Jacques Viguier got away with it because his wife’s body was never found,” explains Pierre Debuisson. But it is very important to remember that this is not at all true. The central question remains the intimate conviction which must give rise to certainty.”

And if the slightest doubt shakes this certainty, “the basic principle of French criminal procedure is that the slightest doubt must benefit the accused”, recalls the criminal lawyer. No certainty, no conviction…

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