This summer, our “Swiss crimes” podcast offers you an unprecedented special issue on the disturbing links between detective novels and judicial system. This third episode looks at the intimate conviction of judges. It is up to them to say what happened and to decide the future of the accused.
A black novel particularly puts the formation of the opinion of a judge: “Article 353 of the Penal Code” of the French author, Tanguy Viel.
We are witnessing an face-to-face between a judge and an accused of murder, a Breton fisherman who swung a crooked real estate developer to the sea and who tells what pushed him to take action.
The judge could be a kind of priest, it could be a shrink, in the psychology of a criminal
Guilty or innocent?
“Addressing a judge is to be in a request, a request for self -registration in the community … Basically, the judge could be a kind of priest, it could be a shrink, in the psychology of a criminal,” said Tanguy Viel.
The law is not everything. In France as in Switzerland, judges also rely on their intimate conviction to decide the guilt of the author of a crime.
Intimate conviction is to give power to a judge, but it is to give power to someone who has been formed
Does this somewhat mysterious notion described in the penal code not give too much freedom to a magistrate? Is there a risk of abuse, as told in Tanguy Viel’s novel?
According to Loïc Parein, a lawyer specializing in criminal law, intimate conviction “is to give power to a judge, but it is to give power to someone who has been trained, who has been made aware of the way in which we can perceive things, in the manner of interpreting the means of evidence, with any bias with which we can be confronted”.
This very real room for maneuver cannot always be read in the reasons set out by a court at the time of a judgment, but literature allows it to be explored.
The third part of this series in five episodes, “Polars, Justice under investigation”, sheds light on our fascination for criminal stories. Behind fiction hide major societal issues: our relationship to truth and justice.
To discover now on all RTS listening platforms
>> Listen to the third episode:
Podcast: Esther Coquoz
