Gabriel Attal wants to open the debate. Visiting Viry-Châtillon (Essonne) on Thursday, two weeks after the death of Shemseddine in front of his college after a violent attack, the Prime Minister announced a series of measures to combat violence by minors.
Among these measures, Gabriel Attal a possible “attenuation” of the “minority excuse”. “In vigilant respect for our constitutional principles, the minister (Éric Dupond-Moretti, Editor's note) will work on it and reflect in the coming weeks with the stakeholders, to open this debate of possible mitigation to the excuse of minority, if it "is possible and if it is desirable," he said. But what is it exactly?
A law that applies to minors “capable of discernment”
“The minority excuse” is a legal principle created by the order of February 2, 1945 of the National Council of the Resistance. This text has since been taken up by the Code of Criminal Justice for Minors (CJPM), which came into force on September 30, 2021. Broadly speaking, this principle requires that a minor be less severely penalized for an offense than an adult .
“Minors capable of discernment are criminally responsible for crimes, misdemeanors or contraventions of which they have been found guilty, taking into account the mitigation of responsibility from which they benefit due to their age, under conditions set by the code of justice criminal law for minors”, we can read in article 122-8 of the Penal Code.
This law therefore applies to minors “capable of discernment”, that is to say to those who are at least 13 years old. From this age, the CJPM considers that minors are capable of clearly judging an act and its consequences.
The minority excuse can already be lifted from the age of 16
This legal principle can already be lifted by a judge, in very specific and exceptional cases. The suspect must be at least 16 years old, his judgment must be used and the circumstances of the act and the profile of its perpetrator justify it.
Since 1945, the “minority excuse” has only been lifted twice by the courts. The first time in 1989, when Patrick Dils, 16, was sentenced to life in prison for killing two children in Moselle. He was finally exonerated after spending fifteen years of his life behind bars.
VIDEO. Patrick Dils at open book
In 2014, Matthieu M., 17, was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Agnès Marin, a 13-year-old schoolgirl. In this specific case, the profile of the suspect, a repeat rapist, had motivated the judge to lift his “minority excuse”, given his dangerousness.
On July 20, 2023, shortly after the unrest in the country following the death of Nahel, National Rally deputy Sébastien Chenu tabled a bill aimed at “removing the systematic use of mitigation of responsibility for minors ".