Mon, Feb 5th 2024
Justice Upheld: François Légeret’s Final Appeal Denied. DNA Evidence Dispute Dismissed by Supreme Court.
The Federal Supreme Court has rejected a further appeal for revision by the murderer François Légeret from Vaud. The man was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 for the manslaughter of his mother and the murder of his sister and a friend of his mother.
In his application submitted in June 2022, the convicted man claimed that the investigators had initially found no traces of his DNA on the scissors used in the December 2005 crime or on his mother’s blouse. These were only later placed on the pieces of evidence. This is the result of a ruling by the Federal Supreme Court published on Monday.
Légeret concludes that the initial analyses did not contain any incriminating elements and that the evidence was embellished months later. He bases his conviction on statements by police officers and experts who spoke of the vulnerability of DNA. The analyses carried out several months after the crime were therefore flawed.
No new elements
The Vaud cantonal court rejected the appeal in November 2022. It held that the statements made by the specialists were of a “theoretical, even rhetorical nature”. The lower court therefore refused to hear a forensic pathologist at the request of the convicted person because he would not have been in a position to make concrete statements on the case at hand.
The Federal Supreme Court confirmed this view. Contrary to Légeret’s criticism, the lower court had not violated the right to a fair hearing with its decision. Furthermore, the appellant’s arguments did not constitute any new and important elements that would justify reopening his case.
Légeret killed his mother, a friend of hers and his sister on December 24, 2005. The sister’s body was never found. His numerous appeals to date have all been rejected.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic