Patrick Henry (31 March 1953 – 3 December 2017) was a French criminal and

cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...

and the subject of public and judicial controversy. He was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of the eight-year-old Philippe Bertrand in January 1976.

Trial and sentencing

Henry's trial began on 18 January 1977, and he was defended by Robert Bocquillon and

Robert Badinter Robert Badinter (; born 30 March 1928) is a French lawyer, politician and author who enacted the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. He has also served in high-lev ...

. A contentious issue in the trial was the validity of

capital punishment in France Capital punishment in France (french: peine de mort en France) is banned by Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic, voted as a constitutional amendment by the Congress of the French Parliament on 19 February 2007 and simply stati ...

; Badinter, a fervent supporter of its abolition, ultimately convinced the jury not to execute his client. The case is said to have had an influence in leading to the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981. Henry was instead sentenced to life imprisonment and was

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

d in 2001; however, he returned to prison two years later after being caught trying to smuggle drugs into France. He was subsequently denied parole multiple times before finally succeeding and being released from prison on medical grounds in September 2017.

Death

Henry died of lung cancer in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, aged 64, on 3 December 2017, barely three months after his release from prison.L'ex-détenu Patrick Henry est mort
accessed 3 December 2017.

References

1953 births 2017 deaths French murderers of children 20th-century French criminals Deaths from lung cancer in France People from Troyes {{Europe-law-stub