Francois Hollande has only used his power of pardon once before, to grant clemency in 2014 to a convicted bank robber who spent 38 years in prison.
Jacqueline Sauvage was a teenager when she met Norbert Marot.
After they married, they settled in a rural village in northern France, where Marot ran a shipping business that never got off its feet. Sauvage worked in pharmaceuticals and tailoring, and had four children before the age of 25.
It didn't take long for the neighbors to become aware - and wary - of Marot's drunken tendencies. He was known in the community to be a disagreeable man, but the extent of his violence was evident to his family only: According to them, he beat Sauvage. He raped their daughters. He may have abused their son, too, who committed suicide.
Sauvage said in court that she was struck by a "lightning bolt" on September 10, 2012. She had spent the morning enduring insults from Marot. Then she picked up a rifle.
"I was downstairs on the patio, sitting, looking away," Sauvage recounted. "I approached. I fired, fired, fired, with my eyes closed."
Marot died. Sauvage was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a failed appeal last December.
Now, she is a 68-year-old woman, a convicted murderer and the rare beneficiary of a legal reprieve handed down by French President Francois Hollande. The president announced on Sunday that Sauvage may now "immediately seek conditional freedom" via a reduced sentence that will allow her to go free in mid-April, her lawyers told the Guardian.
"In the face of an exceptional human situation, the president wanted to make it possible for Madame Sauvage to quickly return to her family while respecting judicial authorities," the president's office said.
The decision came two days after Hollande met with Sauvage's daughters, who have described their father's death as a "relief." It falls just short of a presidential pardon, which was called for by more than 400,000 people who signed a Change.org petition in support of Sauvage. Many saw the mother's plight as symbolic of how domestic violence victims are treated by the courts; they argued passionately, as Sauvage's lawyers did, that the killing was a legitimate act of self-defense.
During the trials, Sauvage's three daughters recounted the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father. One of the daughters, Fabienne Marot, testified that while her father had raped her when she was a child, she was too scared to go to police.
Her older sister Sylvie Marot called their childhood "a model of slavery."
Marot's business kept him on the road for the entire work week. Sylvie dreaded Friday nights, when he would return. "Throughout my adolescence," Sylvie said, "he inappropriately touched my sister and me...Whenever he had the chance, he backed me into a corner and fondled me. In the mornings, he would slip into our beds and rub himself against us."
The guilty verdict against Sauvage devastated her daughters, who burst into tears in court. "They asked us to empty ourselves," Fabienne said of the decision last December, the Associated Press reported. "We were left [feeling] naked."
Her lawyers had argued that Sauvage shot Marot in self-defense against years of abuse, but prosecutors said she did not meet the definition of self-defense under the law, which must be a direct and proportionate response to an act of aggression.
Sauvage's prison sentence sent French feminists reeling. The group "Osez le Feminisme" (Dare To Be Feminist) declared the verdict an injustice against all domestic violence victims and a failure of the legal system. Activist Caroline de Haas retorted on social media: "So what is a proportional response to 47 years of rape, beatings, torture and the rape of your children?"
Pressure steadily mounted - from fellow politicians, celebrities and the general public - for Hollande to issue a pardon.
Representatives of all political stripes united under the Free Jacqueline movement. Valerie Pecresse, a minister for former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the leftist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have both urged Hollande to act. Just last week, conservative assemblywoman Valerie Boyer paid Sauvage a visit in prison.
"We are waiting for the head of state to say that he has at least received the letters from more than 50 parliamentarians supporting this pardon," she told the Agence France-Press.
The news Sunday that Sauvage will soon be free, then, was greeted with wide jubilation. Renowned French actress Anny Duperey said she was "infinitely relieved." The organizers of the Change.org petition heralded a victory to which all signatories contributed.
"Solidarity in the face of injustice has worked," they wrote. "We must continue to be outraged, continue to act, continue to fight for ourselves, because sometimes we move mountains like today."
Meanwhile, a few have questioned whether Marot was truly as brutalizing as his wife and daughters claim.
Writing for Le Figaro last Friday, lawyer Florence Rault cautioned the public against "confusing justice and feminism."
"Women aren't systemically victimized by everything and responsible for nothing," Rault said, accusing the media of upholding "feminist victimhood."
Hollande has only used his power of pardon once before, to grant clemency in 2014 to a convicted bank robber who spent 38 years in prison.
© 2016 The Washington Post
After they married, they settled in a rural village in northern France, where Marot ran a shipping business that never got off its feet. Sauvage worked in pharmaceuticals and tailoring, and had four children before the age of 25.
It didn't take long for the neighbors to become aware - and wary - of Marot's drunken tendencies. He was known in the community to be a disagreeable man, but the extent of his violence was evident to his family only: According to them, he beat Sauvage. He raped their daughters. He may have abused their son, too, who committed suicide.
Sauvage said in court that she was struck by a "lightning bolt" on September 10, 2012. She had spent the morning enduring insults from Marot. Then she picked up a rifle.
"I was downstairs on the patio, sitting, looking away," Sauvage recounted. "I approached. I fired, fired, fired, with my eyes closed."
Marot died. Sauvage was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a failed appeal last December.
Now, she is a 68-year-old woman, a convicted murderer and the rare beneficiary of a legal reprieve handed down by French President Francois Hollande. The president announced on Sunday that Sauvage may now "immediately seek conditional freedom" via a reduced sentence that will allow her to go free in mid-April, her lawyers told the Guardian.
"In the face of an exceptional human situation, the president wanted to make it possible for Madame Sauvage to quickly return to her family while respecting judicial authorities," the president's office said.
The decision came two days after Hollande met with Sauvage's daughters, who have described their father's death as a "relief." It falls just short of a presidential pardon, which was called for by more than 400,000 people who signed a Change.org petition in support of Sauvage. Many saw the mother's plight as symbolic of how domestic violence victims are treated by the courts; they argued passionately, as Sauvage's lawyers did, that the killing was a legitimate act of self-defense.
During the trials, Sauvage's three daughters recounted the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father. One of the daughters, Fabienne Marot, testified that while her father had raped her when she was a child, she was too scared to go to police.
Her older sister Sylvie Marot called their childhood "a model of slavery."
Marot's business kept him on the road for the entire work week. Sylvie dreaded Friday nights, when he would return. "Throughout my adolescence," Sylvie said, "he inappropriately touched my sister and me...Whenever he had the chance, he backed me into a corner and fondled me. In the mornings, he would slip into our beds and rub himself against us."
The guilty verdict against Sauvage devastated her daughters, who burst into tears in court. "They asked us to empty ourselves," Fabienne said of the decision last December, the Associated Press reported. "We were left [feeling] naked."
Her lawyers had argued that Sauvage shot Marot in self-defense against years of abuse, but prosecutors said she did not meet the definition of self-defense under the law, which must be a direct and proportionate response to an act of aggression.
Sauvage's prison sentence sent French feminists reeling. The group "Osez le Feminisme" (Dare To Be Feminist) declared the verdict an injustice against all domestic violence victims and a failure of the legal system. Activist Caroline de Haas retorted on social media: "So what is a proportional response to 47 years of rape, beatings, torture and the rape of your children?"
Pressure steadily mounted - from fellow politicians, celebrities and the general public - for Hollande to issue a pardon.
Representatives of all political stripes united under the Free Jacqueline movement. Valerie Pecresse, a minister for former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the leftist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have both urged Hollande to act. Just last week, conservative assemblywoman Valerie Boyer paid Sauvage a visit in prison.
"We are waiting for the head of state to say that he has at least received the letters from more than 50 parliamentarians supporting this pardon," she told the Agence France-Press.
The news Sunday that Sauvage will soon be free, then, was greeted with wide jubilation. Renowned French actress Anny Duperey said she was "infinitely relieved." The organizers of the Change.org petition heralded a victory to which all signatories contributed.
"Solidarity in the face of injustice has worked," they wrote. "We must continue to be outraged, continue to act, continue to fight for ourselves, because sometimes we move mountains like today."
Meanwhile, a few have questioned whether Marot was truly as brutalizing as his wife and daughters claim.
Writing for Le Figaro last Friday, lawyer Florence Rault cautioned the public against "confusing justice and feminism."
"Women aren't systemically victimized by everything and responsible for nothing," Rault said, accusing the media of upholding "feminist victimhood."
Hollande has only used his power of pardon once before, to grant clemency in 2014 to a convicted bank robber who spent 38 years in prison.
© 2016 The Washington Post
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