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In France, a cour d'assises, or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of felonies, meaning crimes as defined in French law. It is the only French court that uses a jury trial.^[1]^[2]

Justiciable matters

Under French criminal law, the definition of a crime is limited to any criminal act punishable by over ten years of prison, including murder and rape.^[a]

Previous death penalty application

The cour d'assises, uniquely outside military law, could sentence proven convicts for serious crimes, e.g. murder (assassinat or meurtre) to the death penalty, until it was abolished from French law in September 1981. In the sentencing phase, a qualified majority would vote on the verdict, or 2/3 of the jury, the same procedure as in rendering the guilty verdict. One of the last famous death penalty trials, that of Patrick Henry in 1977, famously ended in a life sentence after the jury voted 7–5 in favour of a death sentence.^{[citation needed]}

Composition

Cases are tried by a jury of six jurors and a panel of three active judges, that is, one judge-in-charge (called "president" of the court) and two associate judges (assesseurs), on first hearing, and a jury of nine jurors and a panel of three active judges on appeal. Lists of eligible jurors are put together at random from the list of registered voters, but both the prosecution and defense have the right to peremptory challenge and can refuse a juror without stating a reason.

Special procedures exist for the following categories of crimes and suspects:

Felonies committed by teenagers 16 years or older are tried in a special Juvenile Assize Court (Cour d'Assises des Mineurs)
Felonies such as terrorism or major illicit drug trafficking, which are tried in a special assize court sitting 7 active judges on first hearing and 9 on appeal, without jurors. In such cases a simple majority is needed to convict, instead of two thirds majority in jury trial. The 2019-2022 trial against Salah Abdeslam was one notable such case.
More recently, since certain judicial reforms undertaken in 2018-2022, seven departments have "experimented" with cours criminelles hearing matters including of such gravity formerly requiring a trial in the cour d'assise, with seven magistrates.

Procedure

The procedure before the Cour d'assises is oral: defendants and witnesses give their testimony before the court. Witnesses and their close relatives cannot be put under oath, since doing so could force them into self-incrimination or incrimination of a relative.

As in all French criminal trials, the victim is a party with his or her own attorney, besides the public prosecution. If the accused is convicted the court will, without the jury, rule on civil damages.

At the end of the trial, the judges and jurors retire. They first decide the question of guilt by answering a series of questions—e.g., "Did X murder Y?", "Did X premeditate the murder?" If a conviction results, they then rule on the appropriate penalty.^[3] During this procedure, judges and jurors have equal positions on questions of facts, while judges decide questions of procedure. Judges and jurors have also equal positions on sentencing. Voting is secret and blank or invalid votes are counted in favor of the defendant.

Appellate Assize Court

Every département in France has its own cour d'assises. In the past, their verdicts could not be appealed to the Court of Appeal; prior to 2001, they could only be appealed to the Court of Cassation, which would review the case on points of procedure and law alone. When reversed, which was uncommon except for the death penalty, the Court would refer the de novo trial to another Assize court.

One argument in favor of this practice was that allowing appeals to be made to professional judges after a verdict had been rendered by a popular jury would in essence deny popular sovereignty. Since 2001, however, Assize court verdicts may be appealed on points of fact (including sentence) to another department's Assize court (chosen by the Court of Cassation) and heard before a larger jury. The case is then fully retried.

Appeals to the Court of Cassation are still possible on points of law and procedure after the first appeal (except in case of acquittal). If this appeal on law is denied, the verdict is final; otherwise, the Court of Cassation will quash (casse) the verdict and remand the case to the appeal court for a retrial of points of fact and law.

Notes

^ English terms: crime and criminal offense/offence are "infraction" in French legal terminology.

References

^ Serge Guinchard, André Varinard and Thierry Debard, Institutions juridictionnelles (= Judicials institutions), Paris, Dalloz editor, 11th edition, 2011.
^ Serge Guinchard and Jacques Buisson, Criminal procedural law, Paris, Lexisnexis editor, 7th edition, 2011.
^ Direction de l'information légale et administrative. "Déroulement d'un procès devant la cour d'assises". Ministère de l'Intérieur.