“I am not a murderer” : Bernard Pallot, 78, was acquitted on Wednesday, October 31, in Troyes, where he had been on trial since Monday for the murder of his sick wife Suzanne, whom he confesses to having strangled so that she would not suffer further.
“This trial demonstrates the insufficiency of the law that places us, individuals, in difficult situations.”Bernard Pallot calmly explained after the sentencing. “I am not alone in this case, it is absolutely necessary for the law to evolve. We are in the country of human rights, normally”added this retiree.
The right to die “It is a freedom that we do not yet have”continued his lawyer, Frédéric Verra. the court “he made it known that the acts had been committed. It is indisputable. But on the other hand there was an excuse for irresponsibility, which was coercion linked to the situation.”he explained.
On October 11, 2021, this retired IUT professor, with no criminal record, injected cyanide into the thigh of his wife, whose life was not according to him. “more bearable”to kill her, without success. SO, “in improvisation”He took a piece of electrical cable from the garage of his home in Isle-Aumont and held it around his neck for about twenty minutes. “It seems like a bit of a wild method, but I had no other option.”he said during the investigation.
“I was the one who killed my wife.”
When the gendarmes arrived, the instructing engineer declared: “I was the one who killed my wife. » He claims to have acted “for love” AND “at your request” For “prevent him from suffering”.
But for the attorney general, Mickaël Le Nouy, this murder, “presented as a gesture of love, it is a gesture prohibited by law” AND “We cannot arrogate to ourselves the right to kill”. Bernard Pallot, prosecuted before the Aube criminal court, “He acted in a determined, cold and violent manner”estimated the Advocate General. He had requested eight years in prison.
The defense had summoned Olivier Falorni, general rapporteur of the bill on the end of life whose examination was suspended due to the dissolution of the National Assembly, but he did not appear because he did not want to “press the field”lamented the accused’s lawyer.
If euthanasia were legal, “Bernard Pallot would not have strangled his wife with an electric cable”the lawyer argued.
Suzanne Pallot, also in her seventies, suffered from several pathologies, in particular Carrington’s disease, a chronic lung disease, and osteoporosis, with multiple fractures, including one in the neck of the femur that occurred shortly before the events.
“He did what she wanted and not what he wanted.”
During the interrogation, Bernard Pallot stated that for him it was a “euthanasia” requested by his wife, to whom he had been married since 1969. A note was found near his body: “I, the undersigned, Suzanne Pallot, still in my right mind, ask my husband, Bernard Pallot, to definitively relieve me of the incurable suffering that I suffer. »
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The retiree claims to understand the seriousness of his act “with respect to the laws of the Republic”but he thinks he has “he kept his promises” towards his wife. According to him, Suzanne, whom he cared for daily, did not want to return to the hospital where she felt “badly surrounded”.
To a friend, the accused will say: “In France we cannot sacrifice suffering people, but we do it with animals. »
As part of the investigation, a psychologist expert described a form of submission of the husband towards his wife, whom he did not dare to contradict or reason with. “He did what she wanted and not what he wanted.”an expert psychologist estimated on Wednesday.
On the day of his death, Suzanne said goodbye to her only son over the phone. Before the investigating judge, this son declared that his father had murdered his mother “for love, for compassion”. “I am not a murderer, if they condemn me we will have confused love and hate”the accused declared before the court retired to decide his fate.
