After all Those years, do give Mis & Thiennot a fait trial ! They are innocent !

To this day, the Mis and Thiennot case remains one of the most terrible miscarriages of justice of the last century.

In late 1946, eight young men were accused of murdering a gamekeeper in the Indre district. After a brutal eight-day police interrogation, they broke down and ended up signing full confessions. When they arrived at Châteauroux prison, the marks of the torture they had undergone were visible all over their bodies: broken teeth and phalanxes, slashed ears, punctured lungs and crushed testicles.

Although they immediately retracted their confessions, 21-year old Raymond Mis and 20-year old Gabriel Thiennot were convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and hard labour. The ruling was upheld by two subsequent Assize Courts. Six other hunters were sentenced to penalties ranging from 18 months’ to 2 years’ imprisonment for failing to lend assistance to a person in danger or for being accomplices to murder.

In 1954, Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot were granted a pardon by French President René Coty after they had spent 7 years, 6 months et 14 days in prison. For the rest of their lives, they would never stop proclaiming their innocence.

After the publication of Ils sont innocents, a book by Léandre Boizeau, in 1980, a support committee was set up. Its members filed six claims forjudicial review of the case but all of them were rejected.

In the Berry region of Central France, people still have very vivid memories of this controversial case. To pay tribute to these two wrongfully convicted men, 22 towns have named a street, a square or some other public space after Mis and Thiennot.

After 35 years, the support committee is still active. Its members demand an amendment to the Justice Act on the review of trials, regarding confessions wrested under torture. They want to file a seventh application for a review of the case.

We cannot accept sentences based on confessions wrested under torture.
We cannot accept that the Courts of Justice deny having wrongfully judged.

Mis and Thiennot Support Committee:
Comité de soutien pour la révision du procès Mis et Thiennot
10 allée de la Bourie
36000 Châteauroux