Gérald Darmanin backs down on "plea bargaining" for rape cases

Faced with growing opposition to his penal reform, Gérald Darmanin is now proposing to exclude sexual crimes from the future expedited trial procedure he wishes to introduce. In a letter addressed to lawyers and political parties, the Minister of Justice indicates his intention to remove all crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the Assize Court, including rape, from the system.

This procedure, called PJCR for "procedure for judging admitted crimes," is the central measure of the SURE bill ("Useful, Rapid, and Effective Sanction"). Inspired by the guilty plea mechanism already used for certain offenses, it allows a defendant who fully admits to the facts to negotiate a sentence with the prosecutor's office, resulting in a shorter hearing and a sentence reduced by approximately one-third. The stated objective of the Ministry is to reduce the backlog in criminal courts.

A reform under strong pressure from lawyers and associations

For several weeks, the text has sparked fierce opposition from criminal lawyers and associations defending victims of sexual violence. Many denounce it as a summary justice system that could deprive victims of a genuine, public, and adversarial trial. Several organizations also believe that such a mechanism would profoundly alter the traditional principles of French criminal justice.

The Ministry of Justice justifies this reform by citing the overburdened courts: average trial times reach approximately six years for rapes and eight years for certain homicides. Before this partial rollback, the Ministry estimated that the measure would have affected up to 15% of criminal cases. With the exclusion of sexual crimes and cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Assize Court, the scope would now be reduced to a few dozen cases per year, primarily related to robberies and manslaughter cases tried in departmental criminal courts. The bill is scheduled to be examined by the National Assembly at the end of June.