In 2022, France is gripped by fear. In Paris, Lola Daviet, 12 years old, raped and tortured in the middle of Paris, is found dead, locked in a suitcase. The alleged perpetrator, Dahbia Benkired, a 24-year-old young woman under obligation to leave the territory, intrigues by her profile: delusional, unstable, confused. “But the question is not whether she is crazy or not, explains Dr. Laurent Layet. The question is: at the time of the events, did she still have her discernment?”. Today, as his trial opened on October 17, this question is the one that occupies all the attention.
When psychiatry enters the courtroom
Before the trial, as Dr Laurent Layet, expert at the court but also author of In the Land of Shadows – journey to the heart of madnesspsychiatrists are tasked with answering this key question. “Psychiatric expertise can intervene at several times”, specifies Dr Layet. “Before the trial, we are interested in discernment, that is to say the ability to understand and want one’s actions. After the trial, we rather assess the dangerousness and the risk of reoffending.”
It is therefore in this context, upstream, that we determine whether the accused can be held criminally responsible.
Psychiatrists faced with a chilling question: was she conscious of her actions?
Psychiatric expertise is a long and careful process. “We start by finding out if the person suffers from a psychiatric illness.” Clinical diagnosis, interviews, rereading of the medical file, even previous life information: everything is scrutinized.
But the psychiatrist does not just observe a pathology. “The heart of our work is to determine if, ultimately, this illness was already present at the time of the events, and especially if it has a direct link with the act.”
Because mental illness, even established, does not amount to irresponsibility. “You can be schizophrenic and delusional, but rob a bank without it being related to your disorder.” illustrates the expert. The challenge is therefore to establish an exclusive causal link between the illness and the crime committed.
In the case of Dahbia Benkired, the matter is ultimately not so simple. If it is judged today, this means that the experts have not all concluded that there is an abolition of discernment, the situation where the individual no longer has any control over his or her actions. Difficult to see, as the acts committed are so horrible. But yet, its presence today attests to a responsibility. “Either some experts have concluded that it should be abolished and others should have been altered, or the majority have only accepted the alteration. In the latter case, the person remains judged, but the sentence can be reduced” Dr. Layet tells us.
“The craziest crimes are not necessarily committed by madmen”
The confusion between madness and criminal irresponsibility is frequent, but false. The psychiatrist recalls this, from experience: “The craziest crimes are not necessarily committed by crazy people.”
For justice, there are three levels:
- Discernment intact (full responsibility);
- Impairment of discernment (diminished responsibility);
- The abolition (total irresponsibility).
The stakes are immense, because a conclusion of abolition rules out any trial: the person is then automatically interned, but not judged. “Expertise is the line between illness and guilt.” And it is on this tenuous line that part of the Benkired trial is played out.
Under the pressure of public opinion
In cases as high profile as that of Lola, it is difficult to believe that the experts work in isolation, while public opinion begs for a judgment. However, Dr Layet denies this: “We are not here to give our personal opinion, but to answer the magistrate’s questions.”
As he explains, expert psychiatrists are designated by judges, on official lists. They mustact as auxiliaries of justicewith rigor and impartiality. “Public opinion should not influence our analysis. The cases that make the headlines are not necessarily the most interesting from a clinical point of view.”
Media pressure, however, remains omnipresent. The crimes that “defies the imagination” fuel collective anger. “But we must remember that the expert does not judge. He sheds light on justice” concludes the expert.
To what extent is Dahbia Benkired responsible for her acts of torture? This is what justice must determine today. Tried for “aggravated murder and rape” and for “torture and barbaric acts”, the young woman faces life imprisonment.