L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur

Charles Lainé, a locksmith of modest means working at Givenchy-le-Noble in the Pas-de-Calais, was condemned to death in the summer of 1818 for forgery. He had made twelve very crude silver coins which he was preparing destroy when he was arrested. This item of news would have remained unknown if a m...

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Main Author: Étienne Hofmann
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Criminocorpus 2011-12-01
Series:Criminocorpus
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/958
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author Étienne Hofmann
author_facet Étienne Hofmann
author_sort Étienne Hofmann
collection DOAJ
description Charles Lainé, a locksmith of modest means working at Givenchy-le-Noble in the Pas-de-Calais, was condemned to death in the summer of 1818 for forgery. He had made twelve very crude silver coins which he was preparing destroy when he was arrested. This item of news would have remained unknown if a magistrate had not spontaneously denounced the scandalous behaviour of a police spy who had encouraged Lainé to commit the crime. The magistrate informed the editors of La Minerve française, chief newspaper of the liberal opposition in France. Benjamin Constant, who had only recently been involved in the Wilfrid Regnault case (that of a man condemned to death for a crime he had not committed), published an article and a pamphlet in defence of Lainé, admiting the crime but also accusing the police and those in power of pursuing practices that were as reprehensible as they were pointless, since the locksmith had never before been a forger, did not belong to any criminal group and presented no potential danger to society. Constant’s efforts, combined with those of the lawyer Odilon Barrot and the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons Legraverend, led to Lainé’s sentence being commuted to ten years’ imprisonment.
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spelling doaj-art-da6112de462945efa66c9d5a5471eb3e2025-01-06T09:15:43ZengCriminocorpusCriminocorpus2108-69072011-12-0110.4000/criminocorpus.958L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeurÉtienne HofmannCharles Lainé, a locksmith of modest means working at Givenchy-le-Noble in the Pas-de-Calais, was condemned to death in the summer of 1818 for forgery. He had made twelve very crude silver coins which he was preparing destroy when he was arrested. This item of news would have remained unknown if a magistrate had not spontaneously denounced the scandalous behaviour of a police spy who had encouraged Lainé to commit the crime. The magistrate informed the editors of La Minerve française, chief newspaper of the liberal opposition in France. Benjamin Constant, who had only recently been involved in the Wilfrid Regnault case (that of a man condemned to death for a crime he had not committed), published an article and a pamphlet in defence of Lainé, admiting the crime but also accusing the police and those in power of pursuing practices that were as reprehensible as they were pointless, since the locksmith had never before been a forger, did not belong to any criminal group and presented no potential danger to society. Constant’s efforts, combined with those of the lawyer Odilon Barrot and the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons Legraverend, led to Lainé’s sentence being commuted to ten years’ imprisonment.https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/958counterfeitingLainé (Charles)Constant (Benjamin)Barrot (Odilon)Legraverend (Jean-Marie Emmanuel François)
spellingShingle Étienne Hofmann
L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
Criminocorpus
counterfeiting
Lainé (Charles)
Constant (Benjamin)
Barrot (Odilon)
Legraverend (Jean-Marie Emmanuel François)
title L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
title_full L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
title_fullStr L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
title_full_unstemmed L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
title_short L’Affaire Charles Lainé (1818), ou comment la police fabriquait un faux-monnayeur
title_sort l affaire charles laine 1818 ou comment la police fabriquait un faux monnayeur
topic counterfeiting
Lainé (Charles)
Constant (Benjamin)
Barrot (Odilon)
Legraverend (Jean-Marie Emmanuel François)
url https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/958
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