LIGHT OVER THE SCAFFOLD AND CELL 18
The Prison Letters of Jacques Fesch

On February 25,1954, in the rue Vivienne in Paris, a young man with no prior criminal record assaulted a money changer in order to rob him. The attempt failed. Recognized moments later by a passerby, however, he fled in panic and was eventually cornered. During his attempt at escape he instinctively reached for the weapon he had foolishly carried with him and shot a policeman, instantly killing him. In his flight he also seriously wounded another man who was trying to stop him. At his trial, he was condemned to death on the guillotine. Sentence was passed for the beginning of April 1957. His appeal for pardon was eventually rejected and on October 1 of the same year, more than three and a half years after the crime and six months after his trial, Jacques Fesch was executed for the crime of murder. He was twenty-seven. During the long months of detention in isolation, a remarkable change took place in the life of this young man — husband, father, and ne’er-do-well. An atheist at the time of his entrance into prison, he rediscovered his faith with the help of the prison chaplain, his lawyer, and a monk who had been a friend of his wife Pierrette. The letters which he wrote from prison allow us to follow his spiritual journey from sinner to saint. They also give us a rare insight into the life and sufferings of a prisoner and later into the psyche of a man condemned to death. What he wrote during his last night throbs with a terrible and unforgettable intensity. “Here is a man whom men have judged, condemned and executed. Here is a man whom the Lord, we are convinced, has welcomed into Life.”