He can’t remember why he killed his friend

He talks about his crime as if it were a harmless act, as if the act of killing was child’s play, an easy thing to do. At least, that’s the impression he gives the court, especially as he has already served a prison sentence for murder.

Aged forty-one, he stood before the three magistrates of the criminal division of the Casablanca Court of Appeal, charged with assault and battery resulting in death without intent to kill, with recidivism. Indeed, he had already committed a murder for which he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. He was twenty years old when he stabbed to death a young man living next door. However, he only spent fifteen years in prison, having benefited from a royal pardon. Six years later, he returned, also with a murder on his hands.
“I had no intention of killing him, Mr. President,” he tells the court. The president tells him that he is indeed being prosecuted for murder without intent, while reminding him that he had committed a similar crime before.
The defendant remained silent for a short while before stammering a few incomprehensible words. So the chairman asked him to speak aloud. He replied that all he had said was that it was his destiny. And the president asks him if his destiny has whispered in his ear to kill one person each time. Once again, the defendant remains silent.
The case came to light when the body of a young man was found lifeless in a wasteland in Hay Mohammadi, Casablanca. He was lying in a pool of blood, with a serious head wound. At least, that’s what the investigators noticed when they checked the body. They also noticed several bottles of red wine and beer, and a blood-stained stone. They deduced that the victim and his killer had been out drinking. To identify the culprit, the detectives took evidence from people who had last seen the victim. All testified that they had seen her with the suspect, who was identified and arrested at home in a deep sleep. Under questioning, he confessed to having hit his friend with a stone, but that he couldn’t remember why he was so nervous, or why they had argued. He couldn’t even remember how he got home to sleep. In fact, these were the same answers he gave the court. He reiterated to the president that he remembers nothing except the blow he gave the victim without wanting to kill him.
“I was drugged and very drunk, Mr. Chairman…”, he confessed in his final remarks to the court, which withdrew to deliberate.
Verdict: He was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment.