The Judgment and the Appeal

The trial was over. The moment of judgment had arrived. The four Court counsellors rendered their judgments based on all the trial transcripts given to them by the court clerk, and on the two interrogations on the criminal seat at which they had been present.

The judge and the counsellors signed the final sentence condemning Angélique to a horrible death. The king’s prosecutor, as was required under the "Ordonnance criminelle" of 1670, in the event of a sentence of death, appealed the sentence in the name of the accused.

A copy of all the trial documents was prepared and the king’s prosecutor, along with the accused under close guard, was taken to Québec for the appeal to take place before the Conseil supérieur.

On June 12, 1734, the appeal against the initial judgment and sentence was rejected. The Conseil supérieur formulated a new sentence of death, slightly less cruel than the original one. The accused was returned to Montréal for her public execution.

Court Documents