ABSTRACT
The court and jury had heard M. Mornet's fiery final argument and his demand for the death penalty. In regular French trial practice, Mornet's requisitoire would have been followed by the plaidorie, the accused's final argument. The prosecution had abandoned any charges based upon Pierre Laval's pre-war politics or diplomacy. But he had the Lavalian audacity to say that had the matter been in his hands, he would have negotiated better terms. In the overall scheme of things, in Laval's efforts to deal with the Germans over every issue of political margin, the Bor mines were not a major issue. Laval had been dismissed by Marshal Petain from his ministerial posts on December 13, 1940 to be succeeded briefly by Pierre-Etienne Flandin and then by Admiral Francois Darlan. He was in retirement at Chateldon until his return to government on April 26, 1942.
