Description
In Death of a Traveller, the reader is immersed in the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Angelo, a thirty-seven-year-old man from the Traveller community in France. Angelo spent his life in and out of the criminal justice system. Two-thirds of the way through his sentence for non-violent thefts and driving without a license, having been released on home leave, he decided not to return to prison. He went to visit his family. This prompted a heavily armed, elite unit of two dozen gendarmerie to arrive at his family's farm in search of him. It did not take long to find him. Angelo was hiding, unarmed, in a lean-to within shouting distance of his family who were forcefully detained by gendarmes in the nearby yard. The officers entered the lean-to. An altercation took place. The officers emerged, unscathed. Angelo came out, dead. According to the officers, they shot Angelo in self-defence. The police investigators and public prosecutor accepted this. The judicial investigation dismissed the case. The appeals against the decision to bring no charges were rejected. So, “No homicide, therefore, no case to answer” (p. xiii).