Jean-François Fournel

Jean-François Fournel (1745 – 21 July 1820) was a French lawyer, jurist, and member of the .

Biography Early career Fournel was born in Paris and came from a family with connections to the legal and judicial spheres in that city. He joined the in 1771 when he was approximately 27 years-old. He was known to write legal briefs and rarely pleaded cases in court.

Exoneration of Marie Salmon

In 1786, Fournel worked with Rouen lawyer Pierre Noël Lecauchois to exonerate Marie Salmon, a young domestic servant who was wrongfully convicted of fatally poisoning her employer and was sentenced to be tortured and burned alive. Fournel and Lecauchois successfully argued her innocence in widely circulated legal briefs printed by Parisian publisher Cailleau.

After Salmon's exoneration, Fournel's legal brief, , was read at the Vatican, and the Pope named him a Knight of the Golden Spur.

French Revolution and beyond

Fournel was not supportive of the French Revolution. During the years of the revolution, he retired from public life and spent his time writing and collecting documents to publish later. When Napoleon came to power and established the Napoleonic Code in 1804, Fournel returned to practicing law and published numerous works of legal scholarship and case law.

In March 1816, Fournel was elected president of the . He died on 21 July 1820.

Works An incomplete list of books and legal briefs written by Jean-François Fournel: , 1778 , 1781 , 1786 , 1797 , 1798 , 1812 , 1813 , 1816