A newly acquired drawing at the Clark depicts the imprisoned Joseph Lesurques (1763–96), whose name in France is synonymous with judicial error. In a case of mistaken identity, Lesurques was convicted of a murder-robbery he did not commit and was guillotined. His wrongful execution helped inspire Victor Hugo’s campaign against capital punishment decades later. Marc Howard, Professor of Government and Law at Georgetown University, is one of the nation’s leading advocates for criminal justice and prison reform. He examines the Clark’s newly acquired drawing, The Painful Fairwell, or Lesurques’s Farewell to His Family (Les Pénibles Adieux, dit les Adieux de Lesurques à sa famille), by Hilaire Ledru, and discusses historical and contemporary perspectives on what constitutes fairness in the justice system.

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Image: Hilaire Ledru, The Painful Farewell, or Lesurques’s Farewell to His Family (Les Pénibles Adieux, dit les Adieux de Lesurques à sa famille) (detail), c. 1796–1802, conté crayon with stumping and white chalk with white gouache highlights on several sheets of paper. The Clark, 2023.2.1