Paragrafer om tilfellet Torgersen

Torgersen-saken døde ikke med Fredrik Fasting Torgersens bortgang i 2015, for Torgersen-saken er større enn Torgersen selv. Helt grunnleggende handler Torgersen-saken om norsk rettssikkerhet og hvordan de som forvalter retten behandler sine medmennesker.

Livstidsdømte Torgersen var også forfatter og poet. Denne boka omhandler både Torgersens forfatterskap og Torgersen-saken i litterær belysning.

Johan Dragvoll (f. 1970) er doktor i allmenn litteraturvitenskap.

Abstract:

"Paragrafer om tilfellet Torgersen" (Paragraphs on the Torgersen Case) by Dr. Johan Dragvoll (The Bergen School, 2017) is a study of one of the most famous and infamous cases of miscarried justice in Norwegian history.

The book addresses the reciprocal and, in the case of Fredrik Fasting Torgersen, poorly recognized relationship between law and literature, i.e. law in literature and the significance of literature in law. In 1958, Fredrik Fasting Torgersen was convicted to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of 16-year old Rigmor Johnsen, as well as for arson, in Skippergata in Oslo, Norway, the year before. All the while claiming his innocence, Torgersen has on several occasions demanded that his case be reopened. He has not succeeded. However, Torgersen also has another identity, as a writer and a poet. His scarcely examined literary work puts a distinctly satirical focus on law, justice and injustice: in his legal poetry the humane, the existentially tragic and tragicomic emerge as a powerful correction to formalist and instrumental legal thinking.

The juridico-political aim of the book is to contribute to a “humanification” of law, based particularly on an idea which is fundamental to the humanities: that a rhetorical analysis of text, speech and signs is a necessary prerequisite for understanding the circumstances of a case as well as the people involved. In conclusion, the judges in the Torgersen case have drawn unambiguous, certain conclusions based on ambiguous and uncertain circumstances, thus suppressing the signs and circumstances which do not serve the idea of Torgersen being guilty as charged.