State seeks tougher penalty for German cannibal

[Kellanved]

Prosecutors will be seeking life imprisonment this week for the self-confessed German cannibal who killed a man and ate his body parts in a grisly crime recorded on video nearly five years ago.

Armin Meiwes, 44, is already serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison term for manslaughter, but prosecutors say his conviction should be upgraded to murder. The case revealed a world of bizarre sexual urges that were discussed in online "chat-rooms".

A higher court said the crime had most of the features of murder including gratuitous violence and ordered the retrial which starts Thursday in the German city of Frankfurt.

Meiwes, a computer expert and former army officer, is expected to tell the Frankfurt court how a Berlin engineer answered his online advertisement for someone who would like to be eaten. The men met at Meiwes' home near the small country town of Rotenburg.

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http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=26694&name=State+seeks+tougher+penalty+for+German+cannibal

[Poll_Blind]

1. What a bizarre world. Truly. When I was a child I wanted to...

...get on a spaceship and fly to some other, stranger, planet. Be careful what you wish for, I found out this one out-weirds and out-uglies anyplace I could imagine.

Details of the case are as gruesome as they are puzzling. Flip mode.

PB

[Kali]

2. Interesting case

"assisted" suicide, or voluntary victim...

is it really murder? Hard work for the lawyers, I would imagine.

How do juries work in Germany? Are they charged by a judge? Is there persumption of innocence?

[Kellanved]

3. A senate of judges

An crimes against life, a so called "Schwurgericht", "jury court" or "sworn court", is responsible. Those courts consist of three professional judges and two civilians; all five are required to stay neutral. Beyond the neutral court, there are defending attorneys and public prosecutors.
Basically it is pretty much like the american court, except that the judges and the jury are identical; also the proceedings are less suited for TV-drama - too theoretical and slow-paced.




There naturally is presumption of innocence; that is a human right and an integral part in the definition of "Democracy" and "State of law.

[Kali]

5. Thanks

Being somewhat typical American, I have had very little formal geograpy education! And even though probably my best friend is German, I don't know too much about how things are done there. Although I did go with her and her parents to vote when I was visiting, and I know there were PAPER BALLOTS!

[Kagemusha]

4. If he's been convicted of manslaughter already...

there's absolutely no justification for sentencing him for a crime he was not convicted of regarding the same offense. That's double jeopardy of the worst sort, the sort of abuse that Americans have tried to drive out of American jurisprudence for years.

[Kellanved]

6. They have sacked the first conviction

The prosecutor sought a revision and got it.