The trial surrounding the shooting spree in Trier that left five dead must be reopened in parts. Following a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe, the Trier Regional Court’s ruling was largely overturned due to legal errors. The BGH announced on Monday that the defendant’s appeal was upheld.
The reason: The regional court did not make legal errors in justifying its assumption that the defendant had acted in a state of significantly reduced culpability. This means that the decisions on the legal consequences must also be repealed.
During the rampage on December 1, 2020, a man raced through Trier’s pedestrian zone in his off-road vehicle and deliberately hit passers-by. Five people died in the incident: a nine-week-old baby, its father (45) and three women aged 73, 52 and 25. There were also dozens of injured and traumatized people.
“Generalizing approach” is not enough
The perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison in August 2022 for multiple murders and multiple attempted murders before the Trier regional court. The court also noted the particular gravity of the guilt and ordered the man to be placed in a closed psychiatric hospital.
According to the report presented in the Trier trial, the man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia with bizarre delusions – and is therefore less culpable. The BGH judges ruled that this “generalized approach” was not enough. Therefore, a newly assigned criminal chamber at the Trier regional court must re-examine “the assessment of culpability”.
Specifically: culpability must be related to the individual acts. In addition, a possible interaction between the defendant’s previous alcohol consumption and his illness would have to be taken into account. According to the BGH, “the findings on the external events of the crime” are not affected by the new edition of the trial.
“It’s clear that he drove and people died,” said the defendant’s defense attorney, Frank K. Peter, on Monday in Worms. “The entire subjective area” now needs to be re-examined. These included features of the murder, premeditation, his client’s illness and the question of possible incapacity.
At the end there could be “a new sentence”. “Perhaps, without there being any signs of murder, it could be manslaughter in several cases,” Peter told the German Press Agency. He assumed that “four, five, six days of negotiations” would be needed for a new edition. In his estimation, these would be possible in spring 2024. The gunman is currently in a detention center. He remained silent about the allegations during the year-long trial.
Relatives and those affected were horrified after the BGH decision. “It’s impossible for it to start again,” said Wolfgang Hilsemer, who lost his sister (73) in the rampage and whose brother-in-law later died from the injuries he sustained. “I’m in tears again when I think about it. But they’re more tears of anger than tears of sadness.”
He is also angry that he found the decision from the Federal Court of Justice in his mailbox exactly on the third anniversary of the shooting spree last Friday (December 1st). “I find it impossible: I come home from the memorial service and then have to read something like that. They don’t let the relatives relax.”
