Recently updated on January 2, 2023 at 06:39 am
In the first trial before the Berlin district court in 2017, the two speeders, who are now 29 and 26 years old, were found guilty of murder by the Berlin Ku'damm and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In February 2016, they delivered an illegal car race over Berlin's boulevard at around 160 kilometers an hour, running over ten red traffic lights. At the last intersection, there was a crash with the jeep of a 69-year-old retired doctor who was on his way home. The victim hurled 72 meters out of the car and died of his serious injuries at the scene of the accident.
The judgment of the Berlin district court was an absolute novelty. Racers have never been convicted of murder before. However, the two had their defense lawyers appeal to the Federal Court of Justice (BHG). With success. The BHG rejected the conviction for murder and referred the criminal case back to the Berlin district court.
The conditional killing resolution, which would have been a prerequisite for the classification as murder, could not be recognized from the evidence so far, the judges from Karlsruhe said. In the event, new evidence and assessment has now been ordered. The case is currently being renegotiated by another criminal chamber in Berlin.
At the beginning of the second trial, there was first a request for bias
The new version of the process now also began spectacularly. The defense attorney for the 26-year-old racer first filed a motion for bias against the presiding judge. In the opinion of the defense attorneys, he had previously publicly disapproved of the judgment of the BHG.
However, the trial continued despite the request for partiality, against the defense counsel. The question of the extent to which the accused were able to recognize the fatal risk and thus accepted it is now being dealt with once again in court. Specifically, this means whether they practically didn't care that someone could have died as a result of their behavior.
The defenders unanimously say no. The two defendants would not have known that, they would have had some practice in such races. This would have given them a firm belief that they were in control of the situation. To support this, it was also stated that the accused themselves were not wearing seat belts because they believed that everything was going well.
The new charge is again murder. Proof must now be provided that this was possibly a conditional killing intent. Otherwise, the two speeders would only be prosecuted for negligent killing. However, that would make a significant difference in the sentence. The maximum sentence for the two could then be a maximum of five years.
In order to assess the extent to which the two defendants could have recognized the risk of a fatal accident, the personal circumstances and the environment are now tapped again. Whether drugs, gambling addiction to the well-known Bally Wulff slot machines that are available in almost every pub in Berlin, or racing games such as Need for Speed as well as belonging to one of the notorious Arab clans will also have to be examined again.
The legal situation for speeders has meanwhile tightened
Given the increasing frenzy and illegal car racing in German city centers and on country roads, the Bundestag decided in September 2017 to punish such offenses significantly more severely. The maximum sentence for endangering human life has been ten years since then.
It is now also punishable to make an appointment and even call for an unauthorized race on social media. The latter can be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to two years. In addition, in severe cases, razors can not only be removed from the driver's license, but the car or motorcycle can now also be confiscated and withdrawn. This also applies to lone racers who do not take part in a race.
Previously, and this was the legal situation with the razors in Berlin, participating speeders in an illegal car race, in which no one was injured, could only be fined with a maximum fine of € 400 and a driving ban. Organizers of illegal street races could be fined a maximum of € 500.
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