NCJ Number
131237
Journal
Kriminalist Volume: 22 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1990) Pages: 410-414
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The article evaluates four 1990 West German Supreme Court decisions.
Abstract
In the first case, the German Supreme Court ruled that a person losing a fist fight cannot suddenly turn on the opponent with a knife and claim self-defense. Overturning an acquittal from a lower court, the Supreme Court argued that the accused's knife attack appeared an escalation of an ongoing fight rather than self-defense. The Supreme Court also disagreed with a Munich court which had condemned an offender for using extreme cruelty during an attempted murder. It argued that the cruelty must be directly related to the murder and must occur before the murder has taken place. In a third case, the Court ruled that sleep cannot always be considered a state of helplessness. A lower court had argued that the accused had taken advantage of the victim's sleep to rob his apartment. However, unlike the sleep of a sick person, the sleep of a healthy person shows no more helplessness than a victim's lack of attention or absence from the home. In the last case, the Court ruled that for some offenses (in this case, espionage) the right to telephone privacy ceases and that illegally taped telephone conversations may be used as evidence at the trial.