NCJ Number
131117
Journal
Kriminalist Volume: 22 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1990) Pages: 466-468
Date Published
1990
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The article evaluates three 1990 West German appellate court decisions.
Abstract
In the first case, a Verden appellate court ruled that a court can order DNA-fingerprinting against the will of the accused if the test adds important evidence to the trial. In a rape and murder case, a lower court had ordered and admitted the DNA-fingerprint as evidence against the accused although the accused had objected to the test. A second court decision leaves it up to a minister's conscience whether he or she wishes to testify in court or to maintain the professional secret. The minister had received a telephone call informing him of an impending terrorist bomb explosion. The minister informed the police of the bomb threat, but pleaded successfully that he could not testify against the terrorists because they had spoken to him in his capacity as a man of God. In the third case, a Zweibruecken appellate court ruled that an accessory prosecutor cannot appeal a verdict to help the accused. The accessory prosecutor in a rape case appealed the court's 3-year prison sentence and claimed that the accused was innocent. The court argued that though the public prosecutor may ask for a revision in favor of the accused, this privilege does not apply to accessory prosecutors in German law.