process
Grandmother killed on request? – Acquittal
A judicial officer accompanies the defendant into the courtroom. photo
© Rabea Gruber/dpa
The public prosecutor had accused the defendant of killing on demand. The Hamburg district court speaks of an “exceptional psychological situation”.
A 34-year-old who, according to the prosecution, killed his seriously ill grandmother at her request has been acquitted in a Hamburg trial. According to an expert’s assessment, the drug addict was incapable of guilt due to an exceptional psychological situation St. George District Court.
The public prosecutor had accused the defendant of killing on demand. According to the prosecution, he administered six tablets of the drug Alprazolam to his grandmother, who was seriously ill, at her express request, and injected a mixture containing heroin intravenously. The 72-year-old then died of an acute heroin overdose, as she and the defendant had intended.
Seeing no other way out
In the trial, the defendant told his difficult family history: Both of his parents were drug addicts and he grew up with his grandmother. She was his only support at the time of the crime. But she felt very bad. “She wanted to be released,” said the defendant. The woman asked him to help her. He didn’t see any other way out.
After his grandmother’s death he panicked. The court was convinced that the defendant then wanted to commit suicide with the help of heroin and pills, wrote several farewell letters and caused himself serious injuries. But he survived and called the emergency services.
The 34-year-old must remain in custody for another matter. No information was given about the background.