A juvenile court in Würzburg has sentenced a 15-year-old for killing a 14-year-old co-pupil. The hearing took place behind closed doors owing to the accused’s age.
A court in the southern German city of Würzburg on Monday sentenced a 15-year-old boy to eight years and six months in juvenile detention for murdering a 14-year-old boy who was a pupil at the same school.
The court had to decide whether the shooting, which the accused had admitted carrying out during the trial, was a case of planned murder or of second-degree, unpremeditated murder.
State prosecutors, who argued that the murder had been carried out with malice — one element that can lead to a murder conviction under German law — as the bullet hit the victim in the back of the head, had called for eight years and nine months detention in a therapy facility with the option of more severe detention.
In its verdict, the court has accepted that line of reasoning.
In Germany, juvenile detention is up to 24 years. Juvenile law is also not that straightforward, if it’s applicable also depends on how “childish” someone still behaves. In some cases one can be 20 and still go to an adult prison, e.g. if they’re very violent and wouldn’t fit into the education-oriented juvenile detention. On the other hand, older people who behave very childish (e.g. because of a disability) will usually not be put into an adult prison and instead get something more therapy oriented similar to juvenile detention.