It was announced that they all committed “schwere Verbrechen”. That means it’s all felonies and capital crimes. I do characterize people who commit capital crimes as scum, because those are by definition never small misconducts or accidents. Felony convictions for capital crimes need proof of malicious intent. So there really is incredibly little room left to feel bad for the criminals.
There is no capital crimes in Germany as the capital punishment has been abolished. There exist no term of “schwere Verbrechen” in the legal sense. There is “Vergehen” similar to misdemeanors and “Verbrechen” similiar to felonies. However anything is a “Verbrechen” if the minimum punishment is one year (which can still be put out for probation). And for both “Vergehen” and “Verbrechen” the punishment can both be more or less, depending on aggrevating or mitigating circumstances.
And that is why it is so crucial to actually have the crimes people were convicted for mentioned. All these terms cover a wide range, their meaning is in part subjective or the popular understanding is different from the legal meaning.
Just to give a final example also from the Wiki article:
In Germany lying under oath “Meineid” §154 StGB (German criminal code) has the same range of punishment like sexual abuse of minors “Sexueller Missbrauch von Kindern” § 176 StGB. There might be good processual reasons for the high punishment of lying under oath in order to maintain the power of the state, but i think by most moral understandings sexually abusing children is a more heinous crime.
It was announced that they all committed “schwere Verbrechen”. That means it’s all felonies and capital crimes. I do characterize people who commit capital crimes as scum, because those are by definition never small misconducts or accidents. Felony convictions for capital crimes need proof of malicious intent. So there really is incredibly little room left to feel bad for the criminals.
There is no capital crimes in Germany as the capital punishment has been abolished. There exist no term of “schwere Verbrechen” in the legal sense. There is “Vergehen” similar to misdemeanors and “Verbrechen” similiar to felonies. However anything is a “Verbrechen” if the minimum punishment is one year (which can still be put out for probation). And for both “Vergehen” and “Verbrechen” the punishment can both be more or less, depending on aggrevating or mitigating circumstances.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbrechen#In_Deutschland
And that is why it is so crucial to actually have the crimes people were convicted for mentioned. All these terms cover a wide range, their meaning is in part subjective or the popular understanding is different from the legal meaning.
Just to give a final example also from the Wiki article:
In Germany lying under oath “Meineid” §154 StGB (German criminal code) has the same range of punishment like sexual abuse of minors “Sexueller Missbrauch von Kindern” § 176 StGB. There might be good processual reasons for the high punishment of lying under oath in order to maintain the power of the state, but i think by most moral understandings sexually abusing children is a more heinous crime.