Overview
- Attorney Gerhard Strate, who filed a 136-page motion on March 17, saw the Landgericht Darmstadt confirm receipt and request the original case files.
- The motion asks judges to overturn the 1999 life sentence and acquit Monika Böttcher, who served about 15 years before her 2006 release.
- Strate points to a then brother-in-law who lived in the same house as the family and was later convicted in the United States of child sexual abuse with a 16-year sentence.
- As purported new facts, the filing includes kindergarten drawings made weeks before the killings that the defense reads as signs of sexualized violence and fear; these are claims in the motion, not court findings.
- No ruling on reopening has been made, and German law requires new, case-changing facts for a retrial, with outlets like Stern focusing on the legal process while tabloids publish the drawings themselves.