Overview
- The Federal Court of Justice annulled the November 2024 verdict that found Patrick E. guilty of manslaughter and imposed a 6-year-10-month sentence.
- The case returns to a different chamber of the Waldshut-Tiengen regional court after the top court ruled that the element of Heimtücke was wrongly excluded.
- Judges said the lower court erred by focusing on an earlier confrontation instead of whether the shooter exploited the victim’s defenselessness at the moment of the attack.
- The new trial must reconsider whether the killing was committed from base motives such as racism, a question the high court left open.
- The victim’s sister, supported by the NGO Leuchtlinie, brought the successful appeal, after criticism that the first judgment downplayed extremist evidence and the post-killing dismemberment.