Trials – Karlsruhe – BGH on fatal robbery: No profit from discontinuing treatment – Panorama

Karlsruhe (dpa) – If a seriously injured robbery victim waives life-prolonging measures, this does not reduce the culprit’s guilt for his death. That was decided by the highest criminal judges of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) after a fatal handbag theft in Krefeld. The decision from March was only published in Karlsruhe on Wednesday. (Az. 3 StR 574/19)

The victim, an 84-year-old, had taken 600 euros from the bank. She had the strap of her bag looped around her rollator. When the perpetrator, who came from behind on the bicycle, snatched her bag away, she lost her balance and hit her head on the pavement. After an operation, she did not wake up and her condition worsened. Because the woman had requested this in a living will and in conversation with the doctors before the operation, they let her die under palliative care 13 days after the act.

The Krefeld district court sentenced the perpetrator to eleven years in prison in July 2019 for robbery resulting in death. This presupposes that he “at least carelessly caused the death of another person” with his act. The context can be missing if someone else intervenes or if the victim does something himself. So far it has not been clarified what role an advance directive plays in this.

According to the Federal Court of Justice, the woman’s death is nevertheless to be attributed to the robber “as a result of the events he set in motion”. The termination of the life-prolonging measures does not change anything, especially since there was no promising treatment here. The verdict against the man, a drug addicted Serb, is now final.

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