Processes - Civil judgment against double murderer confirmed
It only took a few minutes for the appeal of a convicted violent criminal in civil proceedings to fail. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court (OLG) has sentenced the convicted double murderer Andreas Darsow to pay damages in civil proceedings and has not admitted any new evidence about the violent crime. On Wednesday in Darmstadt, the Higher Regional Court confirmed the judgment of the first instance to pay the state of Hesse just under 70,000 euros in all respects and did not allow an appeal.
The sum in question relates to benefits paid to the surviving daughter of a murdered couple. Andreas Darsow's lawyer from Babenhausen in southern Hesse, Sina Moslehi, announced after the hearing that he would appeal to the Federal Court of Justice against the decision not to allow an appeal.
The judges' reasoning
"The appeal is dismissed," said the presiding judge. In a few minutes of reasoning, she affirmed the state's legal claim for damages. This mainly concerned the reimbursement of medical treatment costs and orphan's pension. The court rejected the request by lawyer Gerhard Strate at the beginning of November to examine new evidence. The senate had no doubts about the convicted man's culpability. "The circumstantial evidence is not compatible with the perpetration of a third person." He had a motive.
The family and lawyers of Darsow, who was convicted in a criminal trial in 2011, hoped that possible new evidence regarding silencers would provide them with starting points for reopening the criminal proceedings. For more than ten years, the wife has been fighting for such a retrial together with the 54-year-old convict, who maintains his innocence. However, strict rules apply to this. In its 2011 ruling, the Darmstadt Regional Court considered it proven that the German man ambushed his neighbor in April 2009 after a long-standing dispute over noise pollution and shot him dead. According to the verdict, he then went into the house and shot the sleeping wife in the head with two bullets. He also shot the disabled daughter, who survived seriously injured.
Family and lawyers continue to fight for a retrial
According to Moslehi, it is legally possible to appeal against the non-admission of the appeal. This also applies to a new application to reopen the criminal proceedings. "The door is not quite closed yet," said the lawyer, describing the Higher Regional Court 's reasoning as "thin and narrow". "What we heard today is a legal game of hide and seek." It was merely a reproduction of previous decisions.
"Of course, we didn't have much hope today," said Darsow's wife after the ruling. The court had already said at the beginning of November that it saw no errors in the first instance decision. She now wants to delve deeper into the case with the help of a private investigator. In her view, this did not happen during the police work at the time.
The legal steps against the murder verdict
So far, all efforts to introduce possible new evidence in a new trial have failed. In August 2019, the Kassel Regional Court rejected a retrial, as did the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court in May 2020. In October of the same year, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe did not accept a constitutional complaint in the case for decision. And the civil proceedings have also failed so far.
Documents on Darsow's representation in retrial proceedings under the Code of Criminal Procedure
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- Despite the failure of his appeal at the Higher Regional Court in Darmstadt, Andreas Darsow's lawyer from Babenhausen in southern Hesse, Sina Moslehi, intends to appeal to the Federal Court of Justice against the decision not to allow an appeal in the ongoing civil proceedings related to Darsow's double murder case in Hesse.
- The OLG in Frankfurt confirmed the previous civil judgment against double murderer Andreas Darsow, ordering him to pay damages of nearly 70,000 euros to the state of Hesse, which included medical treatment costs and orphan's pension.
- Gerhard Strate, a lawyer who had represented Darsow in an attempt to introduce new evidence into the criminal proceedings, was unsuccessful in persuading the OLG to reconsider the case at the beginning of November.
- The OLG's verdict in the civil proceedings against Andreas Darsow was met with disappointment by Darsow's wife, who stated that she would delve deeper into the case with the help of a private investigator, believing that important details were overlooked during the initial investigation.
- In an effort to overturn his double murder conviction, Andreas Darsow and his legal team have faced numerous setbacks, including refused retrial requests from regional courts and the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, and have been unsuccessful in the civil proceedings as well.
Source: www.stern.de
