Infant died - Death of a newborn must be retried
The Landgericht Chemnitz has to deal with the death of a newborn baby from the Freiberg region again. The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, BGH) has partially overturned the judgment against the mother, who was found guilty of manslaughter by omission. The young woman was sentenced to two and a half years of youth detention in the previous trial. She had filed a revision, which was now partially successful at the BGH (Az.: 5 StR 138/24).
According to the BGH, the Landgericht did not properly examine possible mitigating circumstances in the first trial. Now, another youth chamber must decide on the height of the sentence again.
According to the court records, the young woman had hidden her pregnancy. A month before her 21st birthday, in the summer of 2022, she gave birth to a healthy girl on a toilet. Instead of taking the child from the cradle, she did nothing. The baby died.
- The criminal proceedings against the mother, originating from the Saxony region of Chemnitz, were recently reviewed by the Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig.
- Despite being found guilty of manslaughter by omission in an initial trial, the young woman's revision at the Regional Court in Freiberg was partially successful.
- The Regional Court in Chemnitz will now reevaluate the sentence given to the mother, considering the mitigating circumstances that were not adequately addressed in the initial trial.
- The case involves a tragic incident that resulted in the death of a newborn baby from the Freiberg region, whose birth the mother had kept hidden.
- In 2022, the woman, now facing a new trial, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in a toilet and, instead of seeking help, failed to act, leading to the child's untimely demise.
- The mother's controversial case has garnered attention in regional and national news, as it confronts the wide-ranging complexities of motherhood, mental health, and legal responsibility.
