German Cannibal Gets Prison Sentence (my comment: only 8 years!)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040130/D80D8SHG0.html ^

[Joe Republc]

German Cannibal Gets Prison Sentence

Jan 30, 12:03 PM (ET)

By FRANK LETH

(AP) Defendant Armin Meiwes, right, stands next to his lawyer Harald Ermel, left, in the district court... Full Image

KASSEL, Germany (AP) - A German was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison Friday for killing, dismembering and eating another man who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the Internet.

Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer expert, had no "base motives" in the crime, a state court ruled, sparing him a murder conviction. Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy."

His primary motive was "the wish to make another man part of himself," Judge Volker Muetze said. "Meiwes reached this bonding experience through the consumption of the flesh."

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, calling Meiwes a "human butcher" who acted simply to "satisfy a sexual impulse." They said they would appeal.

(AP) Bernd Juergen B., a 43-year-old man from Berlin, is seen in an undated file photo released by... Full Image

The defense argued that since the victim volunteered to be killed and eaten, the crime should be classified a mercy killing, which carries a five-year maximum penalty.

Before the verdict, Meiwes looked calm, chatting with his attorney and occasionally grinning for cameras allowed inside the courtroom. After the sentence was read, he shook his lawyer's hand and nodded curtly to the photographers.

When his trial opened Dec. 3 in the central city of Kassel, Meiwes confessed in detail to killing Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, in March 2001 at Meiwes' home in the town of Rotenburg.

Brandes traveled from Berlin in reply to an Internet advertisement seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption." Meiwes testified that Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

"Bernd came to me of his own free will to end his life," Meiwes said in his closing statement in court Monday. "For him, it was a nice death."

(AP) Defendant Armin Meiwes, front left, sits next to his lawyer Harald Ermel, front right, at a... Full Image

Still, he said he regretted the killing.

"I had my big kick and I don't need to do it again," he said. "I regret it all very much, but I can't undo it."

A video he made of the act was shown to the court during a closed session.

A doctor testified that Brandes died from loss of blood and that the medication, along with a half-bottle of liquor and 20 sleeping pills he took beforehand, could not have lessened his pain.

Several experts have testified that Meiwes was fit to stand trial and was not mentally ill.

Police tracked down and arrested him in December 2002 after a student in Austria alerted them to a message Meiwes had posted on the Internet.

"If I hadn't been so stupid as to keep looking on the Internet, I would have taken my secret to the grave," Meiwes said in his closing statement.

[Joe Republc]

Only eight years!

"...the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy."

Yikes!

-- Joe

[wimpycat]

Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy."

Where, oh where do I begin?

[xzins]

Not even long enough to cause indigestion.

[hershey]

This is dreadful. He'll get out in eight years or less if he behaves, I suppose, and do something worse, only for the life of me I can't figure out what that might be.

[kittymyrib]

The German culture is truly lost.

[wimpycat]

Oh, what are you worried about? He wanted to do it, he did it, and he got it out of his system...literally and figuratively.

"I had my big kick and I don't need to do it again," he said.

[americanbychoice]

He will only have to serve 41/2 years according to German newspapers.
They believe that being socialists they have a mantra of being kind to killers. If you rape someone you will probably only get probation, that's all in their country.

[GeronL]

Its his body. He can serve it to someone for food if he wants. Who are we to decide what a person does with their own body?? This will put a womans right to choose at risk!

/sarcasm

[WayneM]

"no base motives"

I thought I understood the meaning of the term "base", but I guess I didn't.

[claptrap]

Where is the " sexual " part of the fantasy, Im at a loss
here.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

After all what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home is not the states business. They entered into a contract didn't they?

[Consort]

Who gets to be his cellmate?

[xzins]

There's a very seamy side to Germany that's hidden beneath the bratwurst & beer.

[hershey]

If you think about it, that mindset makes a weird kind of sense. They're living in a socialist fantasyland where all you have to do is 'make nice' to eradicate violence. Extrapolate that thinking, and whoopie! You've got Euroweenies on parade. And they think we're a dangerous country!

[hershey]

Europe is brain dead. That has to be it.

[TotusTuus]

"If I hadn't been so stupid as to keep looking on the Internet, I would have taken my secret to the grave," Meiwes said in his closing statement.

Umm, ... Oh, never mind!

[WorkingClassFilth]

"Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy...His primary motive was "the wish to make another man part of himself," Judge Volker Muetze said. "Meiwes reached this bonding experience through the consumption of the flesh."

The Germans are insane. The French deserve to be ruled by them.

[xJones]

Several experts have testified that Meiwes was fit to stand trial and was not mentally ill.

I'd hate to know what they DO consider mentally ill.

His prison cell roomate had better be an insomniac.

[capitan_refugio]

"Several experts have testified that Meiwes was fit to stand trial and was not mentally ill."

Meiwes was using A-1 instead of Heinz 57. He's clearly insane.