New law chases murderers - "Those who got away shouldn't feel safe"

According to a new law, murderers can still be charged after many years despite acquittal - thanks to new DNA technology.

Bavaria's Justice Minister welcomes the resumption of murder trials.

• There's a new law hunted down murderers

• Even if a perpetrator has been acquitted, he can now be brought back to court

• This is made possible by new DNA technology that did not exist in the past

Munich - murder never expires!

But when the evidence was missing, the perpetrators got away anyway.

That is now changing - thanks to a decision in the Federal Council.

From now on, perpetrators can be charged again many years after an acquittal

if there is new evidence in a trial.

The possibility of a resumption in murder trials was decided on Friday in Berlin.

A trace of the crime scene can solve a murder decades later

The new murder law also has far-reaching consequences for Bavaria.

In Munich,

Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich

(50, CSU) said: "Murderers who got away should not feel safe from punishment." Today there are completely different possibilities in the criminal investigation of homicides - thanks to newer technology.

That is also the decisive basis for the new law.

“

DNA analysis has made tremendous progress

.

Today, even a flake found at the scene of the crime can help solve a murder decades later, ”says Eisenreich.

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The police can now bring acquitted perpetrators back to court even after many years

© Stefan Puchner

So far, a suspect in a murder case could not be brought to court again after an acquittal.

Not even if there was new knowledge in the case.

The technical term for this was criminal action consumption.

So murderers got away with once found innocent - or when there was insufficient evidence to convict them.

Justice Minister Eisenreich: "We have to use the opportunities of new forensic technology"

Law enforcement is changing now with the new law! According to the Free State, Bavaria had campaigned for a reform of the

Code of Criminal Procedure

(StPO), which the Bundestag passed in June with the “Law to Restore Material Justice” and which has now been approved by the Federal Council.

"We have to use the opportunities new forensic technology offers,"

said Eisenreich. Adhering to an acquittal could lead to “an unbearable situation for the relatives of the victims in a murder and violate the sense of justice of many people.

This change in the law will allow for more justice.

"