FINDINGS
By the afore-mentioned verdict the accused has been sentenced to 2 years at a detention camp for personal assault according to article 185, Penal Code, in conjunction with articles III and XIV of the Criminal Code for Poles dated 4 December 1941, Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 759. The sentence has been declared valid.
The Chief Reich Prosecutor has filed a nullity plea and has moved to annul the sentence by decision and to return the case to the lower instance, namely the Special Court at Nuernberg for a new trial and sentence. The motion has been granted.
The sentence passed by the local court is defective in law insofar as it does not discuss at all as to whether article 4 of the decree against public enemies of 5 September 1939[502] (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1679) is applicable. That this is applicable may very well be assumed considering the facts established. According to these facts the possibility exists that the defendant knowingly took advantage of the wartime conditions when committing the crime, inasmuch as he was aided by the lack of other labor and a thereby conditioned insufficient supervision and watching, or inasmuch as he presumed that because of the labor shortage no charges would be preferred against him lest not to lose a hand. In the summary of the local court as to the sentence imposed it has been emphasized that the action of the defendant proved an unheard of amount of impudence. This impudence, considering the facts, could possibly be explained only by the fact that the defendant considered himself indispensable, and therefore presumed he did not have to reckon with the preferring of charges.
With this judicial error the judgment has become unjust since, if also article 4 of the decree against public enemies is applicable which may very well be assumed, a much more severe sentence is deemed necessary.
[Typed] signed: Schultze
[Typed] signed: Raestrup
[Verdict of the Nuernberg Special Court]
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