Jurisprudence: break with the old life

The term “key witness” comes from the Anglo-Saxon legal system, where it is called “King’s evidence”. But of course it has also existed in Germany, even for a very long time. The case of a thief named Strauss from 1841 has been handed down, whose testimony triggered a real wave of arrests – which is said to have led to a noticeable decline in crime in Schleswig-Holstein. And key witnesses share a fate everywhere, as the case in the Netherlands shows, where even the assistance of a key witness was the victim of an attack: They attract the wrath of those who have delivered them to the knife.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the leniency program has expanded over the decades, always against the resistance of defense lawyers. It was introduced in 1982 for drug offenses, extended to terrorism in 1989, and organized crime in 1994. The so-called “large leniency program” has existed since 2009. Anyone who is accused of a moderate or serious criminal offense can buy a lighter sentence if he makes a decisive contribution to the investigation of other offenses that are “related” to his offense. The discount can be substantial, and even killers can benefit from it. Instead of the otherwise mandatory “lifelong”, the minimum sentence is reduced to ten years.

In practice, the key witness plays an important role, especially in drug-related offenses. In addition, the deal statement against penalty discounts is used rather sporadically. After all, the regulation worked quite well for those returning from Syria, who contributed to the clarification of the Islamist terror, observes the Augsburg legal scholar Stephan Christoph. Of course, it is difficult for the accused to buy a pig in a poke, so to speak. He has to make his statement during the preliminary investigation – but the discount is only determined at the end of the process.

The statements often demand a high price

When it comes to organized crime, the fear of retaliation also dominates. If you unpack, you may no longer be sure of your life. The same goes for rocker gangs. A few years ago a former member of the “Bandidos” testified against several gang members – and was threatened on the way into the courtroom. The same thing happened to a member of the “Hell’s Angels” who had saved himself a life sentence in a murder trial with a testimony. He got into a witness protection program; not even his lawyer was allowed to know what prison he was in.

In the experience of defense attorney Stefan Conen, such witness protection programs are quite safe. He is not aware of any case in which something happened to a key witness. Such programs are ambivalent, however, because they are tied to very narrow conditions. “People have to submit to the witness protection regime. Just go for a walk with the family, that won’t work anymore.” At the highest level, witness protection means a break with previous life. Which prompts some witnesses to prefer to live with the risk.