alibi
An alibi is in the criminology of the proof of the fact that an accused or a suspect to the time of the crime is not on the scene has stopped and therefore as perpetrators out of the question.
etymology
The word alibi is made up of the adverb for “another” ( Latin alius ) and “da, there” ( Latin ibi ), meaning “elsewhere, in another place”. It evidently appeared for the first time in 1783 with Georg Jacob Friedrich Meister in German criminal law , when he recognized "the defendant's inexplicability of the alibi". Because of the Latin origin of the word, it is also called "alibi" in most neo-Latin languages and many other foreign languages (such as English, Polish, Russian, Hungarian).
General
Anyone who can prove a period of time at the time of the crime during which they could not have been at the scene of the crime has a "waterproof" alibi. So the alibi is the absence from the crime scene at the time of the crime. In the case of an alibi allegation, the accused asserts that he was not at the scene at the time of the crime. It is a qualified denial. There is a logical connection between the determination of the time of the offense and the alibi assertion: the greater the time span of the possible time of the offense, the lower the prospect of producing conclusive evidence of the alibi.
Legal issues
The alibi check is a sub-form of the interrogation according to § 136 Abs. 2 StPO . The burden of proof for a safe or missing alibi is according to § 160 para. 2 StPO and § 163 Code of Criminal Procedure in the law enforcement agencies . The alibi proof is based on the reliable empirical principle that no one can be in two different places at the same time, and the assumption that no one can be the perpetrator who was not at the crime scene at the time. The latter assumption is probabilistic , however , since someone may happen to be at the crime scene, but has nothing to do with the crime or someone who was not at the crime scene may have committed the crime (e.g. by remote control ). Because an alibi means that the person in question as directly acting at the scene perpetrators retires, but not as indirect perpetrators , instigators or assistant of the offender. The instigator can have an alibi because he neither has to have been at the scene of the crime nor was present at the time of the crime.
If a suspect does not have an alibi or if an alibi claim has been proven to be false, this is not evidence of the perpetrator. The failure of the alibi proof must not be taken as an indication of the culprit's perpetration. A faked alibi is permissible defensive behavior that must not be assessed as an aggravating penalty. If the judge does not believe the alibi witness, then the defendant's defense option has failed. However, this failure on its own, that is, regardless of its reasons and accompanying circumstances, cannot provide any evidence of the perpetrator.
In German criminal law, false alibis can result in criminal proceedings against "alibi witnesses" for obstruction of punishment , false undocumented testimony and perjury ; is in the Anglo-American legal obstruction of justice ( english obstruction of justice ) before.
species
A distinction is made between the technical and the personal alibi. The technical alibi takes into account that the suspect based on e.g. B. Admission tickets , tickets , dated photos or videos can prove that he was not at the scene at the time of the crime. The personal alibi requires witnesses who can confirm that the suspect was at another location during the act (alibi witness). Both the technical and the personal alibi are subject to the alibi check by the law enforcement authorities. The technical alibi can be underpinned by the personal alibi if, for example, a witness with his ticket was seen by other viewers in the opera.
Others
Colloquially , alibi are also used for other, non-spatial circumstances that are intended to excuse or relativize crimes or moral misconduct , but here mostly in a derogatory sense as a protective claim .
International
Criminology makes use of the knowledge of biology , chemistry , logic , physics or technology , so that the same international conditions also apply to the alibi.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerhard Köbler , Etymological Dictionary , 1995, p. 12
- ↑ Georg Jacob Friedrich Meister, Legal Findings and Expert Opinions in Embarrassing Cases , Part 3, 1783, p. 75
- ↑ to the Spanish coartada
- ↑ Hans Schulz / Otto Basler / Gerhard Strauss, German Foreign Dictionary , Volume 1, 1995, p. 362 ff.
- ↑ Hinrich de Vries, Introduction to Criminology for Criminal Law Practice , 2015, Rn. 266
- ↑ Klaus Habschick, Successful Vernehmen , 2016, p. 193
- ↑ Mark Schweizer, Evaluation of Evidence and Measure of Evidence: Rationality and Intuition , 2015, p. 225
- ↑ Ingo Wirth (ed.), Kriminalistik-Lexikon , 2011, p. 17
- ↑ BGH NStZ 1999, 423
- ↑ BGH StV 1982, 158 , 159
- ↑ BGH, decision of October 9, 2012, Az .: 5 StR 453/12
