Donald Stellwag

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Donald Stellwag (* 1957 in Fuchsstadt , Lower Franconia ) is a German victim of a miscarriage of justice . The former caretaker, who lived in Lauf an der Pegnitz before his arrest , was innocently imprisoned for eight years for a bank robbery and hostage-taking in Nuremberg on December 19, 1991 .

Investigation and conviction

After a photo of the perpetrator taken by the surveillance camera at the scene of the crime was broadcast on the ZDF television program Aktenzeichen XY ... on April 10, 1992 , Stellwag was reported as a possible suspect by a police officer who had only vaguely known him. Because Stellwag resembled the real perpetrator in face and stature (both were very tall and significantly overweight), the witnesses also identified Stellwag as the alleged perpetrator, so that he was taken into custody in February 1993 under urgent suspicion. The decisive factor for his conviction in 1995 was an anthropological identity report by the expert Cornelius Schott . He said he could identify Donald Stellwag as the perpetrator in the photo based on his ears. Despite the testimony of eight people who were able to testify that Stellwag was about 350 kilometers from the crime scene in Saxony at the time of the crime , and although a fingerprint of him was nowhere to be found, he was sentenced to eight imprisonment on the basis of this opinion Years sentenced, which he also served in full. The public prosecutor's office had demanded the maximum sentence of 15 years provided for by law for the offense because of the defendant's lack of insight.

Imprisonment and subsequent acquittal

As a "crime denier" Donald Stellwag was given a particularly strict form of penal execution. He had to spend the first six years in solitary confinement and was denied the opportunity to engage in social activities and work within the prison. Early parole was also out of the question, as he would have had to confess and identify with his “guilt” as a prerequisite.

Stellwag was released on February 14, 2001. The real perpetrator, Frank Michael G. from Stuttgart , was arrested a few weeks later. In the meantime, Stellwag had been investigated for another bank robbery, which he is said to have committed while in prison, although it can be proven that he had not left the Straubing correctional facility at that time. This act was later assigned to the perpetrator who had already committed the attack that Stellwag was wrongly accused of. Frank Michael G. confessed to both acts in 2001 and was sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison for several robberies. In court, he publicly apologized to Stellwag and stated that he had no knowledge of the innocent's conviction.

Donald Stellwag, who reported humiliation by his fellow inmates, suffered from a brain tumor and developed diabetes while in prison, has been unable to work since his release. After his acquittal in the retrial , he was granted compensation of around DM 60,000  ( DM 20 per day of imprisonment), of which only around DM 39,000 was paid. The rest was kept for feeding in the correctional facility.

Aftermath of the fall

As a social commitment, Stellwag has set up a book rental for prisoners since 2001. According to his own admission, it was mainly reading and writing that helped him to endure the years in prison.

The case received a lot of media interest. A documentary about him was broadcast on WDR television in April 2002 . The case was also reported in detail in a documentary by Südwestrundfunk entitled Innocent in Prison . In it Stellwag explains that he considers it scandalous that Schott is still allowed to work as an expert after these cases and that he literally still earns immense money at the expense of people who are innocent. In May 2005 Donald Stellwag appeared together with his lawyer Erich Bäckerling on the ARD talk show Menschen bei Maischberger , and on October 11, 2007 he was interviewed with his lawyer on the Johannes B. Kerner show on ZDF . He also took part in the program of April 14, 2009, which was broadcast under the topic of “Mistakes of Justice and Victims of Justice”. The judge who had pronounced the wrong judgment was also present there. The judge stated that he would not apologize, because he was not to blame.

In addition to Donald Stellwag, two other people were convicted of innocence on the basis of Schott reports, including a nurse who had received a suspended sentence of one year in 1996 for alleged credit card fraud and was subsequently acquitted in 2000 for proven innocence.

The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main (Az. 19 U 8/2007) sentenced Cornelius Schott on October 2, 2007 to a pain and suffering payment of 150,000 euros to Donald Stellwag. This was the first case in Germany in which an expert was held civilly liable for an incorrect court opinion. According to his own statement, Stellwag wants to use the money to found a "Society of Innocent Victims Convicted (GUVO)".

Involved in a gold robbery and a watch fraud

After his release from prison, Stellwag entered the jewelry and watch business and worked as a businessman under the pseudonym Harald Steinbach . Stellwag was accused of having made himself a criminal offense as an informant for participating in a "gold robbery". On December 15, 2009, a group attacked a gold truck on Autobahn 81 . Stellwag is accused of having eavesdropped on an employee of the robbed and then passed on insider knowledge to the perpetrators.

Stellwag was arrested on June 9, 2010, but released on the same day for health reasons. The Stuttgart Regional Court separated the proceedings against Stellwag from the proceedings against the other parties involved. The rapper Xatar , convicted as one of the perpetrators, accused Stellwag in his admission in court of being the mastermind behind the attack. The court came to the conclusion that the gold robbers got their crucial tip from Donald Stellwag. However, Stellwag was never convicted because a court-appointed expert came to the conclusion that Stellwag, who weighs more than 200 kilograms and is seriously ill, is permanently incapable of being held liable and incapable of negotiating.

Stellwag has been under investigation again since 2015, this time for fraud . A jewelry dealer had promised a Swiss businessman to deliver 14,700 movements for a sum of 300,000 euros . But the clockwork never arrived. The defendant in that case testified that he had only given his name and company account for the business, while Donald Stellwag had arranged everything. According to the jewelry dealer, it is said to have been the businessman's “corpulent neighbor” (Stellwag) who stole more than 300,000 euros from the Swiss watch dealer with a fraudulent deal. Donald Stellwag collected the money in cash. Stellwag went into hiding in 2015 and the public prosecutor couldn't find it. Through his lawyer Manfred Neder, he denies any guilt and involvement in the gold robbery and watch fraud.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TV documentary "Innocent in prison" ; in: SWR - Südwestrundfunk from October 19, 2009
  2. ↑ specialist in misjudgments ; in: Focus online from August 6, 2001
  3. ^ Judgment of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court of October 2, 2007, Az. 19 U 8/07
  4. ↑ hr-online.de: Justice victim receives compensation for pain and suffering ( memento of the original from November 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; in: Hessischer Rundfunk from October 2, 2007  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hr-online.de
  5. ↑ a b Is Justice Victim Stellwag involved in a fraud process? ; in: nordbayern.de from July 16, 2015
  6. ↑ Focus , issue 40/2010 page 51: Because lead can follow
  7. ↑ Life, a prison ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from June 19, 2010
  8. ^ A b Donald Stellwag again in court ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from July 16, 2010
  9. ↑ Victims of justice in sight ; in: neumarktonline.de from June 19, 2010
  10. ↑ Who was the driving force? - New knowledge in the spectacular case ; in: nordbayern.de from September 9, 2010
  11. ↑ Gold robber makes confession ; in: nordbayern.de on May 9, 2011
  12. ↑ Long prison sentences for gold robbers ; in: Stuttgarter Zeitung of December 22, 2011
  13. ↑ a b Donald Stellwag: From victim to fraud? ; in: Abendzeitung München from August 7, 2015
  14. ↑ a b A name like a curse ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from August 7, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Stellwag, Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German justice victim
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Fuchsstadt