Case Gross

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The Gross case is a well-known miscarriage of justice in Switzerland . Walter Gross (* 1922 or 1923 ) was convicted of robbery and murder on the basis of an expert report in 1959 and acquitted in 1971 after 12 years in prison on the basis of new reports.

Course of events and conviction

On May 24, 1958, 58-year-old Christian Bätscher was found seriously injured next to a bench in front of the St. Niklaus Chapel in Baden (Canton Aargau) . The victim died in an emergency operation at noon that day without regaining consciousness. The police were looking for a man in a reddish jacket who had last been seen with Baetscher. As this man, Walter Gross , an acquaintance of the deceased, was arrested on Whit Monday . Gross had been in custody since May 26, 1958. "In 1958, the investigation, investigation and prosecution in Aargau ... were understaffed and, moreover, entangled in confused competence relationships."

The Zurich criminologist Max Frei-Sulzer prepared an expert opinion in which he found that the trace analyzes clearly demonstrated “that the two pieces of board found are really the instrument of the crime ... that the murder weapon was in contact with the clothes of the suspect Gross came "and" that Walter Gross committed the murder of Bärtscher ", especially since Gross' shoes showed traces of blood. In addition, in 1959 the psychiatrist Bressler came to the conclusion that “ psychopathy was ready for custody ”.

In a jury trial on September 21, 1959, Gross was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and robbery . The guilty verdict was based primarily on the expert opinion by Frei-Sulzer and some circumstantial evidence ; "Gross had always denied the act, there were no witnesses."

acquittal

After Gross had already been imprisoned for ten years, Frei-Sulzer's expertise was refuted by the director of the Forensic Medicine Institute of the University of Bern, Eugen Läuppi, and by Hilmar Driesen from the Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden. A report appeared in the magazine Sie und Er , which, thanks to a Dr. Burren “published a letter from Walter Gross, whereupon a Miss Elisabeth Meier took care of him intensely and helped finance the revision as a fiancé”. The death of the involved Zurich coroner Ernst Hardmeier probably delayed the appeal. In 1971, after more than twelve years in prison, Gross was finally acquitted on the basis of scientific reports.

“The audience in the overcrowded town hall [in Wettingen ] applauded. The acquitted receives 130,000 francs in compensation and satisfaction. Defense attorney Dr. Alphons Sinniger are rewarded for his efforts with CHF 7,360.60; a reminder of how serious society is about helping people rescue their innocent victims. "

- Gerhard Mauz : Irregularities happened. SPIEGEL reporter Gerhard Mauz in the resumption of the Gross murder trial in Aargau. In: Der Spiegel . No. 48, November 22, 1971 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gerhard Mauz . Irregularities happened. SPIEGEL reporter Gerhard Mauz in the resumption of the Gross murder trial in Aargau. In: Der Spiegel . No. 48, November 22, 1971.
  2. ↑ a b c Brigitt Lüscher , Marcel Bosonnet . The function of the alleged objectivity of experts using the example of the scientific service of the Zurich City Police. ( Memento from June 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) In: ID -Archiv im IISG (publisher). Bad Kleinen and the shooting of Wolfgang Grams . ISBN 3-89408-043-4 , p. 171.
  3. ^ Gerhard Mauz. Signs of no disease value : SPIEGEL reporter Gerhard Mauz on the criminal responsibility of the murderer Wittmann In: Der Spiegel 49/1971 of November 29, 1971.
  4. ↑ a b Hans Martin Sutermeister . Summa Iniuria: A Pitaval of Errors of Justice . Basel, 1976, pp. 243-250.