Setting free an unrepentent terrorist serving five life sentences

[Cowperson]

A large political debate in Germany right now over the decision to set free a woman serving five life sentences for her role in a notorious terror group from the 1970's.

BERLIN — She was a young leftist with a machine gun and bizarre thoughts about changing the world, but that was 30 years ago, back when Brigitte Mohnhaupt helped lead a terrorist gang whose assassinations of politicians and industrialists mesmerized postwar Germany.

On Sunday, Mohnhaupt again rattled the public consciousness when she was released from prison as an unrepentant convicted murderer. Once a brazen and unrelenting mastermind for the anticapitalist Red Army Faction, or RAF, the 57-year-old inmate stepped back into a nation still agitated over a bygone era of bombings, fanatical screeds and urban guerrillas.

"There is huge debate over her release," said Butz Peters, a lawyer who has written two books about the RAF, a band of disciplined, well-armed radicals who killed 34 people after emerging from the university protests of the late 1960s. "The injured German soul of that time has not healed. Everything that was buried deep down long ago is arising again."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

Cowperson

[FireFly]

While she may be unrepentant, I wonder if being out will help her lose her anger? A lot has happened in 30 years... the Berlin wall fell, etc. When she takes a look at the devestation that communism caused to the people living under it, will she change her tune?

[Burninator]

Mohnhaupt was serving five life sentences in southern Bavaria. A court recently ruled that she was eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 24 years.

How does five life sentences add up to having a minimum sentence of 24 years in prison? Seems more like one life sentence served would be around that time.

[FanIn80]

I don't think people like this can "change their tune." They just find a new cause and a new target to blow up.

The justification of violence as a means of negotiation pretty much voids any expectance of a sanely rationalized decision.

Maybe next week, her paperboy will toss the paper on the lawn, and she'll beat him up as a way to convince him to toss in on her steps next time. Or she'll be at the grocery store and someone will bump into her and she'll tip their cart over and beat them with a can of green beans...

We're not talking about someone that was pressured into holding a door open for a couple of terrorists one night, and ended up getting linked to them and going to jail... We're talking about someone who masterminded a nation-wide campaign of repeated acts of violence and terror - all in the name of getting her way.

People like that don't have the mental capacity for recognizing change and rationalizing new approaches.

...imo, of course.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Burninator

How does five life sentences add up to having a minimum sentence of 24 years in prison? Seems more like one life sentence served would be around that time.

Well the math would say that's 5 years/life sentance. It doesn't make much sense though... You'd think that the additional life sentences would have a compounding affect. I mean if you were bad enough to be sentenced to 5 life sentences, then perhaps the second life sentance should have a minimum 7 years, and the third a minimum 10, etc...

Or perhaps when you get sentenced to multiple life sentences they only make you serve one? (Which in most countries is 25 years I think?)

[mykalberta]

5 life sentences, why was she released.

Are Europe's court systems possibly even more #####edup than ours?

MYK

[FanIn80]

I have no idea about Euro laws, but it actually says that the 24 years was a minimum. It doesn't say that she actually served 5 life sentences... only that she was in the process of serving 5 life sentences, and was released after serving a minimum required time.

In Canada, I believe someone is eligible for parole after serving 1/3 of their sentence, and even less with "good behavior."

Perhaps Europe has the same sort of rules? Maybe it's 1/5 or something... or... maybe they have a global rule where everyone is eligible for parole after serving 24 years - regardless of their sentence?

[ZDogg]

They let her out so they can trace Bin Laden's call when he contact's her...