[On the reliability of severely brain damaged persons as witnesses of their own injury].
We report a court verdict in the second retrial of a murder case that was based exclusively on the witness account of a severely brain damaged victim, and its reversal by the German Federal Court. The assessment of evidence had to weigh up the probability of the presence of real accounts of the crime versus the possibility of alternative explanations, i. e. trauma related confabulation. The defendant was acquitted.
Wallesch
C W
CW
Universitätsklinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg. wallesch@medizin.uni-magdeburg.de
Bartels
C
C
Hasenbein
U
U
Birkhoff
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000523:psychology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000523:psychology*; D005858:Germany; D006708:Homicide / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male