User:WhatADayToday12/Stammheim trial

The Stammheim trial (also known as the RAF trial) was a criminal trial against the leaders of the "first generation" Red Army Faction. Starting on May 21, 1975, the defendants were RAF members Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, who were charged with murder in four cases and attempted murder in 54 cases.

The trial took place before the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart. For security reasons, a multipurpose room without windows was built on the grounds of Stammheim Prison, which was used as a courtroom. Construction costs amounted to twelve million German marks. On October 17, 2017, it was announced that the building would be demolished. The trial was one of the most elaborate and longest in German post-war history. It concluded with the conviction for murder of Baader, Ensslin, and Raspe on April 28, 1977. Ulrike Meinhof had already committed suicide in May 1976.

During the trial, the German Code of Criminal Procedure was modified in various respects. In the context of the Stammheim trial, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution acted unconstitutionally, as revealed by the Stammheim bugging case, by illegally intercepting the conversations between the defendants and their defenders.

Among the defendants was also Holger Meins, who had already died on November 9, 1974, in the Wittlich prison during a hunger strike. Ulrike Meinhof hanged herself on May 8, 1976, during the trial.

The remaining three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for jointly carrying out six terrorist dynamite attacks with 34 counts of attempted murder and four of murder. However, they too committed suicide before the trial verdict became final.

Progress of the trial
The duration of the trial (192 days), the size of the indictment (354 pages), and the trial records (approximately 50,000 pages) show that it was one of the largest trials in the Federal Republic of Germany. According to the indictment, the prosecution intended to summon 997 witnesses, including the mother of Andreas Baader, the sister and parents of Gudrun Ensslin, the husband of Ulrike Meinhof, and close relatives of Holger Meins and Jan-Carl Raspe. Eighty experts and an interpreter were also appointed. Numerous pieces of material evidence were meticulously considered.

Baader's defenders, Klaus Croissant, Kurt Groenewold, and Hans-Christian Ströbele, were excluded from the trial based on the recently amended German Code of Criminal Procedure, as they were accused of supporting their clients' actions. Objections raised at the beginning of the trial were initially rejected. When the Federal Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice also expressed reservations, the trial was postponed. The trial, which started on May 21, 1975, could only continue on June 5.

The trial was hampered by the defendants' hunger strikes. The defendants themselves claimed to be in a "war against the state". Therefore, the daily time allocated for trial hearings was reduced to a few hours. This decision was later overturned on the grounds that the defendants would conduct hunger strikes solely for the purpose of slowing down and obstructing the regular course of the trial. Other experts, however, supported the theory that the defendants wanted to improve their detention conditions through the hunger strike.

During the Stammheim trial, the German Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) was amended in several points during the trial. For the first time, it was established that a hearing could be held in the absence of the defendant if the latter had deliberately and culpably caused his or her inability to stand trial (e.g., through hunger strikes) (Art. 231 a. StPO). Furthermore, the number of elected defense attorneys was limited to three (Art. 137, paragraph 1, second sentence, StPO); the prohibition of multiple defenses was introduced (Art.146 StPO), and the exclusion of defense attorneys was standardized by law (Art. 138 a-d StPO). The trial also received criticism due to the Stammheim bugging case, which was deemed unconstitutional.

The trial was marked by bitter verbal battles. Examples of such controversies were the statements of defense spokesperson Otto Schily to judge Theodor Prinzing on the 37th day of the trial: "Your robe is getting shorter and the crocodile underneath is becoming more visible" and the remarks of Rupert von Plottnitz: "Heil (Hitlerian salute of the Third Reich), Dr. Prinzing!" .