The case against Gustl Mollath

Gerhard Strate: Der Fall Mollath – Vom Versagen der Justiz und Psychiatrie“ (The Mollath Case – Of the Failure of Justice and Psychiatry)

Gerhard Strate. „Der Fall Mollath  – Vom Versagen der Justiz und Psychiatrie

From the preface: The judgment of the Regional Court of Nürnberg-Fürth of 8 August 2006 was an injustice. By ordering the defendant to be confined to a psychiatric hospital in lieu of imprisonment, the Regional Court of Nürnberg-Fürth brought lasting shame upon the judiciary in Germany, not only in Bavaria. But this concerns not only the criminal justice system, but also forensic psychiatry with its omnipotent view of the world, always ready to register every stirring of otherness as an “abnormality” and to whisper clinical pictures into the ears of heavily prejudiced judges. »Psychiatry – the dark place of the law « – this is the very apt heading over a commentary by Heribert Prantl. To illuminate this dark place a little is what this book aspires to achieve. It will be shown that the quick stigmatization of people achieved by means of forensic psychiatry also contaminates the minds and actions of jurists. The desire to disenfranchise people has escaped the shackles of the law.

Bound edition: 271 pages; publisher: Orell Füssli; edition: 1 (5 December 2014); ISBN-13: 978-3280055595; Price: 19.95 €.