Bizarre, twisted, insert your own description:
In one of the most extraordinary trials in German criminal history, the self-confessed cannibal [Armin Meiwes] admitted that he had met a 43-year-old Berlin engineer, Bernd Brandes, after advertising on the internet, and had chopped him up and eaten him.
. . .
n March 2001 Meiwes advertised on the internet for a “young well-built man, who wanted to be eaten”. Brandes replied.
On the evening of March 9, the two men went up to the bedroom in Meiwes’ rambling timbered farmhouse. Mr Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping tablets and half a bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off Brandes’ penis, with his agreement, and fried it for both of them to eat.
Brandes – by this stage bleeding heavily – then took a bath, while Meiwes read a Star Trek novel.
In the early hours of the morning, he finished off his victim by stabbing him in the neck with a large kitchen knife, kissing him first.
The cannibal then chopped Mr Brandes into pieces and put several bits of him in his freezer, next to a takeaway pizza, and buried the skull in his garden.
Over the next few weeks, he defrosted and cooked parts of Mr Brandes in olive oil and garlic, eventually consuming 20kg of human flesh before police finally turned up at his door.
Meiwes has two things going for him in the current trial: (1) there’s no law in Germany prohibiting cannibalism, and (2) there’s evidence of consent:
The accused, however, has a unique defence: that his victim actually agreed to be killed and eaten.
Crucial to the case is a gruesome videotape made by Meiwes of the entire evening, during which Brandes apparently makes clear his consent.
That being the case, Chris at Crooked Timber raises an interesting question: Do libertarian principles allow for state prosecution against this type of act?
I’d be honored if you took part in the poll for my entry on this, at
http://www.vigilancematters.com
Germany is a “civil law” (i.e., based on Roman law as opposed to “common law”, based on English law) jurisdiction, so I don’t know what the basic principles are there, but in any common law jurisdiction the consent of a victim to an assault or to his/her murder does not constitute a defense. I would hope (silly, non-libertarian nanny-state worshippe that I am 😉 ) that that consent isn’t a defense in a civil law jurisdiction, either.
That Germany has no law criminalizing cannibalism isn’t an issue; I think (IIRC) that Meiwes is being tried for murder. I don’t think any U.S. jurisdiction has a statute against cannibalism, either; most likely here the case would be tried as murder (and an enterprising prosecutor would add a count or two of mutilation of a corpse as well).