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February 9, 2012
Munich S-Bahn victim may have thrown the first punch
Published: 6 Feb 10 17:08 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100206-25081.html
The two youths who allegedly beat to death businessman Dominik Brunner at a Munich S-Bahn station had been drinking but it was Brunner who threw the first punch, news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday.
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They allegedly beat Brunner, 50, to death in September last year after he tried to stop them bullying a group of children.
But according to sources close to the evidence in the Munich court where the case is expected to begin in April, Brunner, who had trained for at least a year in a boxing school, had thrown the first punch, striking one of the accused in the face.
The tragic confrontation began when Brunner intervened while the two accused and a third youth were attempting to extort money out of some children on an S-Bahn commuter train.
Brunner offered to escort the children out of Solln station but the accused pair followed him off the train.
Witnesses say Brunner called out to the train driver, “There’s trouble back here” before the violence began on the train platform.
There appears to be conflicting accounts from witness concerning who was aggressive, according to Spiegel. However, witnesses said the attack by the accused was particularly brutal.
Markus Sch. used a bunch of keys as a weapon while Sebastian L. held a cigarette lighter in his fist while he struck Brunner, the report said. They continued to punch and kick Brunner even after he had struck his head on a metal handrail and fallen to the ground.
The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
Given only what I know from reading here, I'm thinking that "first punch" doesn't really have much importance.
wa
May he rest in peace.
Sadly, ethical arguments probably bounce right off of you, so let me ask this, are you even aware of how much the death penalty costs? It ends up being more than lifetime incarceration. And as for acting as a deterrent to future murderers, the murder rate in the U.S. is about 5 times that of Germany (and most of the rest of europe).
What isn't a deternent is the endless appeals, and hiding of the executions.
There is a direct correlation, between the amount of publicity an execution is given and the decrease in violent crime. Makes sence, maybe we should require a piture of an execution on bottles of whiskey and all packaging of illegal drugs.
My sympathies go out to the Brunner family, Mr. Brunner was a heroe.
You state: "The latest research from the University of Texas indicates that the death penalty is a deterent. [sic]."
Can you please provide a link to that "research," because I don't believe it. Texas executes people like it's going out of style, and there has been no appreciable deterrent effect in that state in the past 100 years. I have yet to see one credible study to support that proposition that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder anywhere.
In Iran, perhaps, the death penalty is a deterrent to voicing political dissent. Do we really want our societies to become like Iran?
Texas does have an efficient court system compared to States like New York, New Jersey and Illinois that don't value the lives of their citizens enough to apply what the Courts themselves call the ultimate penalty. Let somebody see you comitt a Murder there and you won't sit on death roe long enough to die of natural causes. It should also be pointed out that Teas shares a Border with one of the iggest Narco states in the world (Mexico). Texas is a very nice place to visit and has a history of Law and Order (Judge Roy Bean, the Texas Rangers, the hunt for Bonny and Clyde) that they can be very proud of.
By the way I've lived in Iran and if we had not discouraged the Shah from apply a death penalty a certain Ayatollah that France harbored, it would be better for the people who live there.
In the end if a cock roach gets in your housee you shoulf kill it, not ask it if it has any demands of society. Ultimately, murderers are way below cockroaches. People who protect murders are lower than murders.
I'm sure that Texans can be very proud of good ole Judge Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed "Law West of the Pecos" who had no use for little constitutional niceties such as due process or fair trials before hanging people. Texas also gave us Bush pére et fils, both mass murderers. The contributions Texas has made to society are just too numerous to mention.
I hope Texas quickly follows through on its governor's threat to secede from the United States and takes its rightful place among banana republics.
How did they measure, deterrence? Murder as some function of number of people executed? If you can't find the article, could you at least remember how they measured and statistically compared?
I am much intrigued this would be the only peer-reviewed study I have ever heard of that proclaimed to prove such a thing.
Then again, it sounds like the typical nightly news crowd which is only concerned with ratings. Did they end every statement with a question mark-like wilt? As in, 'The death penalty acts as a deterrent(?)'
Regardless, if you're comfortable with being just as monsterous as those you say are monsters, good luck in life.
That's why crime rates in USA are sooooo much lower than in other countries, like Germany, that do not have the death penalty. It is much more dangerous to go out on the S-Bahn in Solln than take the NYC subway. God bless America.