Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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Marinus van der Lubbe

 

Charge:

Arson

Sentence:

Death and Executed

Years Imprisoned:

1

Year Crime:

1933

Year Convicted:

1933

Year Cleared:

2007

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Germany

County or Region of Crime:

Berlin

City of Crime:

Berlin

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Posthumously after Execution

Summary of Case:

"Marinus van der Lubbe was wrongly convicted of responsibility for causing the burning of the Reichstag in Berlin on February 27, 1933. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch bricklayer, was convicted in December 1933 of arson and high treason, and sentenced to death. Four co-defendants were acquitted. Lubbe was 24 when executed by guillotining on January 10, 1934. A Berlin lawyer filed a petition in 2007 to overturn Lubbe's conviction based on a 1998 law that allows legal injustices by Nazi Germany to be corrected and the rehabilitation of a wronged person's reputation. Lubbe's conviction was formally overturned on December 6, 2007. German federal prosecutors said Lubbe's conviction was overturned because his conviction and death sentence resulted from measures introduced under the Nazis "that were created to implement the National Socialist regime and enabled breaches of basic conceptions of justice." After World War II Lubbe's brother, Jan van der Lubbe attempted to overturn his brother's verdict. After a lengthy period of time, in 1980 a West German court overturned Lubbe's convictions. West German's federal prosecutor appealed the decision, and three years later, in 1983 the Federal Court of Justice of Germany reversed the lower court's ruling on the ground that there was no basis for overturning Lubbe's verdicts, and therefore the court's action was illegal. Lubbe's conviction was quashed on December 6, 2007 based on a 1998 law that allows legal injustices by Nazi Germany to be corrected."

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"Lubbe's conviction was quashed on December 6, 2007 based on a 1998 law that allows legal injustices by Nazi Germany to be corrected."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Dutchmans Nazi conviction quashed, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, January 20, 2008"

Information Location 1:

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5594501/Dutchmans-Nazi-conviction-quashed

Information Source 2:

"Germany overturns Nazi-era conviction, AP Story, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 10, 2008"

Information Location 2:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_germany_reichstag_fire.html

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

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