German offi­cials are with­hold­ing sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence in a mur­der case involv­ing U.S. ser­vice­men because of Germany’s oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. Sean Oliver has been charged with the mur­der of anoth­er mem­ber of the U.S. mil­i­tary, Dmitry Chepusov, in Germany. The U.S. Air Force has juris­dic­tion over the case, but Germany is with­hold­ing coop­er­a­tion unless the U.S. mil­i­tary agrees not to seek a death sen­tence. German police dis­cov­ered the body and con­duct­ed the autop­sy, and are now refus­ing to hand over sev­er­al pieces of phys­i­cal evi­dence. Germany abol­ished the death penal­ty in 1949 and author­i­ties are banned by law from coop­er­at­ing in for­eign cas­es that could result in the death penal­ty. The vic­tim’s fam­i­ly is also oppos­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for Oliver. Dennis Bushmitch, the vic­tim’s broth­er, said, ​“We are urg­ing the Americans not to pur­sue the death penal­ty.” In 1985, the German gov­ern­ment suc­cess­ful­ly fought extra­di­tion of a German cit­i­zen accused of two mur­ders in Virginia until a deci­sion was made not to seek a death sentence.

(J. Svan and M. Kloeckner, ​“Germans with­hold­ing evi­dence in AFN mur­der case pend­ing death penal­ty deci­sion,” Stars and Stripes, July 23, 2014). See International and U.S. Military. See DPIC’s report, International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S. (1999).

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