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).
