Some German law blogs have noted that there has been an Anklageschrift against Michael Jackson. I’m not sure that’s right.

Apparently prosecutors have two procedures to follow:

In the case of a misdemeanor (similar to German Vergehen), a prosecutor files an accusatory pleading in court. The pleading is called a criminal complaint, an information, or a petition. (An information is a Strafanzeige, I would say).

In the case of a felony (as in Jackson’s case; similar to German Verbrechen), the above accusatory pleading is one possibility. And that’s what has happened here: the pleading is called a criminal complaint and is signed by the district attorney.

Alternatively, there may be an indictment handed down by a grand jury (this would be Anklageschrift for me).

About half the states, mainly in the east, require prosecutors to use a grand jury. Other states allow the prosecutor to choose the procedure.

Source: Bergman and Berman-Barrett, The Criminal Law Handbook, Nolo Press 2003, ISBN 0-87337-928-4
(take a look at the Nolo Press site – it’s very nice).

Dietl calls criminal complaint Strafantrag (which is confusing, because a German Strafantrag or application for prosecution is made by a person who is the victim of an offence that can be prosecuted only on the victim’s application). Romain has Strafanzeige.

Via jurabilis, Handakte WebLAWg, law blog.

There have been a number of articles in the press and online about how to try Saddam. Handakte WebLAWg points to an article by Robert Leicht in Die Zeit today, with the heading

bq. Jetzt könnte man ihn brauchen – den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof
Aber weil die USA ihn nicht wollten, stehen sie nun vor dem Problem: Wie soll Saddam Hussein verurteilt werden – per Siegerjustiz, durch seine Nachfolger, seine Opfer?

bq. Now the International Criminal Court would be useful. But because the USA doesn’t want it, it now has the problem: How is Saddam Hussein to be convicted – by victors’ justice, by his successors, by his victims?

Of course, the ICC has the principle of complementarity, which means that it acts only if the country or countries that otherwise have jurisdiction refuse or are incapable. At least the USA has jurisdiction and would surely not pass up on this case. I suspect Iraq may have jurisdiction too, but it might be considered incapable, because its court system is still in disarray.

Another problem is that the ICC can deal only with crimes committed after July 2002. I suppose most of Saddam’s offences were before that date.

(See earlier entries on the ICC, from October 19th-October 24th).

The Independent reports that the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi El-Fayed are to take place next month. Michael Burgess, Coroner of the Queen’s Household and for Surrey, will be conducting separate inquests.

No point in rushing these things.

A coroner, in England and Wales, is a qualified lawyer or doctor who holds an inquiry into accidental or unusual deaths and used to be responsible for treasure trove too (see earlier entry). The coroner has a small jury, whose verdict will be something like ‘accidental death’. Matters may be passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service if they look suspicious, however. There is some interest in whether anything new will be revealed.

Handakte WebLAWg reports that an opinion is being obtained in the administrative court proceedings about the planned IKEA building in Koblenz. Another building in Bubenheim is apparently going ahead.

Meanwhile, here is the biggest IKEA in Germany being built in Fürth (photo taken on November 24th):

Protests in the area were on the lines of ‘Yes to IKEA, no to the monster building’. Real protest is being reserved for Möbel Höffner, which is also coming and has been wishing us a happy summer, giving us free bow-ties and so on, using the cartoon figure called ‘der Höffi’.

Meanwhile, if you drive up north through Erlangen and Forchheim, eventually three temples appear – not quite together (Bamberg lies between them), but the biggest buildings in the fairly empty landscape. Near Staffelstein, the pilgrimage church of Vierzehnheiligen and Kloster Banz face each other across the valley; before that, there is the other pilgrimage destination of Möbel Neubert at Hirschaid (they’ve been sending a lot of advertising lately – wonder why?)

I referred to the song The Twelve Days of Christmas in an earlier entry. Before that, I saw the term ‘candy striping’ in an entry by Gail at openbrackets. Candy striping seems to mean doing good deeds (but in North American English).

Both candy striping and the twelve days of Christmas are dealt with at www.snopes.com, the Urban Legends Reference Pages. Neither of those convey a hidden Christian message. (Candy canes are an American thing).

(Picture from here).

Of course, I was really interested in what the presents do mean. Apparently calling birds should be colly birds (coal-black?), meaning blackbirds, and even five gold rings refers to five ring-necked pheasants.

LATER NOTE: In a comment, Mark Liberman of language log points out that I am wrong about ‘candy stripe’. Candy stripe comes from the candy-striped pinafore dresses (called in America jumpers!) worn by hospital volunteers (apparently with a smile, see Wikipedia entry). It looks as if candystriping is a girly thing, although I found this, but alas without a photo:

bq. Mrs. Ray added that there is huge a waiting list for the popular volunteer programme, but more volunteers are always welcome. Candystriping is no longer a ‘girl thing’ and the programme now includes several young men. “We really want to encourage the boys,” said Mrs. Ray.

I mentioned the trial of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.

Huntley has now been convicted of murder after the jury deliberated for 17 hours.

In the course of the trial, it was stated that Huntley had been charged with rape but acquitted and that he had no criminal record. I noticed that because I knew he took his job as caretaker under an assumed name and I was expecting there would be a criminal record – something the jury is not allowed to know about. By saying you have no criminal record (Vorstrafen), you open up the subject of your antecedents (Vorleben) for examination.

It has now come out that there were a number of incidents:

bq. Humberside Police revealed they had dealt 10 times with Huntley, including four alleged rapes on teenagers, three allegations of having unlawful sex with girls under 16 and an allegation of indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl. No of the charges were proven. …

bq. An inquiry is under way to establish how a sexual predator with a history of targeting under-age girls managed to get a job as a school caretaker.

bq. The authorities involved have admitted that the system of checks failed, allowing a man who had come to the attention of Humberside Police on ten occasions to get the job.

It is interesting to see how much the jury did not hear. All this information will have been announced after conviction.