RSS-Feed abonnieren
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-959197
Zeugenaussagen schwer Hirnverletzter zum Tathergang
On the Reliability of Severely Brain Damaged Persons as Witnesses of their own InjuryPublikationsverlauf
Publikationsdatum:
08. März 2007 (online)
![](https://www.thieme-connect.de/media/fdn/200707/lookinside/thumbnails/10.1055-s-2007-959197-1.jpg)
Zusammenfassung
Wir berichten über eine Verurteilung wegen eines Kapitalverbrechens, die sich ausschließlich auf Aussagen einer schwer hirnverletzten Zeugin zum Tathergang stützte, und deren Aufhebung durch den Bundesgerichtshof. Bei der Beweiswürdigung war die Wahrscheinlichkeit des Vorliegens tatbezogener Gedächtnisinhalte gegenüber der Möglichkeit anderer Entstehungsmechanismen der Erinnerung an die Tat, insbesondere des Vorliegens einer verletzungsbedingten Konfabulation, einander gegenüberzustellen. Der Angeklagte wurde im dritten Revisionsverfahren durch den Bundesgerichtshof selbst freigesprochen.
Abstract
We report a court verdict in the second retrial of a murder case that was based exclusively on the witness account of a severely brain damaged victim, and its reversal by the German Federal Court. The assessment of evidence had to weigh up the probability of the presence of real accounts of the crime versus the possibility of alternative explanations, i. e. trauma related confabulation. The defendant was acquitted.
Schlüsselwörter
Hirnverletzung - Retrograde Amnesie - Konfabulation - Glaubhaftigkeit
Key words
traumatic brain injury - retrograde amnesia - confabulation - qualification as witness
Literatur
- 1 Harlow J. Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. Bull Mass Med Soc. 1868; 2 3-20
- 2 Luria A R. The man with a shattered world. New York: Basic Books 1972
- 3 Kapur N. Syndromes of retrograde amnesia. A conceptual and empirical synthesis. Psychol Bull. 1999; 125 800-825
- 4 Alvarez P, Squire L R. Memory consolidation and the medial temporal lobe: a simple network model. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1994; 91 7041-7045
- 5 Nadel L, Moscovitch M. Memory consolidation, retrograde amnesia and the hippocampal complex. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 1997; 7 217-227
- 6 Kopelman M D, Kapur N. The loss of episodic memories in retrograde amnesia: single-case and group studies. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B. 2001; 356 1409-1421
- 7 Johnson M K, Raye C L. False memories and confabulation. Trends Cogn Sci. 1998; 2 137-145
- 8 Heaps C M, Nash M. Comparing recollective experience in true and false autobiographical memories. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2001; 27 920-930
- 9 Borek L L, Butler R, Fleminger S. Are neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with evidence of right brain injury in referrals to a neuropsychiatric brain injury unit?. Brain Inj. 2001; 15 65-69
- 10 Barbizet J. Human memory and its pathology. San Francisco: Freeman 1970: 49-50
- 11 Berlyne N. Confabulation. Br J Psychiatry. 1972; 120 31-39
- 12 Schnider A, Däniken K von, Gutbrod K. The mechanisms of spontaneous and provoked confabulations. Brain. 1996; 119 1365-1375
- 13 Schnider A. Spontaneous confabulation and the adaptation of thought to ongoing reality. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2003; 4 662-671
- 14 Moscovitch M, Melo B. Strategic retrieval and the frontal lobes: evidence from confabulation and amnesia. Neuropsychologia. 1997; 35 1017-1034
- 15 Gilboa A, Alain C, Stuss D T, Melo B, Miller S, Moscovitch M. Mechanisms of spontaenous confabulations: a strategic retrieval account. Brain 2006, epub ahead of print
- 16 Dalla Barba G. Different patterns of confabulation. Cortex. 1993; 29 567-581
- 17 Schnider A, Ptak R, Däniken C von, Remonda L. Recovery from spontaneous confabulations parallels recovery of temporal confusion in memory. Neurology. 2000; 55 74-83
- 18 Damasio A R, Graff-Radford N R, Eslinger P J, Damasio H, Kassell N. Amnesia following basal forebrain lesions. Arch Neurol. 1985; 42 252-259
- 19 Marshall J C, Halligan P W, Wade D T. Reduplication of an event after head injury? A cautionary case report. Cortex. 1995; 31 183-190
- 20 Burgess P W, Shallice T. Confabulation and the control of recollection. Memory. 1996; 4 359-411
- 21 Brainerd C J, Reyna V F. The science of false memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005
Prof. Dr. Claus W. Wallesch
Universitätsklinik für Neurologie
Leipziger Str.44
39120 Magdeburg
eMail: wallesch@medizin.uni-magdeburg.de