The second erroneous supposition from which the prosecution sets out is the assumption that there was only _one_ chief Reich public prosecutor [Oberreichsanwalt], viz, defendant Lautz. The evidence taken so far has shown that beside the chief Reich public prosecutor of the People’s Court, viz, defendant Lautz, there was still another chief Reich public prosecutor, viz, the chief Reich public prosecutor of the Reich Supreme Court. It is due to this error on the part of the prosecuting authority that matters have been made the subject of this procedure with which defendant Lautz had nothing to do. It is the nullity plea for instance of which I am thinking here; I shall prove in the course of my submission of evidence that this nullity plea could be filed only by the chief Reich public prosecutor of the Reich Supreme Court and not by the chief Reich public prosecutor of the People’s Court. It is due to the same erroneous supposition on the part of the prosecution, according to which there was only _one_ chief Reich public prosecutor, that in the “information on the outlines of the German judicial system,” which was submitted by the prosecution at the beginning of the trial, it is stated on page 5--“The criminal prosecution in cases before the People’s Court and before the Special courts, as well as those before the ordinary courts, lay in the hands of the chief Reich public prosecutor. Defendant Ernst Lautz was chief Reich public prosecutor.” I shall prove in the course of the evidence to be submitted by me that defendant Lautz was not a superior official to the public prosecutors of the Special Courts and other courts and that he was not competent for the criminal prosecution before these courts. I shall prove that he had only a quite limited competence, viz, competence for the criminal prosecution of those crimes for which the People’s Court was competent, and that he was superior only in regard to the personnel of the Reich public prosecutors at the People’s Court. The position of defendant Lautz as chief Reich public prosecutor at the People’s Court did not differ in any way from the position of the chief public prosecutors [Oberstaatsanwaelte] at the district courts. When these two points have been clarified, there remains of all accusations made against defendant Lautz only the one accusation of his being coresponsible for the criminal procedure carried through before the People’s Court. This brings me to the third erroneous supposition on which the indictment against Lautz is based. It is the fact that the prosecution in its indictment of Lautz, as well as the other Reich public prosecutors under indictment here, obviously started from the assumption that the function and position of a German public prosecutor are the same as that of the prosecuting authority in Anglo-American criminal procedure. As will be proved by the evidence of the defense the position of public prosecutor in the