Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IIIVarious
History
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume III
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
During the course of the trial the Tribunal ruled with respect to count
one “that neither the Charter of the International Military Tribunal
nor Control Council Law No. 10 has defined conspiracy to commit a
war crime or crime against humanity as a separate substantive crime;
therefore, this Tribunal has no jurisdiction to try any defendant upon
a charge of conspiracy considered as a separate substantive offense.”
However, the Tribunal ruled further that count one “also alleges
unlawful participation in the formulation and execution of plans to
commit war crimes and crimes against humanity which actually involved
the commission of such crimes. We therefore cannot properly strike
the whole of count one from the indictment, but, insofar as count one
charges the commission of the alleged crime of conspiracy as a separate
substantive offense, distinct from any war crime or crime against
humanity, the Tribunal will disregard that charge.” Judge Blair, in a
separate opinion filed at the time of judgment, dissented from this
ruling, declaring that the Tribunal should have declared that the
military tribunals created under Ordinance No. 7 had jurisdiction over
“conspiracy to commit” any and all crimes defined in Article II of
Control Council Law No. 10.
Of the 14 defendants who stood trial to the end, ten were convicted on
one or more counts, and four were acquitted on all counts.
The Justice Case was tried at the Palace of Justice in Nuernberg
before Military Tribunal III. Early in June 1947, the presiding judge
became ill, and for this reason the sessions of the Tribunal had
to be temporarily suspended. Thereupon the Tribunal designated the
other two members and the alternate member as commissioners of the
Tribunal to hear the testimony of a number of available witnesses
whose affidavits had been introduced in evidence by the prosecution
and who had been requested for cross-examination by the defense.
Accordingly, the commissioners held hearings to take the further
testimony of 13 prosecution affiants on 3, 4, and 5 June 1947. The
presiding judge still remained incapacitated due to severe illness.
Consequently, on 19 June 1947, shortly before the beginning of the
defense case, the Tribunal was reconstituted pursuant to Article II
of Military Government Ordinance No. 7, and the alternate judge, who
had been present throughout the sessions of the trial, replaced the
incapacitated member. Hearings before the Tribunal or the commissioners
of the Tribunal were held on 129 separate days. The trial, from
indictment to judgment, lasted 11 months. The course of the trial and
subsequent related proceedings is shown in the following table:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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