Germany's top court overturns double jeopardy reform

The German constitutional court ruled that individuals acquitted of murder and war crimes cannot be retried, even with new evidence. A man acquitted in 1981 for rape and murder, later linked by DNA evidence, triggered a petition to overturn the double jeopardy clause. In 2021, the law was changed to allow retrials for murder, genocide, and war crimes. A second trial was initiated in 2022, but Tuesday's ruling voids the 2021 reform, protecting acquitted individuals from being tried again for the same crime, even with new evidence.