Facts
In this case, the Federal Supreme Court had to address the question of whether an outpatient measure can be converted into an inpatient measure if the convicted person no longer has any remaining sentence to serve at the time of the decision.
The background is as follows: In 2007, the Criminal Court of the Canton of Lucerne sentenced X. to a custodial sentence of three months for arson, property damage, and trespassing, and ordered an inpatient measure. In 2008, the High Court of the Canton of Lucerne replaced the inpatient measure with an outpatient measure. When the continuation of the outpatient measure proved to be hopeless, the court revoked it in 2009.
The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Lucerne then applied to the High Court to review an inpatient measure. The High Court rejected the application, whereupon the Public Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court states that the conversion of an outpatient into an inpatient measure after full completion of the sentence remains permissible in clear exceptional cases and under strict consideration of the principle of proportionality, even under the new law on measures.
Although the new law provides that an inpatient measure can only be ordered if there is a remaining sentence, the Federal Supreme Court relativizes this restriction. It emphasizes that measures represent something additional to the sentence and are independent of it. The decisive factor is whether there is a substantive link between the original conviction and the subsequent order of the inpatient measure.
The Federal Supreme Court points out that the longer the deprivation of liberty, the higher the…