Facts
The appellant [X.] was sentenced by the High Court of the Canton of Aargau to a prison term of three and a half years for attempted intentional homicide and serious bodily harm. The appellant had used a pocket knife with a blade length of 34 mm in a dispute after a disco visit and stabbed the victim [B.] under the armpit in the torso, causing a life-threatening injury. The victim survived only due to immediate medical treatment.
The appellant requested that he should not be convicted of attempted intentional homicide, but of serious bodily harm. He argued that he had not accepted the death of the victim, but only wanted to injure him.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined whether the appellant had accepted the death of the victim as a possible consequence of his actions. It found that the lower court had not made the factual findings in an obviously incorrect or arbitrary manner, but that the finding of facts regarding the length of the pocket knife had to be corrected ex officio.
The Federal Court pointed out that conditional intent is given if the perpetrator considers the occurrence of the consequence possible, but still acts because he accepts the consequence in the event of its occurrence. It emphasized that the distinction between conditional intent and conscious negligence can be difficult in individual cases and that the judge may infer the perpetrator's will from their knowledge if the occurrence of the consequence was so probable that the willingness to accept it as a consequence can only be reasonably interpreted as acceptance of the consequence.
The Federal Court…