"A German court has convicted self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight years and six months in prison.
Meiwes, 42, admitted killing and eating Bernd Juergen Brandes after sex and hours of sado-masochism but insisted his victim had volunteered.

It has been Germany's most sensational trial for decades.

The verdict falls well short of the prosecution's demand for a 15-year sentence for sexual murder. "

<font color=deepskyblue> Oh man is this story just sick, I will not pretend to even understand the motives on both sides but surely the *victim* was mentally sick and therefore the predator should have got life?
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"The well-spoken computer technician killed and ate Brandes three years ago, after placing an advert on the internet.

It was, he told the court in Kassel, the realisation of a dream he had nurtured ever since having schoolboy fantasies about consuming his classmates.

Despite this, psychologists said he was mentally fit to stand trial."




The link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3443293.stm

Unforunately, you can't prove the state of mind of the victim. It may well have been a rational decision to end his life - afterall, who is to say that suicide can never be a rational act?