BERLIN—A man who spent 13 years in prison in Germany for the death of an elderly woman was acquitted in a retrial on Friday by a court that determined the supposed murder victim had died in an accident.
Manfred Genditzki, 63, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2010 by a Munich court. Judges ruled then that he had hit an 87-year-old woman on the head in October 2008 after an argument at her apartment in the upscale Bavarian lakeside town of Rottach-Egern and then drowned her in a bathtub.
Mr. Genditzki, who worked as a caretaker at the complex where the woman lived, always insisted that he was innocent and appealed unsuccessfully against the original verdict. A federal court ordered a retrial, which resulted in him being convicted again in 2012.
He fought for years to get the case reopened, and succeeded last August, securing his release.
Announcing the verdict at the Munich state court on Friday, presiding Judge Elisabeth Ehrl told Mr. Genditzki, “You have heard the words you spent nearly 14 years waiting for.” She said he will have to be compensated for the time he wrongly spent in prison, German news agency dpa reported.
“We really are sincerely sorry,” Ms. Ehrl said. She added that, while it wasn’t possible to say why things went wrong in the previous legal proceedings, it seemed “as if some things were handled very one-sidedly and to the detriment of Mr. Genditzki” and there was an “accumulation of mistakes.”
The judge said it had been a rocky road to justice that Mr. Genditzki had pursued it with admirable patience. Mr. Genditzki followed the verdict calmly.
The court said it assumes that the woman died as a result of an accident. After hearing experts at the retrial, it said it was “not just possible, but probable,” and that there were no indications of a murder.
Judges found that the woman likely fell into the bathtub as she tried to wash laundry or take a foot bath, was unable to free herself—possibly because she was unconscious and drowned.
Earlier this week, prosecutors called for Mr. Genditzki’s acquittal. In his closing words at the trial, Mr. Genditzki said, “I would like to say again that I am innocent. That’s all.”
Mr. Genditzki emerged from the courtroom on Friday to applause but said he wouldn’t be “leaping for joy.”
“I have no reason to rejoice,” he said. “Fourteen years are gone.”
People who are wrongfully imprisoned are entitled to 75 euros in compensation for every day in custody. In Mr. Genditzki’s case, that would add up to 368,400 euros (about $400,000). He could in principle also seek compensation for loss of earnings.
