Arguments end in Bodom murder trial - verdict to come in four weeks

Closing arguments were heard on Thursday at the trial of Nils Gustafsson, who is accused of the murder of three friends who were stabbed to death during a camping trip at Bodom Lake near Helsinki more than 45 years ago.
      Espoo District Court is to give its verdict on October 7th.
      In their final statements, the prosecutors said that the evidence had proved that Gustafsson was guilty, and called for a life sentence. The defence maintained that the killer was an unknown assailant.
      Both sides spoke in their summations about the first surprise witness - a woman who said that she had been camping with three friends in the area at the time of the events. The prosecution felt that the woman's description of Gustafsson as having been drunk and belligerent was credible.
      The defence, meanwhile, said that the testimony was impossible to verify, as one of the men in the group had died, and that the police were not even able to determine the identity of the two others.
     
In the view of defence lawyer Riitta Leppiniemi, the prosecution had come up with an imaginative theory about jealousy and sexual frustration as the motive for the killings, for which her client could face a life sentence.
      "Nothing in the police investigation supports this claim. I would hope that the prosecutors would stick to the facts and leave their imaginations outside the courtroom."
      Although the defence professed Gustafsson’s innocence, it also argued that the crime itself fit the description of manslaughter, and not murder, and that the statute of limitations ran out in 1980.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police source says Nils Gustafsson confessed to Bodom killings (1.9.2005)
  Surprise witness testifies at Bodom murder trial (24.8.2005)
  Bodom murder trial visits crime scene, 45 years after the fact (23.8.2005)
  Gustafsson testifies at trial on Friday (22.8.2005)
  Prosecution claims Bodom suspect killed friends in jealous rage; defence disagrees (17.8.2004)
  Prosecutors call 45-year-old Bodom triple murder premeditated and brutal (5.8.2005)
  Veil of secrecy continues to shroud Bodom Lake murder investigation (15.4.2004)
  Man remanded on suspicion of infamous unsolved triple murder from 1960 (5.4.2004)