Criminal Procedural and Forensic Science Edifications from the Hand Grenade Case in Pécs

Abstract

On 18 November 2008, at around 10:45 P.M., a large explosion rocked the area around Fejlődes Street in Pécs. As it turned out later, a hand grenade was thrown into one of the houses from the outside through the window, as a result of which the parents Zoltán P. and Mónika P., who were sleeping on the double bed in the room, died immediately. Miraculously, not only the older child sleeping in the next room but also the three small children lying on the floor in the same room with the parents escaped without serious injuries; they did not even suffer a hearing loss.

With the commission of the crime, one of the neighbours, former police officer János B., was accused as an abettor, Jenő B. (who is János B’s brother) and Zsanett O. as co-actors, and Sándor B. as an aider, the crime of homicide being committed deliberately, with premeditation, against more than one person and against a person under the age of fourteen years (B. Sándor was also accused of the criminal offences with explosives or blasting agents). With the second-degree verdict of the Pécs Regional Court of Appeal, János B. was sentenced to 15 years, Sándor B. to 12 years, and Jenő B. to life imprisonment, and Zsanett O. was acquitted of the charges brought against her.

The case raised countless questions of criminal procedural law and forensic science, from the negligent conduct of the inspection on the scene (including the inaccurate recording of traces) through the strange result of the polygraph examination to the legality of the accusation and numerous questions of proof and classification. The study at hand attempts to answer the seven main forensic questions (what, where, when, how, who, with whom, and why), of which only two (where and when) were clarified all the way through, reviewing what happened from the investigation to the trial in the first and second instance courts to the process of judicial review.