Jail Time Uncertain in Nazi Death Camp Conviction
A retired U.S. autoworker who was ruled to have been a guard at a Nazi death camp and convicted in Germany of thousands of counts of being an accessory to murder will be free pending an appeal, and his health may keep him from serving time at all.
The decades-old case of John Demjanjuk, 91, will remain before the courts for the foreseeable future as his lawyers appeal his conviction Thursday, but he won't be locked up.
The appeal will take at least a year, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is based in Los Angeles. At that point, Hier added, Demjanjuk's health may not allow putting him in prison. Demjanjuk, who suffers from a variety of ailments and has been imprisoned during the trial, needs daily medical attention....