Criminal procedural delay compensation: sufficiency of finding contrary to the rule of law to remedy three-year delay

The German Federal Court of Criminal Justice (BGH) dismissed the defendant's appeal as unfounded, leaving the Landgericht Kassel's judgment of June 16, 2021, in force and ordering the appellant to bear the costs of the legal proceedings. The dispute centered on a criminal conviction challenged via a general substantive appeal, specifically addressing whether a three-year procedural delay constituted a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time. In a supplementary remark, the court confirmed that the lower instance correctly determined that the delay was sufficiently compensated by the finding of "Rechtsstaatswidrigkeit" (contrary to the rule of law), thereby upholding the legal basis for the original sentencing without identifying specific procedural errors prejudicial to the defendant.