It was foreseeable that the Federal Court of Justice would uphold the conviction of Stephan Ernst for the murder of Walter Lübcke.
The handling of Ernst's acquittal of the attempted murder of Ahmed I and Markus H's acquittal of the charge of aiding and abetting the murder was more uncertain.
These decisions also stand.
This is brutal for the victims and their relatives, but the rule of law shows in every acquittal.
A court thus expresses that it respects the conditions to which it has submitted.
Against this background, one can even welcome the rejection of the revisions.
The conditions under which a judgment may be set aside are strict.
The Federal Court of Justice was not allowed to take the place of the Frankfurt judges who collected and assessed the evidence.
They can be accused of misjudgements, especially with regard to the attempted murder of Ahmed I. The Federal Court of Justice could hardly iron that out.
Even if one later reproaches the Frankfurt judges, one must not lose sight of the complex evidence they were dealing with.
Every process raises the question of what truth is.
And as a rule, courts only deal with the procedural reconstruction of a reality.
However, this cannot always be worked out as laboriously as in this politically significant procedure.
It is now legally complete and the first step towards legal peace has been taken.