Convictions
About 1990-91, Quick was sentenced to lengthy prison terms for armed robbery and consigned to closed psychiatric care. During therapy, he confessed to some 20 murders committed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland between 1964 and 1993. One of his confessions led to the solving of an 18 year old murder considered to be unsolvable, and another to the informal solving of a murder in Växjö in 1964. The 1964 crime had passed the then Swedish 25-year limit of punition, but with the information given by Quick, the murderer was considered to be found.
Between 1994 and 2001, Quick was convicted of eight murders at six different district court trials:
- Charles Zelmanovits, Piteå 1976, sentenced in 1994 - no forensic evidence but a confession.
- Johan Asplund, Sundsvall, 1980, sentenced in 2001 - no body, no forensics but confession. Charges waived 03/2012.
- The Stegehuis couple, Appojaure (Gällivare) 1984, sentenced in 1996 - no forensics, but Quick gave information regarding facts that had never been disclosed to the public. His confessions were later questioned, as Quick seemed to have been privy to all information before the trial.
- Yenon Levi, tourist from Israel, Rörshyttan, 1988, sentenced in 1997 - no forensic evidence, but statements included in Quick's testimony were matched against undisclosed police facts. Charges waived 09/2010.
- Therese Johannesen, Drammen, Norway, 1988, sentenced in 1998 - no forensic evidence. Charges waived 03/2011.
- Trine Jensen, Oslo, 1981, sentenced in 2000 - no forensic evidence. Charges waived 09/2012
- Gry Storvik, Oslo, 1985 - no forensic evidence, confession; the semen found in victim did not belong to Quick. Charges waived 09/2012
(In Sweden a defendant always gets access to the full police investigation before the trial.)
Quick's lawyer Claes Borgström has been criticised for failing to protect his mentally disturbed client's objective interest in being judged not guilty.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Quick
Famous quotes containing the word convictions:
“Is it not better to remain in suspense than to entangle yourself in the many errors that the human fancy has produced? Is it not better to suspend your convictions than to get mixed up in these seditious and quarrelsome divisions?”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The most noticeable weakness of Congressmen is their timidity. They fear the use to be made of their “record.” They are afraid of making enemies. They do not vote according to their convictions from fear of consequences.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“No two people see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will often apply the same principle, recognized by both, differently. Even one and the same person won’t always maintain the same views and judgments: earlier convictions must give way to later ones.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)