21 SOERING v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT German court and the German authorities would pay their expenses. Furthermore, a United States Federal court may, pursuant to a letter rogatory or a request from a foreign tribunal, order a person to give testimony or a statement or to produce a document or other thing for use in a proceeding in a foreign tribunal (28 United States Code, section 1782). In addition, public documents, for example the transcript of a criminal trial, are available to foreign prosecuting authorities. IV. RELEVANT LAW AND PRACTICE OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 71. German criminal law applies to acts committed abroad by a German national if the act is liable to punishment at the place where the offence is committed (Criminal Code, section 7(2)). 72. Murder is defined as follows in section 211(2) of the Criminal Code: "He is deemed a murderer who because of murderous lust, to satisfy his sexual instinct, for reasons of covetousness or for otherwise base motives, insidiously or cruelly or by means constituting a public danger or in order to render another crime possible or to conceal another crime kills a person." Murder is punishable with life imprisonment (Criminal Code, section 211(1)), the death penalty having been abolished under the Constitution (Article 102 of the Basic Law, 1949). 73. Under the terms of the Juvenile Court Act (1953) as amended, if a young adult - defined as a person who is 18 but not yet 21 years of age at the time of the criminal act (section 1(3)) - commits an offence, the judge will apply the provisions applicable to a juvenile - defined as a person who is at least 14 but not yet 18 years of age (ibid.) - if, inter alia, "the overall assessment of the offender’s personality, having regard also to the circumstances of his environment, reveals that, according to his moral and mental development, he was still equal to a juvenile at the time of committing the offence" (section 105(1)). The sentence for young adults who come within this section is youth imprisonment of 6 months to 10 years or, under certain conditions, of indeterminate duration (sections 18, 19 and 105(3)). Where, on the other hand, the young adult offender’s personal development corresponds to his age, the general criminal law applies but the judge may pass a sentence of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment instead of a life sentence (section 106(1)). 74. Where an offender, at the time of commission of the offence, was incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of the offence or of acting in accordance with such appreciation by reason of a morbid mental or emotional disturbance, by reason of a profound disturbance of consciousness or by reason of mental deficiency or some other serious