The last word/Das letzte Wort

In criminal trials in England and Wales and the USA, the defence usually has the last word (not in every state, though). In Germany, it is the defendant in person who has the last word (sometimes along the lines of 'I'm sorry and I won't ever do it again'). In an old entry in Strafprozesse und andere Ungereimtheiten, Werner Siebers tells a story where the defendant should have been forbidden from having the last word. When three potential witnesses turn out to have emigrated to Israel and the robbed petrol station manager is ill, and on top of that the defendant has been in pre-trial detention for months without an arrest warrant, and the public prosecutor requests an acquittal and compensation (for all three defendants), it is not good for the last word to be 'And I'm sorry we didn't pay for the petrol'. (Both the interpreter and the defendant had been told there should be no last word by him). Das "Letzte Wort" wurde erteilt und gegen die mit der Dolmetscherin und dem Mandanten getroffene Absprache stand dieser auf und begann, in seiner Heimatsprache Ausführungen zu machen. Als…