Perhaps this hobby could have continued had a student not seen another of Meiwes' advertisements on the Internet and alerted the police.

"Bernd came to me of his own free will to end his life," Meiwes told the court in his trial, which began December 3, 2003. "For him, it was a nice death."

Before his death Brandes consumed a large quantity of liquor and 20 or more sleeping pills.

Cannibalism may not be against the law in Germany, but it guarantees one a free mental examination. What the court found out after Meiwes' psychiatric exam was very interesting. He claimed that watching horror films is what initiated the fantasies that he had as a child about eating people. Initially, he wanted to eat his school mates, he told the court.

The defense has been arguing that there was no murder because Brandes volunteered to be killed. The prosecution, however, feels that Meiwes' hobbies are very dangerous and that he should be locked up permanently.

CNN reported today that the court in Kassel ruled had no "base motives" in the crime -- sparing him a murder conviction. He has been sentenced to eight and a half years in jail. Prosecutors will appeal the verdict. The case, which has no precedent in German law, may go to the supreme court.

Germany's Constitutional Court has thrown out an appeal on behalf of convicted cannibal Armin Meiwes, but there's another German cannibal making international news.   Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.