> From the sounds of this it wasn't actually murder, it was manslaughter.

It was "Mord" according to the ruling (https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheid...), which is "murder", even if German law might not use the exact same wording as whatever laws you may have in mind. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_in_German_law.

> The idea of releasing people but then villifying them will basically just channel them back into the criminal system again.

Agreed.