But it is the application of law that applied then, when the murder was committed, that applies when the punishment is to be decided for the man - if he were to be convicted in the new trial in the case of the murder of Malin Lindström which begins in the Court of Appeal in Sundsvall the week after midsummer.
Was not in the penalty scale
And at the time, it was a prison sentence of between eight and ten years that applied to an 18-year-old who was convicted of murder.
Life imprisonment did not exist in the penalty scale then for such a young person.
But since then, legislation in this area has been significantly tightened.
And today, a similar act by an 18-year-old had given a completely different punishment.
Listen to Dennis Martinsson's statement here.