 As the constitution requires that prisoners have a chance of regaining freedom with other means than extralegal pardon only, prisoners are checked for release on parole after 15 years for regular intervals.Since the introduction of this provision, courts may in extreme cases declare "special gravity of guilt" which is meant and popularized as life without parole.In 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court classified, in its verdict of the bannig-attempt against the National Democratic Party of Germany, the party's demand for a referendum on the reintroduction of capital punishment as anti-constitutional, and incompatible with the Liberal democratic basic order.