It was announced that they all committed “schwere Verbrechen”. That means it’s all felonies and capital crimes. I do characterize people who commit capital crimes as scum, because those are by definition never small misconducts or accidents. Felony convictions for capital crimes need proof of malicious intent. So there really is incredibly little room left to feel bad for the criminals.
“self-Determination” and “decision-making” are conscious, complex processes. A single cell is incapable of that.
On the other hand, how do we as humans form decisions? We use sensory input from various organs, process those by combining with existing knowledge/memories and form decisions based on that. But in the end, it’s still all based on “chemical and mechanical reactions”.
You quickly get into philosophical territory there: is our conscious self more than the sum of all the processes in our brain? Is there some extra “spark” that allows true self-determination, or are all our decisions a given result of the exact state of our brain and body?