Federal Court of Justice of Germany
After the war Thorbeck worked as an attorney in Nuremberg. In 1955, he was convicted by a court of assizes in Augsburg for assisting in murder and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. On 19 June 1956, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany exonerated him on grounds that the killings were legal because the Nazi regime had the right to execute traitors. The decision was rescinded by the Berlin State Court in 1996.