Rumor heard from an old friend. Take it for what it's worth...

[Jarqui]

31. Maybe I did not express myself well

"Following orders" could be considered a mitigating factor. Consideration of mitigating factors is common for sentencing criminals.

For example: If the soldier was going to get shot in the back for not following orders to commit a (war) crime, then that would be regarded as a mitigating factor to reduce the sentence. It did not exonerate them of the (war) crime but those mitigating circumstances would reduce the sentence vs those who did not have mitigating circumstances and committed the same (war) crime. I think most people get that. That reasoning got applied at Nuremberg.

For "Hoess & Eichmann" "following orders" would probably fail because they could have gotten away or done something else to reduce the carnage but they did not.

Those following Trump's orders to kill those on boats from Venezuela probably would wind up closer to "Hoess & Eichmann" in terms of guilt of the crime though many people seem to fear Trump and they may have some sort of mens rea argument - brainwashed into believing in Trump.