Important ruling of the Constitutional Court , which drops the ban on applying extenuating circumstances in cases of murder committed by the victim of family abuse. The ruling came following two orders from the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Turin and an order from the Court of Assizes of Cagliari.

In the latter case, proceedings are being taken against Paolo Randaccio, 67 years old at the time of the events, accused of killing his sixty-year-old wife Angelica Salis on 9 September 2021 in Quartucciu. Randaccio would have acted in a moment of exasperation caused by the continuous aggressive behavior of the victim , an alcoholic and suffering from psychiatric pathologies. According to the law, the judge should apply the same punishment as in the most brutal cases of murder, therefore life imprisonment or at least twenty-one years of imprisonment.

The issue was raised by the defendant's lawyers, Andrea Nanni and Luca Pennisi, and by the prosecutor Nicola Giua Marassi. Judged to be founded by the president of the Court of Assizes of Cagliari Giovanni Massidda, it was transmitted to the Constitutional Court.

The Consulta established that the ban imposed by the legislator on applying mitigating circumstances would end up leading to excessive penalties in "situations in which it is the subject who has suffered aggressive behavior for years who carries out the homicidal act, as a result of a sudden loss of self-control caused from the innumerable series of abuses to which he had been subjected".

Here in the case of Cagliari, as in other similar situations, it will be the judge of the assize courts who will be able to evaluate case by case whether the sentence of life imprisonment should be inflicted, generally foreseen for murders committed against a family member or a cohabitant, or a more lenient sentence should be applied.

(Unioneonline/L.Ne.)

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