Turnaround in the Cucchi case: perhaps, but do not tread on the presumption of not guilty

23/10/18

Speaking of the story of Stefano Cucchi is very delicate, both for the tortuousness of the reconstruction of the facts that have marked his story, both for the media implications (and, in some ways, policies) consequent to it.

It is for this reason that I will limit myself to hinting to some general concepts, subdividing the question into two parts: the private and the procedural one.

Under the first aspect, I think that reading so many criticisms, even fierce, addressed to his family, concerning their alleged or otherwise way of relating or taking or not taking care of Stephen when he was alive, is unfair and certainly foreign to the public interest on the question. None of us can know the dynamics within the Cucchi family, like any other in general, any efforts made to get him out of the world that then led him to his end, the reactions of his loved ones, perhaps dictated by exasperation or by a precise strategy, and so on. And certainly nobody can judge them.

That said, then, I stop here and move on to the next point, which is what, in reality, should affect the community and, therefore, the public debate, or the possible criminal behavior of the Carabinieri involved in the tragic events and currently on trial .

A question, this, back strongly in vogue after, in recent days, just one of them (the deputy brigadier Francesco Tedesco) would have offered a new testimony that would accuse colleagues Alessio Di Bernardo and Raffaele D'Alessandro of having crushed Cucchi.

I would like to premise two things: the first is that I will not go into the merits of the trial, not allowing me neither the specific knowledge of the deeds nor the due respect for the work of colleagues engaged on both sides to defend the interests of their respective clients for research of the truth.

The second is that the writer is part of that overwhelming majority of Italians who place extreme trust in the work of members of the weapon, as, more generally, those who wear a uniform and, with it, values ​​and ideals, and for which (overwhelming majority of Italians) even the only thought that some of its components (of the Arma) can be stained with behavior contrary to their duty, is a deep wound that only the balm of justice could in part soothe.

So, I would immediately clear the field of any doubt: if indeed some carabinieri must have made a mistake, they will have to undergo an exemplary penalty, and they will have to ascertain the responsibilities of those who may have misdirected, or helped to detest, the investigations at any hierarchical level it belongs. An obligatory act in the interest and to guarantee the many others who, daily, remain loyal or, better, faithful, to the oath to the laws carried out at the time of enrollment, often at the cost of their own life, as they are proof countless examples that, since its establishment, have distinguished the military of the weapon. And to protect the citizens themselves - therefore of us all - whose service and protection the Carabinieri are (pre) places.

This premised, however, by a lawyer who often wrote in this newspaper also of other events of national interest (see, for example, that linked to the general of the Carabinieri Tullio Del Sette, or the former Navy Chief of Staff, Giuseppe de Giorgi), let me remember, once again, the existence, in our system, of a principle enshrined in the Constitutional Charter which is that of the presumption of not guilty until a final sentence of conviction.

A principle often forgotten, often crushed by the media storm of that apparatus of information that already in the 1787, during a session of the House of Commons of the English Parliament, was defined by the then deputy of the Whig party, Edmund Burke as " fourth power ", and that has accustomed us, especially in our days, with its positive and negative aspects, to a third truth - the media - which often anticipates, replaces or ends with the couple, potentially dichotomous that, at who studies law, is taught in the first year of studies: that is the one concerning the historical or factual truth (that is, what actually happened) and the procedural one (ie the one that emerges in the process: sometimes matching the first, others, unfortunately not : to prove, if we want, the fallibility of human justice).

Who writes - mind you - is the uncle, as well as the family's lawyer, poor Pamela Mastropietro, the eighteen year old Roman barbarously killed, after being probably also raped, and then depezzata, skinned, disarticulated, bloodless, washed in the varechina, mass in two trolleys and abandoned on the edge of a road, in that of Macerata last 30 January. And it is he who, in this double and very difficult garment, when he found himself speaking publicly of the affair, has always tried to premise and remember dutifully, first to himself than to others (and it has never been - under the circumstances - an easy exercise), the value of the aforementioned principle with regard to the possible authors of these acts that to define demoniac would also be reductive.

To return to the present case, I therefore also consider it appropriate that no judgment of condemnation be given, let alone definitive, even before that, even the new and sensational testimony has not passed the trial screening and brought (or helped to bring), effectively, to the declaration of guilt by the carabinieri accused.

Moreover, even on this point, let me add a piece to the overall picture, to better assist in the analysis or to prevent it from continuing to mount, in the opinion of some part of the public opinion, the idea that the current defendants they are also directly responsible for the death of Cucchi: the medico-legal advice prepared by the investigating judge in the time of the probationary incident (as better reported in the article signed by Elena Ricci (see link), in fact, it seems to exclude any causal link between the death and the injuries suffered by the boy. So, wanting everything to concede - and unless there are further twists, let's be clear - the carabinieri in question could be held guilty of the injuries suffered by Cucchi, but not his death. Not that this would change anything about the judgment of gravity (moral and disciplinary) concerning their behavior, but at the juridical level there is a difference between being held guilty of injury and murder.

But, even here, I do not think it is appropriate or possible to anticipate anything, either in one sense or another, given the above premises: what is certain, however, and I think we need to reiterate, is that if they (the carabinieri accused) have made a mistake, they will have to undergo an exemplary punishment, but until the process has been completed, it would be opportune, as for Oseghale, to expect - even in spite of different evidences - to wait for the judicial outcome for declare it also formally guilty (perhaps together with others, who knows), the same reasoning must be made for the aforementioned that, until proven otherwise, are also citizens and therefore, like all, deserving of the appropriate guarantees.

Like it or not, this principle is in force, which can not and must not assert itself in alternate phases, unless it is decided to remodel it, modify it or eliminate it: but this must only take place in the appropriate forms and venues foreseen in a democratic state ( and of law) as ours, that is - referring to the latter - in the parliamentary rooms, and not in the squares - media, virtual or physical - where perhaps you publicly incite civil disobedience - as happened recently - when a law does not is considered legitimate or suitable for one's own feelings.

Respecting the principles or laws and, perhaps, trying to change them (when they may no longer reflect the will of the majority of the members) in the aforementioned ways, does not mean being like the Nazis (as someone claims), but on the contrary , citizens aware of living in a society where man, who is a "social animal", needs rules to live with one another, because "where there is a (civil) society, there is the right".

Avv. Marco Valerio Verni