He stabbed Giulia Cecchettin 75 times because he " could not tolerate" her autonomy , in a crescendo of violence that lasted "a total of 20 minutes" . Such a period of time gave the victim the opportunity to understand that she was dying. However, Filippo Turetta's act cannot be defined as cruelty, that is, "a way to cruelly inflict pain or to mutilate the victim", but " a consequence of inexperience and inability ".
The 143 pages of reasons with which the judges of the Court of Assizes of Venice sentenced Filippo Turetta to life imprisonment - a confessed murderer of his ex-girlfriend who was then thrown off a cliff in Friuli on November 11, 2023 - have sparked bipartisan indignation in politics. From the League to Forza Italia to Avs and M5s. "We can only be shocked" says the League's Laura Ravetto, "unacceptable" attack the Five Star parliamentarians in the Commission of Inquiry into Femicide, while Laura Zanella speaks of a "long night to endure" if 75 stab wounds are not cruelty and the vice president of the Senate Licia Ronzulli accuses the magistrates of "inflicting cruelty" on Gino Cecchettin. And the president of the Commission Martina Semenzato explains what is wrong with the sentence. "During the numerous hearings it emerged that overkilling, or the excessive number of blows, is a typical execution method of femicide" which, therefore, "requires a rethinking of the current method of judgment". "For us it does not end here, indeed the battle begins here, in the sense that a series of considerations begin that are not limited only to this trial, also in respect of the other victims", are the words of the lawyer of the Cecchettin family.
In excluding cruelty, the judges followed a consolidated jurisprudential orientation , in particular attributable to a 2015 ruling by the Court of Cassation . The aggravating circumstance exists when, regardless of the number of blows, there is a desire to inflict additional suffering on the victim with respect to that relating to the homicidal action . "The mere reiteration of the blows inflicted - is the interpretation of the Court of Cassation - cannot determine the existence of the aggravating circumstance... if such action does not exceed the limits inherent to the targeted event and does not result in a manifestation of cruelty, an end in itself".
Of the three charges - murder aggravated by premeditation, cruelty and stalking - only the first was accepted by the judges , who however rejected the mitigating circumstances, inevitably opening the way to a life sentence . This was due to "the brutality of the action, the determination of the act committed and the abject motives of archaic oppression that such an act generated: vile and despicable motives, dictated by intolerance for the freedom of self-determination of the young woman, whose autonomy even in the most banal life choices was not accepted by the accused".
The exclusion of cruelty was however one of the most controversial points of the sentence read by the president Stefano Manduzio . The reasons written by the associate judge Francesca Zancan, underline that the dynamics of Giulia's murder do not allow us to "deduce with certainty" that Turetta wanted to "inflict gratuitous and additional suffering on the victim". The 22-year-old continued to strike until he realized that Giulia "was no longer there", he also said in court. He declared that he stopped "when he realized that he had hit the eye: 'it made too much of an impression on me', he declared". Turetta however maintained "lucidity and rationality" after killing Giulia, with the "clear and undeniable will to hide the body in order, at the very least, to delay its discovery". Then there is "the choice of the place where to abandon the body" and "the manner in which the body was left". Hence the premeditation. And there is the attitude of the murderer who "partially confessed and also lied" by admitting it in court, and also from the wiretaps in prison of conversations with the parents from which "it is clear that he was aware of the fact that there was much more against him" but did not report it. Stalking is also rejected by the Court because "the contested aggravating circumstance is expressly limited to the period "in proximity to and following the end of the relationship"". But the fact that the victim's father, Gino Cecchettin, after his daughter's disappearance and even before having elements on her fate, had reported "not having perceived any discomfort in Giulia" also weighs.
(Online Union)