The Constitutional Court opens the way for anarchist Alfredo Cospito to have his sentence reduced, dropping the rule that would have bound the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Turin to necessarily sentence him to life imprisonment for the attack on the Carabinieri School of Fossano .
The Consulta has declared the fourth paragraph of article 69 of the penal code illegitimate "in the part in which it prohibits the judge from considering any extenuating circumstances as prevailing over the aggravating circumstance of recidivism referred to in article 99, fourth paragraph of the penal code, in cases in which the crime is punished with the statutory penalty of life imprisonment", it is explained in a note.
According to the Court, "the fixed nature of the life sentence requires that the judge be able to operate the ordinary balance between aggravating and mitigating circumstances envisaged by the first three paragraphs of the same article. Consequently, the judge will have to evaluate, case by case, whether to apply the sentence of life imprisonment or, where it deems the extenuating circumstances prevailing, a different prison sentence".
(Unioneonline)
