The Court of Assizes of Cagliari has decided to suspend the trial in which Paolo Randaccio, the 69-year-old from Quartucciu, is accused of having stabbed his wife Angelica Salis, 60, on 9 September 2021 .

The judges have in fact decided, accepting the thesis of the public prosecutor Nicola Giua Marassi, to send the documents of the proceeding to the Constitutional Court.

The provision of the penal code on which the judges of the Consulta will have to rule concerns crimes punishable with life imprisonment for which the abbreviated procedure cannot be applied (which provides for a discount of one third of the sentence) and denies that on the aggravating circumstances of the family bond the implementing measures, i.e. the elements that can push investigators and judges to evaluate the specific case and inflict a proportionate penalty, may have greater weight .

In concluding his indictment, the prosecutor had underlined the peculiarity of Quartucciu's feminicide, the profile of the homicidal husband ("a good family man who wanted to protect his wife", suffering from a serious psychiatric illness), the fact that the man has immediately admitted his responsibilities, calling the carabinieri almost directly and showing, once indicted, "excellent procedural behavior".

"This is not an ogre who kills a woman after a lifetime of harassment," the prosecutor had said, explaining: "Yes, he is guilty, but he must be able to enjoy extenuating circumstances as he has a clean record, worker and self-confessed offender."

For the prosecution, therefore, the provision is constitutionally illegitimate. Now the verdict of the Consulta is awaited.

(Unioneonline/lf)