Santa Maria Capua Verete – With the formula “acquitted for not having committed the act”, the Sammarinese Court has put an end to a judicial case that has been going on for months.
The president of the Second Criminal Section, Dr. Rosetta Stravino, after a long deliberation, ordered the acquittal of Giuseppe Ponticorvo, an entrepreneur in the dairy sector of Alvignano.
The man, accused of manslaughter and failure to provide assistance, was on trial for the death of Luigi Puorto, 87, a former municipal councilor of Caiazzo, a town where he enjoyed great esteem and respect.
The story dates back to a road accident that occurred on the provincial road Piedimonte-Caiazzo, where Puorto was driving his car. According to the prosecution, Ponticorvo would have caused the accident that, more than a month and a half later, would have led to the death of the elderly man.
However, the entrepreneur's defense, represented by lawyers Gaetano and Raffaele Crisileo, has always maintained the absence of a causal link between the accident and Puorto's death, asking from the beginning for the acquittal of their client.
The defense's thesis was fully accepted by the judge, who deemed the connection between the two events to be non-existent. In support of this conclusion, the Public Prosecutor had appointed Dr. Donata Maria Di Palma, a medical examiner, as a technical consultant, who ruled out any relationship between the accident and Puorto's death, maintaining that the eighty-seven-year-old had not suffered embolisms or other complications directly attributable to the accident. The same position was confirmed by the defense's medical examiner, Dr. Antonio Cavezza.
Different, however, was the opinion of the civil party's consultants, Dr. Nicola Silvestri and Simeone Virgilio Rotondo, who during the trial advanced the hypothesis of a pulmonary embolism as the cause of death. However, their conclusions were not supported by the judge's assessments, who preferred to rely on the expert reports that excluded the causal link.
With this sentence, the court has therefore closed a case that had divided public opinion, restoring freedom and innocence to Giuseppe Ponticorvo, while the community of Caiazzo continues to remember Luigi Puorto, a historical and beloved figure of the city.
Article published on March 15, 2025 - 13pm
It was a very complex case, and I believe the court's decision was right. But it is not easy for families to accept these situations. The law must always protect everyone's rights, but it is difficult when there are deaths involved.