Benevento– "I ask forgiveness from everyone for what I have done, from God, from the Gospel, from my family and friends." With these words, charged with sudden emotion, Benito Miarelli, 58, from Pannarano (Benevento), broke the silence in the Assize Court courtroom, moments before entering the defendants' dock.
In front of him, the gravity of the accusation: the murder and beheading of his own brother, a brutal crime committed in July last year that shocked the little girl Samnite community.
His plea for forgiveness, however, was immediately followed by a justification that brought the trial's dynamics back into the spotlight. Miarelli claimed that he had been "hit on the head by a barista with a coffee machine lever, and after that I didn't understand anything."
A version of events that blatantly clashes with the conclusions of the psychiatric assessment ordered by the Prosecutor's Office.
The expert doctor Alfonso Tramontano was in fact heard by the judging panel, presided over by judge Simonetta Rotili, with the assistant judge Graziamaria Monaco and the popular jurors.
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Expert Tramontano, during his cross-examination with the prosecutor and Miarelli's defense attorney, Nicola Covino, painted the profile of a man in the grip of chronic and devastating alcoholism, entrenched since 2002.
According to the expert report, it was not an episode of external violence, but hallucinations and a state of acute delirium—conditions typical of those living with excessive alcohol—that truly drove the murder. The expert emphasized that he had subjected Miarelli to multiple interviews, precisely to assess his condition in the absence of alcohol, and had reached the diagnosis of alcohol-induced organic psychosis.
His lawyer is requesting a new psychiatric evaluation.
Faced with this situation, the defense pulled out all the stops. At the end of the testimony, attorney Covino formally requested that his client undergo a new psychiatric evaluation, likely to refute the court-appointed expert's conclusions. The Assize Court did not rule on the matter, reserving its decision for the next hearing, scheduled for November 25th.
The trial thus continues, navigating a judicial and human dilemma: on the one hand, the apology of a man pleading for temporary mental darkness; on the other, the cold scientific verdict recognizing him as fully aware of his actions. On November 25th, a decision will be made as to whether that request for forgiveness should be evaluated in light of a new expert opinion, or whether the verdict should be based on the sole expert report available to date.
Comments (1)
Benito Miarelli's case appears to be highly complex, and his words of forgiveness are significant but also confusing. The issue of alcoholism is a significant factor that deserves attention, but a murder cannot be justified in this way.