NAPLES – Twelve years have passed, but the name of Emanuele Di Caterino, the 14-year-old boy killed in Aversa on an April evening in 2013, continues to resurface like a wound that has never healed.
This time not in the memories of those who loved him, but among the papers of a courtroom, where the story of that death is being rewritten – perhaps for the last time.
In the tense silence of the courtroom of the Naples Court of Assizes of Appeal, Deputy Attorney General Valter Brunetti called for a verdict no one expected: the acquittal of Agostino Veneziano, the only defendant in the murder, who was seventeen years old at the time.
Today he's twenty-nine. He's free, working, and living out of the spotlight. But his life remains tied to that blade that, twelve years ago, broke Emanuele's.
Brunetti spoke for little more than a quarter of an hour, but his words carried the weight of a verdict. According to the magistrate, Veneziano killed not out of hatred, but in self-defense.
An act of self-defense, matured – he says – in the same tense context that led to the injury of Emanuele's friends, the same ones who, after seeing their companion's body collapse, had angrily chased the young man, throwing a helmet at him.
"It wasn't an attack, but an instinctive reaction," the prosecutor explained, asking that the acquittal Veneziano had already obtained in a second trial for the assault be extended to the murder as well.
But anyone who knows that story knows that the truth, at least on the surface, has never been simple.
For the Di Caterino family, represented by lawyers Maurizio Zuccaro and Sergio Cola, the hypothesis of self-defense is "an insult to Emanuele's memory."
"He was shot straight from behind," the lawyers recall, "as the autopsy confirmed. There was no struggle, no threat: just a boy trying to escape."
Two reconstructions that have clashed for over a decade. On one hand, the story of those who see Veneziano as a frightened teenager who reacted to a gang attack. On the other, that of those who cannot accept that the blade stuck in the back of a fourteen-year-old could have been the result of self-defense.
In the courtroom, Veneziano remained silent. His gaze lowered, his hands clasped. As if every word could awaken the ghosts of that evening.
The Court will rule in mid-December, perhaps putting an end to a story that has spanned two eras, two lives and a pain that has remained suspended.
But as we await the verdict, one question still lingers: did Emanuele die by mistake, or by choice?
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Comments (3)
Truly incredible! The evidence from the cameras doesn't matter, nor does the star evidence of the backstabbing! Nothing should surprise us anymore. We know that here in Italy, justice has been dead for a long time, and is now just an empty, meaningless word. Not only does the catastrophic do-goodism prevail, freeing criminals and allowing them to kill again, under the absurd pretext of an almost always impossible "rehabilitation." This distorts Article 27 of the Constitution, which is already poorly written and incomplete, because it lacks the fundamental concepts of certain and appropriate punishment and citizen safety. Not only are the big bosses and serial killers of all mafias rewarded and released with full honors simply because they "repent," rather than benefiting from a simple reduction in prison terms and, at most, release at a very advanced age, as happens in any normal country. But the worst thing of all is the complete reversal of reality, which transforms executioners into victims and victims into executioners! We truly are a country turned upside down, with "justice" in reverse, like in the fairy tale of Pinocchio, who is thrown in prison by the judge because the Cat and the Fox stole his gold coins, while the two thieves are acquitted with many apologies... If the prosecutor's crazy request is confirmed, an appeal would have to be made to the CSM and the European Court of Justice, if that would ever serve any purpose. A big hug and all my compassion and sympathy to Emanuele's family!
I don't know if it's right to acquit Veneziano. There are many aspects to consider, and Emanuele's memory must be respected. I hope the Court makes a decision that clarifies the situation.
The story of Emanuele Di Caterino remains complex and sad. The request for Veneziano's acquittal is difficult to understand, especially for those who have followed the case. Justice must be fair.