Naples– A sentence reduction reopens wounds that have never healed. Eight years less for one of those responsible for the murder of Domenico Attianese, the State Police superintendent killed nearly forty years ago while attempting to foil a robbery in Pianura.
The Fourth Section of the Naples Court of Assizes of Appeal yesterday overturned the first-instance sentence against Salvatore Allard: the initial sentence of 30 years was reduced to 22 years in prison.
The judges upheld the defense, represented by attorney Domenico Dello Iacono, granting the defendant mitigating circumstances. This verdict creates a rift with the fate of his accomplice, Giovanni Rendina, for whom the First Section of the Court of Assizes of Appeal had instead upheld a 30-year sentence.
The cold case and the "half-confession"
The legal proceedings are the culmination of a cold case solved only thanks to modern investigative technology. In February 2024, new fingerprint analyses incriminated Allard and Rendina, ending decades of impunity after a first trial in 1996 that ended in nothing.
Faced with a difficult situation, in the summer of 2024, Allard decided to "drop the mask" by submitting a confessional memoir: "If I could go back, I would do everything I could to stop that man," he wrote, referring to himself. However, his collaboration ended at the threshold of the "third man": the name of the third bandit in the commando, who is still at large, never appeared in the memoir.
An omission that the preliminary investigations judge De Lellis had sanctioned in the first instance by denying discounts, but which the appeal judges assessed differently, recognizing mitigating circumstances.
The family's anger: "There are no mitigating circumstances for our grief."
The sentence left a bitter taste in the mouths of the heroic police officer's family, represented by lawyer Gianmario Siani. Carla Attianese, the superintendent's daughter, doesn't hide her disappointment at a repentance that appears to be exploitative.
"There's a bitter taste in my mouth over the decision to grant mitigating circumstances, which reduced the sentence by a third," the woman states. "While fully respecting the judges, some questions remain unanswered. If the defendant has redeemed himself, why doesn't he name the third man? And why did the act of contrition come only after science had conclusively nailed him?" The conclusion is bitter: "We hope that what remains of the sentence is enforced. For us, his family, unfortunately, there are no generic mitigating circumstances."
That cursed evening in 1986
The tape of memory rewinds to December 4, 1986. A brutal robbery is underway at the Romanelli jewelry store in Pianura. The bandits are holding the owners hostage. Outside the store, Attianese's daughter, then fourteen, passes by and runs to call her father, who is off duty and at home nearby.
Attianese doesn't hesitate: he intervenes to protect the citizens, engages in a violent struggle, is disarmed, and killed with a shot to the head. A heroic sacrifice that today, nearly forty years later, sees justice write a new chapter, while the shadow of the third accomplice continues to hang over a still partial truth.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
Comments (1)
The judges' decision to reduce the sentence raises questions about how complicated the legal system is. The third man case remains open and leaves many uncertainties. Let's hope the truth comes out one day.