A Fine Line Read Free

right and proper. But as they usually last several months or even years, this rule can be a serious problem. If even just one of the three judges who hear the case is transferred – something that happens quite frequently – there has to be a retrial. Unless, that is, the defendant and his counsel agree to admit the testimony given before the previous court. Often, this doesn’t happen. Defence lawyers aren’t always cooperative, and having a retrial means gaining time (some would say: wasting time, but they would be accused of scant regard for the rights ofthe individual), especially for guilty defendants who hope that the statute of limitations will come into play. That’s not the way I like to work.
    I stood up and addressed the judges.
    â€œWe consent, Your Honour. Our only motion is to reexamine the injured party, who is apparently present and could therefore be heard immediately. This is not in any way a dilatory motion. In the previous phases of the trial, the defendant was unable to present his defence. The events in question go back several years. Despite Signor Bronzino having gone abroad to work, the summonses were sent to his former residence, and he was unaware of the proceedings until last January. We do not question the fact that those proceedings were carried out correctly. We do not do so because we are not interested in technicalities, nor are we interested in postponements. We want the trial to continue immediately. That is why our only motion is to proceed with the examination of the offended party. The defendant is not present because he is working abroad, as I said. Believing as we do that his presence is not indispensable, we ask for this examination, and it is highly likely that we will rest our case on the outcome of the injured party’s testimony.”
    A few years earlier, our client had met a girl at a party, they started going out together and definitely had sexual relations. There was no doubt about this, nobody denied it. It was on the nature of those relations – whether or not they were consensual – that opinions differed. The girl (Marilisa, she was called, I don’t know why the name had stuck with me) had lodged a complaint against him, claiming that he had assaulted her. Bronzino had been arrested on the basis of these statements and held in custody for a few weeks. Then the judge must have realized that something wasn’t quite right about the accusation and had released him. Acouple of years later, however, there had been a petition for remand. The prosecutor who was dealing with the case, not exactly a lover of hard work, must have thought that filling out a petition for remand was less of a bother than writing a well-argued motion for the case to be closed.
    In the meantime, Bronzino, convinced that there would be no further proceedings against him following his release, had moved to Germany. Within a short time, he had been declared a defaulter and was remanded for one of those surreal proceedings that are sometimes seen in our courthouses. The so-called defence had been entrusted to court-appointed lawyers who, from one hearing to the next and one postponement to the next, had put in appearances without ever contributing, for the obvious reason that none of them knew anything about the case.
    None of the witnesses had been cross-examined, not even the key witness, the presumed injured party, Marilisa Di Cosmo.
    When Bronzino, on his return to Italy, had received a boxful of mail that had accumulated at his old address, informing him of the proceedings, he had come to me.
    Things weren’t looking too good for him after the previous hearings. There was the injured party’s testimony, there was a medical certificate confirming the existence of abrasions compatible with sexual assault, there were statements from the victim’s then partner, who had been the first to hear about what had happened when she had returned home in a distressed