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    sh Feb. 11, I860.] The Leader and Satwda...

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    Letter From Italy. (Special.) Trials For...

    as well die to-day as to-morrow . " " .: After that ihm w ^ a ort scuffle heard , and Venakzio suddenly cried out , as if ») P "V ^ CJoi > » mv God ! " The mother and daughter screamed for help , but Khe ^ W the neighbours had arrived witlva % ^™*? h ^ un off . Venanzio waf found . reeling to . and fio ^ vith blood pouring from several wounds , and in spite of medicoaid he died m the course of a few hours . Almost immediately afterthe commission of the crime Xtjigi was found by the gendarmes in the cottage of an uncle , and arrested on the spot . ¦ : mmia These as far as I can learn from the very confused documents before me , are all the facts admitted without question , or , more strictly speaking , which the Government states to liave been unquestioned . £ xtigi was arrested on the nigLt , of the murder . The evidence , such as it was , could be ascertained in twenty-four hours , and yet the prisoner was never brought to trial till the 3 rd Of 1858 ^ -that iseihteen months ^ erward Oivthat

    May , , g ^ day Luigi Bonci was arraigned before the Civil and Criminal Court of Perugia , on the two counts of parricide , and of having illegal weapons in his possession . The court was composed of the president , judge , assistant judge , and deputy judge of the district . These gentlemen ( all , I should state , lay officials ) were-assisted by the public prosecutor , and the Government counsel for the defence . The course of proceedings is stated to have-been as follows : Prayers were first offered up for the Divine gui <| pice . The prisoner was introduced and identified ; the written def ositions were read over ; a narrative of the facts was given by the president ; the prisoner was called upon to reply to the charges alleged against him ; the witnesses for the crown and the prisoner were heard respectively ; the counsel for the , prosecution called upon the court to condemn the prisoner , and was replied to by the counsel tor the defence . The discussion was then declared closed , and after the

    indues had retired to deliberate their sentence was given All the facts I have been able to put together about the case are gathered from this sentence ^ and those of the courts of appeal These sentences , however , are extremely lengthy , very indistinct , stud encumbered with a good deal of legal phraseology . As they sire all alike , I propose to give an abstract of this . present one as a specimen of all . The sentence begins with the following moral remarks ¦ „ ¦ " Frequent paternal admonitions , alleged scarcity Of daily food , andHihe evil counsels of others , had alienated the heart of the prisoner to such an extent , that feelings of affection and reverence towards his own father Venanzio had given , place to contempt , disobedienceill . willand even worse . No one , however , would have

    , , snpposed that he was capable of becoming a pamcide , as was ^ too clearly proved on the fatal night in question . " After these remarks , comes a narration of the facts , much in the words in which I have given them . This 'is followed by a statement of the arguments for the prosecution and the defence , consisting or a number of verbose paragraphs , each beginning " Considering that etc . etc . " The case for the prosecution yas clear . enough . The medical evidence proved that the father died of the wounds received on the above-named night . The fact that the wounds were inflicted by the prisoner was established by the evidence of his mother and sisterwho overheard the quarrel between him and his

    , father ; by his flight after commission of the crime ; by the discovery of a blood-stained knife dropped on the threshold ; by the deposition of the father before his death ? and lastly , by the co \ v > fession of the prisoner himself , who admitted the crime , though under extenuating circumstances . The fact that the sister never heard the knife open , although it had three clasps , was asserted to )> e evidence that the prisoner entered the room with his knife open , intending to commit the crime . This charge of piplice prepense was corroborated by the son ' s refusal to answer his father , by the insolence of his language , and by the number and vehemence of

    the stabs ho inflicted . The prisoner ' s defence was also very simple . According to his own story , he was half drunk at his return home . His father not only taunted and threatened him , but at lust seized the door bar , and began knocking him abput the head ; and then , maddened with pain'and passion , ho drew out a knife he had picked up on the road , mid stabbed his father , hardly knowing what he did . On the bare statement of the facts I should think this story not improbable , but as no details whatever are given of the evidence on ! either side it is impossible to judge . Tho court , at any rate , decided that there was no proof of tho prisoner being drunk , and that the evidence of ins father having struck him was of a suspicious character , " while , they add , "it would bo absurd and immoral to maintain that a father , whose right and duty it is to correct his children ( and indeed on this occasion correction was abundantly desei-vod by the insolent demeanour of Luigi ) could be considered to provoke his son by a

    bAB . % V * A i ft ft' 9 Vft . \ V _ — .- » ^ _> - ^ slight personal chastisement . " Tho son , however , was ovor onound-twenty , a ftict ' to whioh no allusion is made . As a forlorn hope , according- to tho statement of the sentence , the counsel for tho defence asserted , that whatever tho crime of tho prisoner might bo it was not parricide , from tlio simple fact that Luioi was not Venanzio ' s son . The faots of the case appear to lmve been , that MakJa Rosa Uattistoni , being 1 then unmarried , gavo birth , i » July , 1885 , to a son , who was tho prisoner Luiai ; that shortly afterwards tho Vicar of Cannara gavq information to tl » o Episcopal Court of Assisi , that Maria , Rosa had been seduced by Venanzio IJonoi , and had had ajn illegitimate child bv tihn ; that , in consequence , a formal demand was addressed by tho Court to Venanzio , and that ho acknowledged tho paternity of tho child , and expressed his readiness to marry tho mother ., Tho marriage was therefore solemnized , and tho child entered in tho church books aa tho legitimised son of " Venanzio " nnd " Maiua Bonci , " in Juno , 183 Q , Against this strong

    presumptive evidence of paternity , and the inference to be drawn from the child having been brought up and educated as Venanzio ' sson there were only to be set alleged expressions of doubt on the father t part , as to his being really the father , and also certain confessions of the mother , to different parties , that Ltrrdi was not the child ol her husband . All these confessions , however , it is asserted , were proved to be subsequent in date to the son ' s arrest , and therefore probably made with a view to save his life . This plea is in consequence rejected . No defence was attempted to the second count . Both charges are , therefore , declared fully proved ; and as the punishment for in

    parricide is public execution , and the penalty for having one's possession ( a lighter offence by the way than using ) any forbidden weapon , consists of imprisonment from two to twelve months , and of a fine of from five to sixty scudi ; therefore the Court " condemns IiUiGi Bonci , for the first count , to be publicly executed in Cannara , and to make compensation to the heirs of the murdered man , according to the valuation of the Civil Courts , and to pay the costs of the trial ; and , on the second count , the Court considers the first three months of the incarceration the prisoner has already ^ nder gone to be sufficient punishment , coupled with a fine of five scudi and the loss of the . "

    weapon . _ _ .. This summary will , I fear , give the reader too fitvourable an impression of the original sentence . In order to make the story at all intelligible , I have had to pick out my facts from a perfect labyrinth of sentences and parentheses . All I , or any one else , can state , is that these seem to be the facts which seem to have been proved by the witnesses . What the character of the evidence was , or What was the respective credibility of the witnesses , or how far their assertions were borne out or contradicted by circumstantial proofs , are all matters on which ( though the whole character of the crime depends on them ) I can form no judgment . This trial was concluded on the 3 rd of May , 1858 , and yet the

    above sentence ^ it appears , was not communicated to the prisoner till the 15 th of October in that year . When the formal announcement of the sentience was made , the prisoner declared his intention of appealing against its justice . By the Papal law every person condemned for a criminal offence has the right of appealing to the Supreme Pontifical Court . It is , tlierefore , needless to say that in all cases where the prisoner is sentenced to death , aft appeal is made on any ground , however trivial , as the condemned culprit cannot lose and may gain by this step . The practical and obvious objection to this unqualified power of appeal , is that the supreme clerical court is the real judge , not the nominal lay court , which does little more than register the fact that the crime is proved primd facie , _ ¦ __'_ , . , " „ . „ . ¦¦ . ' . * . „ r- ™ del f f ths fr

    , _ On the 15 th Febrffary , 1859 , after a ay oour mon om the appeal , the Lower Court of the Supreme Tribunal of the feacred College assembled in Rome to try the case of " Lpigi Bonci . ' The CourtWas composed of six " most illustrious and revierend judges , all monsignori and all dignitaries of the Church , assisted by a public prosecutor and counsel for the defence , attached to the 1 apal Exchequer . The course of proceedings appears to be much the same as in the inferior court , except that no witnesses save the prisoner were examined - orally , and the whole evidence was given by written depositions . At last , having first invoked the most sacred name of Gor > , the Court pronounced their sentence . 1-lus sentence is in great measure a recapitulation of the preceding- one . There were either no new facts adduced , or none are alluded to . The grounds for the defence are tho same as on tho former

    occasion , namely , the provocation given by the father , and doubt as to the son ' s paternity . There were , in fact , two questions before the court . First , whether the crime committed was murder or manslaughter ; and if it was murder , whether the murderer was or was not the son of the murdered man . Instead , however , or facing either of these questions , the Court seems to enter upon considerations which , to our notions , are entirely irrelevan t , iho degree to which paternal corrections can be carried without abuse , and the problem whether a man who kills a person whom he believes and has reason to believe to be his father , but who is not so in lact , is gnilty or not of the sin of parricide , seem rather questions tor clerical casuistry than considerations which bear upon facts . I ho final conclusion drawn from all these reflections , ia that tho Oourt confirms the judgment of tho Peruvian tribunal in every respect .

    This deoision of tho Court with respect to tho appeal is not communicated for two months more—that is , not till tho 22 nd or Ap" »~ - ; to tho prisoner , who at once appeals against the execution of the verdict to tho upper court of the supreme tribunal . On tho 13 th ot JMuy tho case conies on for its third and last hearing . Tho court js again composed of six high clerical dignitaries , assisted by tho same official counsel for tho defence and prosecution as before . Tho same course of proceedings is adopted , except that the prisoner is not introaucoa into court or examined . Again , after invoking the mast holy name of God , the tribunal pronounces , not its sentence , but its decis on , This verdict alludes only to tho two grounds on which tho appeal is based . Tho first is the question of paternity , which is at onco dismissed as being- a matter of evidence which has been already decided . Tim SAP ™! fxinnml of anneal is a local and technical one . _ > He qo *

    , fonco appears to-have pleaded that tho whole trial wn 8 vitiatedj > y tho fact W tho arrest ^ was an illegal one , On both sides it ^ v « s admitted that tho priBoricr was arrested without a warrant , mvX . npj "in / laffrantedQliotn ;'« M that thoroforo tho arrest was , fl iflty spoaldng , Ulognl . Tho Court , howovor , dpcidqs «»«*» ^ gJJJJ prisoner was Sot taken w tho act , yot his guilt was so manfc fcUat { ho police woro iuatlficd in acting- as if tfioy ^ had caugM I »» IgJ pointing- tho crime i wliilo in offonoes of groat atrooitj the

    Sh Feb. 11, I860.] The Leader And Satwda...

    sh Feb . 11 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Satwday Analyst . 1 ^ 3

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11021860/page/19/